my friend had a psychotic break while on it. we later found out he was bipolar.
The title seems accurate, but you never know what disease you may have until it actually manifests so be careful
The title seems accurate, but you never know what disease you may have until it actually manifests so be careful
"The drug didn't cause you to go crazy. You just had underlying craziness that never manifested before using the drug and might never have manifested if you never used the drug."
Consider this my raised eyebrow.
Even if it's really technically true, it's effectively a vacuous and unfalsifiable statement when it comes to an individual person, and one can't use the information at all when estimating the risk of their potential recreational activity.
Though I've never been diagnosed and live a normal life, I've had mood swings and extended family history of schizophrenia. Because of this, and the knowledge that there are certain triggers that can cause lifelong neurological issues, I'll never try acid or other hallucinogens.
The value of knowing that "underlying craziness" can exist is in inherently reminding us of the actual risk. Let's say someone predisposed toward neurological issues is on the fence, but ultimately decides to follow the reasoning in the comment. What liability are you going to bear for it?
What kind of question is that? They said some stuff on the internet. None, of course, as it should be.
Their point was that if you weren't gonna go crazy and you took a drug and went crazy, then in every sense of the word, the drug _caused_ you to go crazy. Whether you had some latent condition or not is irrelevant.
My point was that the person who pedantically highlights that some drug didn't technically cause a mental illness is being anti-helpful. To go around and preach that XYZ drug doesn't cause mental problems is dishonest in any colloquial understanding of the situation, unless you state VERY clearly, at the same time, that it may TRIGGER or reveal underlying issues.
So, I was basically saying exactly what you said.
If you read my entire comment in one piece, I'm pretty sure it's clear enough that I meant that there's no actionable difference between "drug causes schizophrenia" and "drug activates latent schizophrenia" on an individual, human, level. Academically, it's a meaningful distinction, but not for an individual evaluating whether they want to try something.
Note that the most common side effect of amphetamine class drugs is psychosis, emotional problems, which manifest long before physical troubles do.
However, teasing out the steelman from this, what they mean is "becoming crazy is not a necessary effect of recreational drug use, but rather a contingent effect."
I've seen studies before trying to study this, for example cannabis and latent schizophrenia. One complication is that recreational drug use goes hand-in-hand with self-medication of undiagnosed issues.
Slightly related https://old.reddit.com/r/HPPD/
Of course you have to be careful when taking LSD, psilocybin or whatever. But don't replace info with FUD: just study, legalize and put the info in the box when sold. They are not worse than 95% of widely prescribed drugs. They are illegal just because they are also enjoyable.
My understanding is that for folks who are genetically predisposed, a life trigger can manifest in a mental health condition that likely never would have surfaced. Triggers may include in utero trauma, child abuse or chemical imbalance due to stress or controlled substances. Hallucinogens can trigger a serious mental health condition in an individual who may have lived an otherwise mentally stable life. Not unlike needing to watch cholesterol in a family who suffers from heart disease, perhaps. So, yeah, when I read "... in healthy people" it made me go hmmmm.
But still, psilocybin is not marijuana. And this is great news for those suffering from treatment-resistant depression and PTSD.
I have dealt with depression and have my eye on some form of Psilocybin treatment as a future option. But am weary due to my friend's experience. So I'm waiting for more expertise to be developed and the treatment to be validated and consequences quantified.
The problem is people assume drug use is always the cause. This isn’t helped by many people treating mental illness as a character flaw.
how did he prepare for the trip? was he familiar with set & setting and other such recommendations?
I didn’t get diagnosed until I was 32 after a massive psychotic break caused by stress, despite mania, paranoia, and depression clearly starting when I was 9-years-old.
My mom suspected but never told me.
AFAIK, we don't know enough about the mechanics of bipolar disorder to rule out anything that causes you to transition from not meeting the diagnostic criteria to meeting them as being a cause rather than a revelation of some existing underlying problem. If it makes you transition to meeting the diagnostic criteria, it causes the disorder as best we understand it now and anything else is speculation.
I wasn't his first time doing mushrooms, but teens don't really use responsibly. I'm definitely not saying that it's common enough for people to be scared, but it's not like teens do full medical assessments before they start to use drugs.
Side note years later he had a seizure due to lsd, but we believe that was because he was on lithium for mood stabilizers. The drugs while helpful have side effects so it's not perfect and we have a long way to go for treatment
At the time, we thought he was schizophrenic, but he got a bipolar diagnoses later from doctors.
It's been a struggle with sobriety and mental health for over a decade. Mushroom didn't cause it, but it was definitely a notable moment in his life