Could psilocybin be the key to treating anorexia? • Hacker News Board

Re: Could psilocybin be the key to treating anorexia?

#31

Post by virgil_disgr4ce » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 2:02 PM UTC

mikert89 wrote: post #22

an0malous wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Psychedelics desolve the conceptual prison your mind is in, the government made them illegal because they build those prisons. Charitably, you could argue a functional society involves some amount of indoctrination into a set of shared beliefs and a large percentage of people losing that indoctrination would destroy society. Could the US function if everyone was a pacifist, anti-capitalist, hippie? I think that was a…

anyone i have met that did Psychedelics more than a few times, permanently changed their brain chemistry in a way that was obvious. sure they dissolve some kind of prison, but many people never make it back from that dissolution and end up somewhere worse

> did Psychedelics more than a few times

If you want to specify LSD, you should do that, not "psychedelics." There are many, many psychedelics. They have sometimes radical differences. You cannot generalize that word into "many people never make it back." That is flat-out wrong, not to mention harmful.

Re: Could psilocybin be the key to treating anorexia?

#32

Post by bbayles » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 2:04 PM UTC

Anecdata, but an acquaintance of mine struggled with lifelong anorexia. Severe enough that he was hospitalized a few times. With great effort he could cling to the bottom of the "normal BMI" range, but his life was generally ruled by the eating disorder - he couldn't have meals with people, he had to do various exercise rituals.

He was an early participant in one of these psychedelic studies a few years ago. After the first treatment, he said he couldn't really tell if it had any effect. But six months later, he was totally changed - able to function almost normally.

We should exercise our usual amount of skepticism about miracle treatments, but my hope is that his experience can be replicated.

Re: Could psilocybin be the key to treating anorexia?

#33

Post by jdietrich » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 2:06 PM UTC

Sorry, but the answer is almost certainly no. We now have good quality data on psylocybin as a treatment for depression; at best, it's slightly more effective than existing treatments, at the cost of a small but significant increased risk side-effects (primarily severe acute anxiety and psychosis, possibly HPPD). We have less data on other psychedelics and other conditions, but none of it looks spectacular when you take into account the usual biases affecting small trials of novel treatments.

Psychedelics are likely to be a good option for some patients, it's good to have another tool in the armamentarium, but the idea that they're a revolution in psychiatry is simply no longer credible.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39627679/

Disclosure: I have participated in a clinical trial of psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression and did not see any meaningful benefit.

Re: Could psilocybin be the key to treating anorexia?

#34

Post by bossyTeacher » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 2:07 PM UTC

mikert89 wrote: post #22

an0malous wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Psychedelics desolve the conceptual prison your mind is in, the government made them illegal because they build those prisons. Charitably, you could argue a functional society involves some amount of indoctrination into a set of shared beliefs and a large percentage of people losing that indoctrination would destroy society. Could the US function if everyone was a pacifist, anti-capitalist, hippie? I think that was a…

anyone i have met that did Psychedelics more than a few times, permanently changed their brain chemistry in a way that was obvious. sure they dissolve some kind of prison, but many people never make it back from that dissolution and end up somewhere worse

> anyone i have met that did Psychedelics more than a few times, permanently changed their brain chemistry in a way that was obvious. sure they dissolve some kind of prison, but many people never make it back from that dissolution and end up somewhere worse

Way to generalise. I also know people who drank water, went to sleep and never woke up.

Ego dissolution is dosage dependent and you don't need to reach that point to get positive benefits.

Also, many people do psychdelics that probably shouldn't.

Re: Could psilocybin be the key to treating anorexia?

#35

Post by nathan_compton » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 2:08 PM UTC

mikert89 wrote: post #28

temp0826 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you want your brain to ravel back up? I've worked at ayahuasca retreats and know many people who do it for a living (who are many of the most grounded people I know). Using these things in a therapeutic manner is a completely different thing than using them recreationally, might as well be a different substance. I'd guess those people who "permanently changed their brain" (whatever that means) were not in a…

I believe that the drugs cause structural changes to the brain that make it more difficult to function in the reward structure of society. You can claim through a philosophical lens that society is flawed and so this is okay, but ive seen it derail peoples lives, such that they are just living in some rural area with limited participation in real life ive barely taken them, but i watched many people change over years…

> just living in some rural area with limited participation in real life

They might say the same thing about your lifestyle. The "reward structure of society" is highly abstract these days, arguably disconnected from "real life". You could say monks are disconnected from "real life."

This is a weird take, I think.

Re: Could psilocybin be the key to treating anorexia?

#36

Post by nathan_compton » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 2:08 PM UTC

jhoechtl wrote: post #3

We hear a lot of psilocybine lately, it cures altsheimer, people in coma awake miraculously. As long as we do not understand the workings, it reminds me of the days when radium or other nuclear substances were the cure for everything.

I think the main difference is that radium was new and people have been using psychedelics forever.

Re: Could psilocybin be the key to treating anorexia?

#37

Post by mikert89 » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 2:16 PM UTC

bossyTeacher wrote: post #34

mikert89 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

anyone i have met that did Psychedelics more than a few times, permanently changed their brain chemistry in a way that was obvious. sure they dissolve some kind of prison, but many people never make it back from that dissolution and end up somewhere worse

> anyone i have met that did Psychedelics more than a few times, permanently changed their brain chemistry in a way that was obvious. sure they dissolve some kind of prison, but many people never make it back from that dissolution and end up somewhere worse Way to generalise. I also know people who drank water, went to sleep and never woke up. Ego dissolution is dosage dependent and you don't need to reach that point…

unfortunately, I think repeated psychedlic use has deterministic and predictable changes to peoples personalities. its not some "awakening", its a structural change in the brain. i watched many close friends fade away after too much use

Re: Could psilocybin be the key to treating anorexia?

#38

Post by temp0826 » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 2:17 PM UTC

mikert89 wrote: post #28

temp0826 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you want your brain to ravel back up? I've worked at ayahuasca retreats and know many people who do it for a living (who are many of the most grounded people I know). Using these things in a therapeutic manner is a completely different thing than using them recreationally, might as well be a different substance. I'd guess those people who "permanently changed their brain" (whatever that means) were not in a…

I believe that the drugs cause structural changes to the brain that make it more difficult to function in the reward structure of society. You can claim through a philosophical lens that society is flawed and so this is okay, but ive seen it derail peoples lives, such that they are just living in some rural area with limited participation in real life ive barely taken them, but i watched many people change over years…

I guess it depends on what "derail" means (meaning, do you actually know one's internal state and if they are happy?). Is something wrong with living alone in a rural area if you are happy? (This sounds great to me, for reference!).

I've watched hundreds of people take them in great containers with great support. It's never a good idea to make big changes right away, but we take small steps to adjust our lives so we can actually be happy. Yes, even if that is less "productive". Why do we do the things we do anyways?

Re: Could psilocybin be the key to treating anorexia?

#39

Post by mikert89 » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 2:19 PM UTC

virgil_disgr4ce wrote: post #31

mikert89 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

anyone i have met that did Psychedelics more than a few times, permanently changed their brain chemistry in a way that was obvious. sure they dissolve some kind of prison, but many people never make it back from that dissolution and end up somewhere worse

> did Psychedelics more than a few times If you want to specify LSD, you should do that, not "psychedelics." There are many, many psychedelics. They have sometimes radical differences. You cannot generalize that word into "many people never make it back." That is flat-out wrong, not to mention harmful.

i disagree. i have a unique view of this type of drug use. i was part of a large social circle of psychedelic users, over the course of many years. i very rarely took part. i watched close friends change.

Re: Could psilocybin be the key to treating anorexia?

#40

Post by inigyou » Wed, Aug 05, 2026, 2:19 PM UTC

mikert89 wrote: post #22

an0malous wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Psychedelics desolve the conceptual prison your mind is in, the government made them illegal because they build those prisons. Charitably, you could argue a functional society involves some amount of indoctrination into a set of shared beliefs and a large percentage of people losing that indoctrination would destroy society. Could the US function if everyone was a pacifist, anti-capitalist, hippie? I think that was a…

anyone i have met that did Psychedelics more than a few times, permanently changed their brain chemistry in a way that was obvious. sure they dissolve some kind of prison, but many people never make it back from that dissolution and end up somewhere worse

As I understand it it can be a lot worse, a lot better, or anywhere in between. Scientifically backed coaching can probably shift it towards the "better" side. This is a new area of research because the whole thing was written off for several decades due to the war on drugs.