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Psychedelics and mental illness

stuartritchie.substack.com

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Re: Psychedelics and mental illness

#91

Post by IgorPartola »

umvi wrote: post #89

Why are these articles so popular with HN? Any article about treating mental illnesses (including depression) with LSD/shrooms/cannabis/[drug] immediately shoots to the top, and I see articles like this every other day at the top of HN. Is it just people wishing for a silver bullet that will cure their mental problems? At any rate, the number of mentally ill people on the internet must be much larger than I am estima…

To your first point, I suspect that hacking your own brain and pituitary gland fits with the ethos of hacker culture. What’s cooler than going to the doctor and getting the same SSRIs as every other chump when you can hack together your own medication?

In reality this is why we need serious research into these drugs. I am sure there are therapeutic benefits and also yet unknown risks. Would be nice to study them formally.

To your second point: I know very few people without mental illness. GAD and generalized depression account for a large part of it, but so do neurodivergenicies like autism. Chances are much higher than you think that you yourself have one or more condition like this. That’s not to say I wish for you to have one, just that statistically speaking lots of people have them, so much so that the current advice is to establish mental healthcare same as you do with a primary care physician and have at least yearly checkups.

Re: Psychedelics and mental illness

#92

Post by zafka »

orangepurple wrote: post #25

Not mentioned anywhere, but probably the strongest effect of psychedelics, is that LSD absolutely kills the desire to drink alcohol for months.

As someone who quit drinking alcohol quite a long time ago ( which I am quite sure is why I am alive today) I agree that one of the "side affects" of LSD is that it helps one to come to the realization that they are killing themselves from a bad habit. I cannot say that it killed my desire to drink, and I did drink for a while after an experience with what might have been LSD. An interesting historic tidbit is that the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous was introduced to LSD and thought it was a tremendous tool to fight Alcoholism. By that time a foundation had sprung up around AA, and the board members urged Bill Wilson not to proselytize on the subject less it incur bad publicity for the organization( one of their traditions is to avoid controversy on outside subjects) Since the name of Bill Wilson was synonymous with AA he agreed to quit talking on the subject.

Re: Psychedelics and mental illness

#93

Post by outime »

kayodelycaon wrote: post #17
Skilbucks wrote: post #3

Do you think a disturbed work life balance could be a reason for mental illness as well?

Well… yes? Any stressor can be severe enough to cause problems in other areas of your life. It can also reveal undiagnosed mental illnesses. Not sure how this relates to the article.

Not OP but if I read between lines it might mean that it is way cheaper to give people some soma than addressing the actual root problems certain societies have.

Re: Psychedelics and mental illness

#94

Post by lukasb »

drooby wrote: post #70

I don’t fully understand the issue with blinding. How is it different than trying to double blind talk therapy. Obviously someone knows that they are getting talk therapy, likewise, people obviously know they are getting psychedelics. Yet we are still able to get experimental results supporting talk therapy and no one complains, right?

Yeah I don't really get this either. The author suggests asking a lot of detailed questions about which arm participants thought they were in. What happens if participants (as you would expect) make very accurate guesses?

Re: Psychedelics and mental illness

#95

Post by drooby »

umvi wrote: post #89

Why are these articles so popular with HN? Any article about treating mental illnesses (including depression) with LSD/shrooms/cannabis/[drug] immediately shoots to the top, and I see articles like this every other day at the top of HN. Is it just people wishing for a silver bullet that will cure their mental problems? At any rate, the number of mentally ill people on the internet must be much larger than I am estima…

Did... you read the article? It's highly critical of the hype around psychedelic research and how we have been interpreting it.

Anyways. In general, HN is a community that is highly focused on emerging technologies, and undervalued, overlooked or novel solutions.

Psychedelics, in my opinion is fertile ground for discovery and just super interesting, so it gets my upvote.

Re: Psychedelics and mental illness

#96

Post by mountainriver »

dwaltrip wrote: post #45
kayodelycaon wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Mental health depends on subjective feelings. This isn’t correct in a lot of places. There is a number of diagnostic criteria. The most important being how much it affects your quality of life. This can be directly measured by looking at how the individual functions day to day. An example is “Was the person able to shower regularly?” (This assumes the person wishes to shower if they have the ability and opportunity…

I really hate the mental health questionnaires. They did a poor job of assessing my difficulties when I was in the thick of it (I’m doing much better now). I also found them quite stressful to fill out. I remember getting scores of “mild anxiety” or “mild depression” and just kind of sitting there confused and somewhat dismayed, thinking… “Why am I having such a hard time? What is actually wrong with me?” Turns out s…

Exactly, the reality of the mental health field is they know very little and their methodologies are largely flawed. I've been diagnosed with so many different things based on their "scientific methods" when at the end of the day they are just making rough guesses.

I get really turned off by any article that acts like we have a clear understanding of these things. Most things are actually just reactions to trauma.

Re: Psychedelics and mental illness

#97

Post by hutzlibu »

aaaaaaaaata wrote: post #84
hutzlibu wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I would rather say there are probably way too many people, who would totally trust such a place with their whole health, just because of the name and some other esoteric buzzwords like indigenous, ancient wisdom. I do have great respect for "real" shamans. But I met way too many fake ones, handing out horrible and dangerous advice, while glowing in their self declared illuminative state of higher consciousness.

Where'd you find these?

All around the world.

Most are quite harmless and you still can have interesting conversations with them. Some are more weird and even dangerous, like this individual, which I have not met personally, but people like him.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_Angeli

Re: Psychedelics and mental illness

#98

Post by elliekelly »

slibhb wrote: post #16

I like the article. With psychedelics, it's clear that much of the excitement comes from people (including scientists) who have used them and found their experiences helpful. That's not science but that doesn't mean it's wrong. Not everything is amenable to clinical study and this doesn't mean we should disregard it. And the issue isn't just psychedelics being hard to study. Mental health is hard to study. An overwei…

> Lots of people used LSD in the 60s and 70s and as far as I can tell they didn't usher in a new age of love, peace, and tolerance.

Is there any research that attempts to put a number on what portion of the population was using LSD at this time?

Re: Psychedelics and mental illness

#99

Post by mountainriver »

aw1621107 wrote: post #77
btilly wrote: post #61

I agree with the basic point of the article entirely. However he shows the same kind of bias that he is speaking out again by not discussing the best known branch of such research. And that is MDMA for PTSD. It is best known simply because it is, in fact, demonstrating that it works. The FDA has been repeatedly calling it a "breakthrough therapy" since 2017. It is in multiple phase 3 trials around the world that are…

> Research papers on it, like https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01336-3 , are appearing in the top science journal in the world and are no less enthusiastic than a press release. The article actually discusses that very paper : > While we’re here, it’s worth talking about the MAPS MDMA-therapy trial itself. In May 2021, to much media fanfare, they published their Phase III clinical trial in Nature Medicine.…

It feels like they actually mostly overlook this study in favor of their thesis that psychedelic research is bogus. The Nature critiques are less than convincing, either way they are doing another phase 3 trial so we will know.

My guess is if this scientist did psychedelics he wouldn't have written this article.

Re: Psychedelics and mental illness

#100

Post by slibhb »

elliekelly wrote: post #98
slibhb wrote: post #16

I like the article. With psychedelics, it's clear that much of the excitement comes from people (including scientists) who have used them and found their experiences helpful. That's not science but that doesn't mean it's wrong. Not everything is amenable to clinical study and this doesn't mean we should disregard it. And the issue isn't just psychedelics being hard to study. Mental health is hard to study. An overwei…

> Lots of people used LSD in the 60s and 70s and as far as I can tell they didn't usher in a new age of love, peace, and tolerance. Is there any research that attempts to put a number on what portion of the population was using LSD at this time?

Wikipedia has some sources and a graph (I have no idea how accurate it is): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_lysergic_acid_dieth...
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