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Comment by pessimizer | Hacker News Reader

Really sick of these "drugs feel good" stories. If we were still behaviorists, we wouldn't pretend this was news. This is declaring a full remission of depression after four weeks in half of the subjects. This is pretend science, I absolutely guarantee that an all expenses paid weeklong camping trip (or trip to Paris for those afraid of bugs, or trip to Japan for those sick of Paris) would do the same thing.

Asking depressed people whether they're depressed in four weeks during which they've had two good, safe, legal drug sessions, and considering it meaningful, is moronic.

edit: I've been reading lately about saying things directly. Of course drugs feel good, that's why people do them.

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I can absolutely guarantee that when I was severely depressed, an all expenses paid weeklong camping trip would have:

- Not been enjoyable, as I was much less capable of feeling pleasure/joy

- Been way to difficult for me to accomplish, given that getting out of bed and showering was often too difficult for me to accomplish

- Would have had a negative effect on my depression

This has nothing to do with drugs "feeling good."

There has been substantial research recently showing that in some ways that I, at least, don't yet fully understand, various different psychedelics have the ability to "reset" the brain. This appears to be an effective long-term treatment for depression and anxiety—much, much longer-term than the direct effects of the drug—the trip, or any euphoria associated with it; in some cases, on the order of months, or even, for some lucky people, permanently.

So take your "this is pretend science" and shove it. Just because you don't approve of drugs that have been deemed illegal and immoral in the past doesn't change their very real benefits to some people—or the fact that depression is not, and has never been, something that can be cured by "an all expenses paid weeklong camping trip" or any other pleasant experience. Mental illness is serious and debilitating, and if psilocybin and other psychedelics can be more effective treatments than what we have now—which very real science indicates is highly likely—then that's going to be amazing for millions of people all over the world.

You're welcome to go take your camping trip and ignore the news about it.

> Of course drugs feel good, that's why people do them.

Drugs can feel good, but that isn't universal and that isn't the goal of these drug-assisted therapies.

Often psychedelics can be scary and anxiety producing. An introspective trip often isn't "fun" but can lead to personal insight -- the internet is littered with such testimonials. That is the hope of these therapies, not to give the person a joy ride for a few hours.

a mushroom trip isn't always fun. it's exhausting. But you usually feel good afterwards.

So these substances aren't like coke or heroin where it's bliss and euphoria while on them (though that can happen, too)

You obviously have no idea about psychedelics, to position this as a “drugs feel good” story. Good chance at least one of the participants didn’t have a pleasurable trip. In fact, it’s a common psychedelic trope that it’s precisely the challenging, unpleasant, bad trips that truly have the potential for restorative change. Myself, my most profound and helpful psychedelic experience was a DMT trip that went in a very dreadful direction.

It's worth noting the study here involved long sessions of psychotherapy. This was not a study where they just gave them LSD and let them at it. The idea as I understand it is that the psilocybin makes it easier for one to integrate the work happening in therapy.

Of course, it's a very small sample size (as seems to be true with many of these studies) and appears to have lacked a control, although maybe I missed it.

Counterpoint https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comedown_(drugs)

Drugs only 'feel good' for that purpose in the few hours after they are consumed. If people's psychological state is influenced (either way) several weeks after the experience, then something else is at work.

Have you ever taken psychedelics? I've used mushrooms, lsd, and a few others probably over a hundred times and one of the things that really seperates these drugs from others such as caffeine, alcohol, mdma, amphetamines, etc. is that there's no noticeable comedown except that the experience fades away and I am tired (as I would be after any intense experience). On the contrary, I usually feel really good after taking psychedelics, often for a period of days or weeks afterwards.

People's experience will vary of course, and if you have a bad or unpleasant trip you won't feel good afterwards. However, in my experience, the majority of people don't experience comedown after taking psychedelics.

> edit: I've been reading lately about saying things directly.

If you're interested in experimentation, I recommend a series (say, 5 to 10) of mid-level-dosage psychedelic sessions, going in with the intent to study the nature of human consciousness and perception, keeping a journal of your experiences and thoughts. I would be surprised if you would still hold the opinions you've expressed here, but then mileage can vary quite significantly in some cases.

> Of course drugs feel good, that's why people do them.

Technically, that is only one of the reasons. Psychedelics seem to usually feel good, but from time to time you can get the exact opposite effect, sometimes in very large quantities. Yet, anecdotes seem to suggest that even after extremely unpleasant trips, most people seem to consider the experience valuable and continue to use them.

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