Two new studies have found no link between using psychedelic drugs and going crazy — developing schizophrenia, psychosis, depression, or anxiety disorders — and they may in fact be wonder drugs:
People who had tried LSD or psilocybin had lower lifetime rates of suicidal thoughts and attempts.
Of course, this isn’t the first positive mental health outcome to be attributed to these drugs. The research into psychedelics as a treatment for end-of-life anxiety (brought on by terminal illness) shows that these substances are effective in treating severe anxiety and — equally important — that these benefits persist over time.
Meanwhile, researchers at the Imperial College in London have also begun peeling back the veil on the so-called ‘mind-expanding’ nature of psychedelics, finding some serious scientific evidence for reasons why these drugs help users release longstanding narrow-minded, negative outlooks.
And, finally, there’s also a bevy of research dating back to the 1950s that shows strong correlations between psychedelics and enhanced creativity. This research helps explain why Steve Jobs said taking LSD was one of the most important things he’s done in his lifetime, why Francis Crick was high on low-dose acid when he discovered the double-helix and why Tim Ferriss, in a recent interview with CNN, said: “”The billionaires I know, almost without exception, use hallucinogens on a regular basis. [They're] trying to be very disruptive and look at the problems in the world… and ask completely new questions.”
But the larger point is that one in five adult Americans takes some kind of mental health drug — meaning anti-anxiety, anti-depressant, anti-psychotic, etc. What’s more, success rates are suspect. Only 15 percent of people treated for depression with drugs, for example, show long term remission.
But psychedelics — a class of long-vilified substances — are not only much safer than we believed (i.e. they don’t appear to make you crazy) and also shows significant long term mental health benefits across multiple categories: anti-depressant, anti-anxiety and performance-enhancement (for creativity). What’s more, to receive these benefits, you only need to take these substances a few times (not every day like other mental health medications).
And, really, you’re only messing with your brain. What could go wrong?
Why do these articles make me feel reminded of South Park‘s “Medicinal Fried Chicken” episode?
The very non-neutral phrasing of this statement makes me suspicious. It sounds like what the drugs do is take the ordered structures of the user’s mind and give them a good hard shake, letting them resettle in different ways. Of course, some of those structures were formed by repeated interaction with harsh reality so shattering them might not be a good thing.
I’d be interested in seeing whether that was true. Of course, even if it was, I can’t say I find myself overawed by the creative leadership of the average modern billionaire as opposed to, say, Hiram Maxim.
There is definitely an element of excessive exuberance in all this research about drugs that cause excessive exuberance. I still love that last dig in the piece on using psilocybin to treat smoking addiction:
“Medicinal Fried Chicken” indeed.
That said, shaking the snow globe makes sense when things have settled into a bad pattern of “longstanding narrow-minded, negative outlooks.”
“Francis Crick was high on low-dose acid when he discovered the double-helix”
Not true.
It would appear that Crick was an avid LSD user, but only long after his co-discovery of DNA:
Kary Mullis, on the other hand, does credit LSD for his development of PCR. He’s also crazy.
The “survey respondent” method used in the two studies referred to is weak, despite the false security of large numbers of respondents. It is the ones who do not respond that you should be worried about. That data is lost.
The computer-mining approach to research using survey data can only be suggestive, never definitive. When used by statistically naive persons it is worse than useless, regardless of the raw numbers of respondents.
The authors of the first study looked primarily at psilocybin, mescaline, and LSD, but did not look at PCP or other hallucinogens with particularly bad reps.
The use of the term “psychedelic” rather than more specific pharmacological terms raises a concern — particularly as the authors of the first study were clinical psychologists rather than pharmacologists or research psychologists.
The cannabis-psychosis association cannot be easily brushed away, particularly for adolescents.
Phencyclidine (PCP) is another drug that can trigger psychosis in some youngsters.
LSD is less likely than PCP to cause long term psychoses, but particular genetic types may be more predisposed to LSD psychosis of long duration.
Some people seem genetically predisposed to seek out psychedelic experiences. Some of those same people also seem to be vulnerable to developing psychosis from hallucinogenic drugs.
If you want to emulate productive activities of billionaires, emulate what they did before they became wealthy, not after.
Correct and limited use of lysergic acid will not make you crazy. I was recently reminded of the correct use statistics for condoms…
Excessive LSD will most certainly make you crazy. I’m not sure if it’s a traditional madness with a name, though. The way it stretches your brain is dose dependent, and of course too much will stretch it too far and tear things.
Too frequent use is also dangerous. It takes time to settle back down completely, and if not allowed to, the brain can get stuck in the stretched position.
It does look like LSD can be used productively, but that’s unusual.