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Comment by carapace | Hacker News Reader

I'm not an anti-drug puritan. (That would be so so hypocritical.) I think the criminalization of e.g. MDMA and the others is deeply foolish and has done a lot of harm. (To make an understatement. Frankly, I think you should be able to get clean liquid acid or MDMA at the local pharmacy. Why not? "Who the fuck are you to tell me what to do with my brain chemistry if I'm not hurting anyone?", eh?)

I don't want to take anything away from people, I just want us to think clearly about what's really going on when these kind of excellent results occur.

In the excitement over the successes with MDMA we shouldn't overlook things like Emotional Freedom Technique or Feldenkrais Technique that have also had wonderful successes with PTSD and yet don't involve ingesting substances. If we do, we risk missing out on the essential aspects of effective therapy.

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MDMA has a terrible comedown. Suicide Tuesdays is a thing after raves. After a 3 day festival, where you are taking molly like it's candy, Monday you're fine/ alittle hungover from the drinking but come Tuesday the world is fucking hopeless.

Agreed!

(I want to note that I was replying to this specifically: “ I'm just against using them in therapy. It's irresponsible.” It was a rather crystallized statement, but we clearly see nuances here :) I take it that we both fully agree that drugs must not overshadow therapy, and that there are great temptations for shortcuts.)

You're totally right, I went a little overboard there, sorry.

Well met! :-)

But a lot of the time psychoactive drugs can remove psychological barriers that would otherwise prevent constructive participation in therapy. Not everyone needs it, but judging from how many people are in more-or-less-perpetual therapy, I think you might be undervaluing psychoactive drugs in that context.

> I think you might be undervaluing psychoactive drugs in that context.

I can only assure you I'm not. Your brain can already make all the psychoactive drugs you need.

These chemicals (LSD, Psilcybin) are like electroshock therapy, just a little more subtle. There are more precise and/or delicate modalities that are effective. I don't think it's too controversial to believe that we should concentrate on the precise and delicate therapy, eh?

> If we do, we risk missing out on the essential aspects of effective therapy.

No we don't; you're just moralizing against what appears to be effective treatment. No one is saying psychedelics are panacea, that's just a strawman.

Stop projecting your own misguided personal ethics. There are real people that need real help.

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