What ketamine does to the human brain
theatlantic.com
theatlantic.com
That said, the article title is very misleading. It's essentially a (very) thinly veiled hit piece on Musk. As if we need more of those on HN. A better title would be "What Ketamine could be doing to Musk's brain, which would explain explain why he's so crazy/evil/nazi -- and why you should continued to be scared/panic/etc"
I can imagine frequent use of any psychedelic (or any drug) being correlated with all sorts of other mental and inhibition issues. That's not new/news.
You know who else uses a lot of ketamine? The rave scene, the queer scene, and people treating PTSD. And those are some of the most un-Nazi folks out there.
It's a dissociative drug. It can be used recreationally, it can be used therapeutically, and of course, for medical purposes.
Let's be real. Why is Musk a megalomaniac? Because he is a megalomaniac. The end.
I think many of us see the the through line in Musk's story the same way we can see how our friends who spiraled into chaos and self-destruction had always been fragile or angry or hurt or whatever, but for others who were never perceptive or open enough to have seen the already-troubled side of these people, a drug abuse narrative (which often can have truth to it) can help it all become less bewildering.
Why, how, and when did he become a megalomaniac? Was he always this way? Did he start believing his own press at some point?
Body chemistry can affect how one cognates, perceives the world, and reacts to external (and internal) events. Half the world's population undergoes such effects naturally throughout their life:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Female_Brain_(book)
It would not be surprising if folks who alter their brain chemistry without medical supervision may have their (perception of) reality changed due to it.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-ketamine-secrets-of-sega...
More anecdotes from Mr. Lilly https://www.intuition.org/txt/lilly.htm
MISHLOVE: Perhaps this is a necessary part of everybody's journey, is to go through the epitome of terror.
LILLY: Right. For instance, there's an Iranian psychiatrist, an American psychiatrist, that put a hundred patients in a mental hospital in Iran through what they feared most, on Ketamine, and they all left the hospital. Now, I tried the same thing, after I read that. That evening I took 150 milligrams of Ketamine, and suddenly the Earth Coincidence Control Office removed my penis and handed it to me. I screamed in terror. My wife Toni came running in from the bedroom, and she said, "It's still attached." So I shouted at the ceiling, "Who's in charge up there? A bunch of crazy kids?" The answer came back, "Well, you had an unconscious fear, so we put you through it, just the way the Iranian psychiatrist did."
MISHLOVE: In the realm of the mind, the province of the mind, we can face all our fears.
LILLY: Well, you may not be able to live with it, but you should try it.
Oh and nice username lol
Whenever someone sees someone in full-blown psychosis walking stark naked on the side of the road, PCP immediately gets the blame. In reality, both drugs have the same psychosis potential.
It's not an immediate thing. Heavy users will just start feeling confident and motivated. Little need for sleep and a spring in their step like they are light as a feather. As the heavy use continues, this can spiral into mania, delusions of grandeur, detachment from reality and paranoia.
I have no way of knowing how much Elon uses, but it would not surprise me if he is treating himself with consistent low doses of ketamine. I wonder how his memory is, that would be a pretty good tell.
Memory is only impaired in really end cases of abuse of ketamine. First the ability to learn newcomplex tasks is damaged. Then usually kidneys go. Unlike PCP, wholesale psychosis is rare.
This is though mostly in abusers again, ones going for so called k-holing. Whether Musk does these high doses is a different question. Normally you can spot these people as acting zombie like and having an equivalent of absence seizures, not grandious manic episodes.
Musk might be (self) medicating with a wrong drug for a different mood disorder. Now that is both relatively common and might look exactly like his behavior - a hypomanic shift for example. Ketamine really is meant to be used as an antidepressant for standard depression and only short term...