CMV:Psychedelic drugs should not be encouraged for people to use to treat their severe anxiety/depression until more studies/controls are in place.

This post is inspired by this thread that I recently browsed through, as well as the fact that I am currently struggling with depression and trying to find solutions to my problems. So please remember that this is not like some abstract semantics discussion but a very personal one that could potentially have real life consequences.

So first let me say that I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that the use of psychedelics has helped or cured some individuals of depression and other disorders. That’s awesome, and I’m not contesting that in the slightest. I also fully support doing more research into it as a potential treatment option, and think that it may well prove to be a useful tool in combatting these disorders in the future – I’m actually very excited about its potential! I just think that until the time when we have it more regulated and controlled and understood it’s a bad idea for me personally to dabble with it in an attempt to cure myself. And I think that people should generally refrain from encouraging others who have depression to use it as a means of treatment as well, at this current time.

My concerns are these:

The current culture of psychedelics in most places is not in line with the way that most people are suggesting they be used for treating depression – eg in controlled dosages, safe comfortable environments and in combination with therapy. I do believe that a lot of bad trips could probably have been mediated if better practices had been used to approach ingestion. However, given that these are out of sync (the way to use it for depression and the way it's usually recreationally used), imo, it’s generally not a good idea to just suggest to a random Internet stranger that they use drugs to cure themselves. It’s like suggesting to someone whose only context for alcohol is binge drinking that alcohol can decrease your risk of cancer even though you might be referencing a glass of wine before bed – it’s just too easy to be misconstrued, especially in the context of anonymous online forums. Also, even if an individual is trying to be responsible it can be very difficult to be properly prepared because there is so much non-tested, non-scientifically endorsed information out there concerning dosages, especially when it comes to the individual level of how different people’s bodies work.

The illegal market to me is also troubling because it means that the vast majority of people who are looking into taking it specifically for the purpose of treating depression, and are not otherwise connected to the drug market, won’t have a way to be really sure what they are taking or even how potent it is. Getting drugs off the street means that you are risking taking something that could be cut with heroin, methamphetamines, or even bath salts. This can present very real dangers to people who to take them, especially those seeking out drugs for the first time without knowledge of the market or relationships with dealers/etc.

There are potentially serious side effects even if you do everything right and get a pure version. The most well known probably being the triggering of an underlying mental illness/disorder, which is a pretty serious thing to be dabbling with, imo. This gives me especially big pause, since as someone with depression who at times hasn’t felt all that sane due to it, I feel like for a lot of us out there who do have major depressive disorder the development of another disorder isn’t that far out of the realm of possibility. There is also the concern of bad trips, which I worry could easily put someone who is already in a bad headspace over an edge, and rarely but still note worthy the development of Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder. Not all of these may be valid concerns, but my point is that without better long term, diverse studies into it we can’t really know for sure what is and what isn't concerning, and thus should probably reserve our recommendations until such a time as we do know more.

As a final note there are a lot of comparisons to antidepressants – which do have a long list of potential serious side effects and yet are currently widely accepted and used as treatment for depression. Now, I’ll admit that I am more accepting of this method simply because they are regulated and controlled by the medical community – meaning there is more rigorous testing and control of use. That being said, I have not nor do I really plan to take antidepressants to control for my own symptoms, precisely because of the risks they pose.

I’m posting this because I’m wondering if I’m missing something? I’m as interested as anyone in getting real viable treatments for depression, and I absolutely think that we should be putting more research into this avenue, I just also think that caution when we are dealing with strong drugs and vulnerable people should be used. But I’m interested in hearing what other perspectives people have and if I should be more open to this than I currently am. I admit that all my knowledge comes from things that I’ve looked up and not any personal experience with psychedelic drugs.

Edit: this is not a response to specific articles or anything they say - which I think is fine, it's more a response prompted by what I've read and heard from individuals who advocate for their use.

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