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Comment by Simulacra | Hacker News Reader

I suffer from depression and anxiety. I take medication for it but the one thing that has helped more than anything has been cannabis. Unfortunately it's also hindered me quite a bit. I'm intrigued by this study but also suspicious... It seems a lot of "illicit" substances are being touted as possible depression aides, such as shrooms and MDMA.

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"I'm intrigued by this study but also suspicious... It seems a lot of "illicit" substances are being touted as possible depression aides, such as shrooms and MDMA."

I've done MDMA multiple times. I'm over 35. I did it recreationally with my spouse. I know the recreational doses and the theraputic doses are the same.

And boy, did it solve some stuff in my brain. All positive. I'm better equipped to deal with anxiety and depression than I was before. I was.. OK. With myself, with things, and so on. The next day and week or so after, it felt like by brain had been rinsed off, massaged, and gently put back in place. Now, this slowly lessened, but I was able to deal with stuff. It is really hard to explain: Like finally getting glasses and being amazed with how clear things were. I can only imagine how this would be in a clinical setting, with someone guiding your brain to deal with things you needed to deal with. Also, I found I like myself. That's not nothing.

Now, I've never done Ketamine, but I imagine results are similarly helpful for folks this is a good match with especially when you are in a clinical setting.

Yes it can really work wonders but it’s also easy to use recreational. Had a friend who only does cocaine as he loves being in control and hated on mdma... he is also the most negative person I ever knew and would usally end up in a fight anytime he walked out the door... he blames his ptsd. One time we got him to do mdma anyway and he changed to the most positive guy over nite... sometimes accused us of being negative suddenly even though that used to be his middle name. It had that effect for 1-2 months untill he was back to his old self.

Not sure why that should be surprising since unlike most anti depressants, club drugs have an immediate and dramatic effect.

I recently did a therapeutic MDMA session and it was life changing. So much was stored in my body that it helped to release.

Same stuff basically minus the cannabis. Honest question: did you check your hormone levels? Especially the testosterone and thyroid? I was browsing youtube couple of months ago when I came across this podcast [1] and everything that this guy talked about seemed like it was everything that I'm experiencing.

I went ahead and checked my hormones. Sure enough I'm low on testosterone with a measure of 3.2 where the lower limit is 9.6 with the upper of 23 so I'm just 30%~ of the lower limit. It may be a long shot but the chemistry checks out and I will give it a try.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wlvoWASBD4&t=395s

P.S. Just read your bio so testosterone might be out of the question, still...check your hormones :)

These "illicit" substances work. I can only speak for myself, but the amount depression that can be caused from anxiety is enormous, and then there's MDMA, which provides a reference point for life without it -- which in turn reduces the depression. Life changing, but it was also in a therapeutic setting with all the proper controls.

It's interesting. You and other commenters refer to MDMA as providing an experience of being anxiety free, but the few times SWIM's rolled, I've experienced part of the time with a high level of anxiety (in fact, the first time I got a panic attack was while rolling). They still were amazing experiences that made me feel great afterwards.

*not in a therapeutic setting

Did the anxiety occur during the initial onset of the MDMA (aka the comeup)? The onset of MDMA creates strong physiological effects that can trigger anxiety. One way to mitigate this is to split the dose of MDMA into two equal parts, and taking them 10 minutes apart. This creates a more gradual onset that greatly reduces the feeling of anxiety for most users.

More discussion about MDMA anxiety: https://www.reddit.com/r/MDMA/comments/5v4h9z/panic_attacks_...

A) Studies have shown that if a person takes threshold amounts anxiety can happen. This applies to other psychedelic-like substances as well. One doesn't want to take too little, but also not too much! 80mg - 120mg is the sweet spot.

B) Was is pure? Unless you're sure, it was likely cut with something.

Maybe I wasn't able to use cannabis moderately enough, but as my tolerance grew and I had to take more and more to feel the effects, my depression and anxiety got much, much worse.

I’ve seen both mdma and many other psychedelics have short term positive effects but they also had a downside as they are easy used recreational. Only thing I can swear by works wonders are Changa and is in a category where regular abuse is very unlikely. I’ve been around 100s of people the last 20 years where we all smoked daily.personally 100g+ month of bubble hash grade or o.g kush types heavy weed, had year long periods of doing extasy,cocaine,mdma,amfetamine every weekend. Occasionally did stuff like 2cb, mandrake root, phenibut, Kanna, kath, ghb, lsd, dmt, ketamine, some RCs and perhaps 50 shroom trips in my youth and a bit of opimum to end a nite on a festival after having mixed a bit of all of the above. Having a highly stressful job I got tinnitus and was waking around myself in circles I decided to make my own Changa (dmt from mimosa hostilis keeping nmt +hamalas(rima) from b.caapi+alkaloids of Passion flower + blue Lotus, African dream herb) and it instantly took my stress and tinitus away and forced me to sleep properly Which had Been years since.. and imo is one of the most dangerous things and I have often seen as a trigger for insanity . Also lost any cravings for weed + sugar and such and now have not touched anything for a few years don’t even care for a beer. I gave my product to about 80 people under my strict supervision and guidelines and they go through so many emotions laughing, crying, having internal conversations, being afraid, wanting to die, feeling love, not wanting to die all in a short time they come back and tell me it’s the most incredible experience ever, that it saved marriges, ended abuse, stopped suiacidal thoughts and gave a new perspective on life some who had given up on shrinks and medicine.. mostly a common effect of living more in the moment and forgetting the bad thought loops they had. Friend working at google Quit his job right after, gave away his things and went to live with aboriginals. Another came back from South America after doing ayhuasca, rape, sanga, Kampo and told me what I had made was what he had been looking for there ... it got so “known” that someone from Sting heard about it and came by to do it when touring my country ;) most have only tried dmt enhanced leaf so they can’t relate.. those who have tried the real deal have respect for it and for most it will be once in a life trip .. even the hardcore are not just doing it for good reasons even if it’s just 1 hour it’s also the most crazy psychedelic... I’d done well you will leave your body not even be aware of yourself anymore and go a other worlds or memories and “movies” so far out no words exists for what you experience :D even if it’s the most amazing experience in a life like sex with the universe I can stil live on the memories of it for years. It’s a drug I expect to hear more about in coming years when it becomes more known as it’s my experience it’s much more effective than mdma ketamine shrooms which I have seen way too many downsides with like excessive abuse and suicides

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