I've accidentally done as much myself with close friends instead of therapists: I started partying with Molly during a period in my life where I was already starting to recognize and work through some issues from my entire childhood: the wee hours of the morning after having an amazing night dancing is a pretty ideal setting to open up mental blocks and be honest with yourself and others. (It also made me almost instantly closer to those people, whom I consider some of the most important people in my life at this point).
Beginners usually need a trainer and a guide to at least get started and to not end up in a life risking situation.
In medical science those professionals are often called doctors and nurses.
What I was wondering is more along the lines of: is the therapy appreciably different to complement the MDMA, or is it simply the increased openness etc that makes normal modes of therapy more effective?
I didn't intend to suggest that people _should_ take MDMA before therapy, but it was just a thought experiment to get at the above question. I only wondered about it because, as I said, I've incidentally done as much while talking with friends.
There are plenty of psychoactive drugs that people don't think twice about managing themselves (weed, caffeine, alcohol), and I was just curious whether MDMA would fall into that category squarely enough (it's certainly easier to manage than alcohol is, for example).
See this from earlier research results http://www.mdmaptsd.org/research-category.html
> A long-term follow-up of patients who received MDMA-assisted psychotherapy revealed that overall benefits were maintained an average of 3.8 years later.
The issue is that they may or may not be actual MDMA - and the unscrupulous label general amphetamines as either molly or MDMA and people unfamiliar dont know it....
The clinical studies should, presumably, be also, setting a standard for the purity, dosage, quality etc around the tested substance...
So to go "off grid" as it were, to test this has risks..
That being said - the efficacy of any therapy session, even when the introspection and emotional response is deliberately induced, could still result in benefits.
The problem with any drugs, beit alcohol, weed, whatever - is that environment (situational and historically) play a large part in the response.
The mental state can be associative to a great degree, and as such - if one has had a tool such as MDMA in the past - but in a really poor environment, the response could be poor.
Read up on it - but never trust anything off the street to be what they claim...
That being said, I am pretty sure I can find the drug, I know some people that I can trust. Preferably it would be administered by the therapist, though.
Thanks, too, for the caution. I have already found someone in my native country who is a psychologist who also does AI stuff with Tensorflow, so I trust them already. ;)
"87% of “Molly” analyzed by the DEA between 2009 and 2013 contained 0% MDMA, instead mostly containing “bath salts” like methylone.3"
I’d venture to guess that half the people buying MDMA-less molly would say the same thing.
If your friend isn’t sitting in the lab while it’s being made or not doing mass spec on it the product, it’s all someone’s word.
This is one of the great tragedies of the war on drugs: UN member states are bound to the convention under law, so until this unjust (and unscientific) barrier is torn down it will always be dangerous and difficult to acquire for therapeutic purposes. But things, thankfully, are changing for the better.
You can mess up your serotonin levels for an extended period of time through MDMA abuse.
I guess that might be a direct effect rather than a side effect, but that doesn't seem to be your point.
You can do that with SSRIs too. You can also kill yourself with opioids. The problem is that MDMA isn't even available by prescription. The first I heard of it was on a TV special covering its use in therapy sessions - that was in the 1980s prior to the whole ecstasy fad. Why is this useful substance totally illegal, while much more harmful and addictive things are legal, available, and causing problems?
But abuse of anything can be harmful, that's kind of a defining qualification of the whole concept of abuse, isn't it?
No, really, I am interested. Please share. Thanks.
Switzerland rocks in many ways.
It's such an enjoyable and useful process that most everyone chooses to take the booster dose.
It also is a nice safety check, if the person happens to freak out or really doesn't want to continue, they can pass and come back down. But as I Said, in practice no one passes.
It's also not boring or tedious as most therapies can be, it's a lovely place you want to explore.
It's a pretty normal dose.