Dispelling the stigma around psychedelics

It’s normal to feel nervous about trying psychedelic-assisted therapy. In the United States, psychedelics are loaded with cultural and political taboos as a result of the War on Drugs. Started in 1971, this government-sponsored campaign published a cascade of negative press against psychedelics, even though medicines like LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA were showing tremendous promise as psychiatric treatments. 

The truth is, like any other medicine, psychedelics do pose risk when they are not taken appropriately. However, the virtue of psychedelic-assisted therapy is that it creates a clinical framework for taking these substances in safe and healthy ways. In general, psychedelics actually have an impressive safety profile. While televised public service announcements in the 1980s and 1990s depicted scary images under the guise of “This is your brain on drugs”, world experts in addiction and public health have repeatedly demonstrated that psychedelics are among the least harmful drugs known. Referring to mushrooms and LSD, professor and drug policy expert David Nutt wrote:,

“It’s virtually impossible to die from an overdose of them; they cause no physical harm; and if anything they are anti-addictive.”

As you can see from this chart published in The Lancet in 2019, legal drugs such as alcohol and tobacco are ranked significantly higher on the ‘drug harm score’ than psychedelic substances like mushrooms and LSD.

Fear around losing control is a common worry amongst first-time psychedelic users. But when taken in safe settings, it is extremely rare for someone to lose control of their senses or sensibilities after consuming psychedelics. You will not take off your clothes and run naked in the street, nor will you have flashbacks or “go crazy” as some media portrayals have suggested. By and large, psychedelic-assisted therapy sessions are gentle, reflective, and meditative in nature. Rather than losing control, people tend to report seeing things clearly and experiencing a sense of profound inner peace.

When taken as prescribed, ketamine is also a safe psychedelic. Furthermore, ketamine has a long safety track record  when administered in surgical settings to adults as well as children as young as 1.5-years old. The World Health Organization has put ketamine on its list of “essential medicines” for its enormous medical potential and low risk profile. Overdosing on ketamine is nearly unheard of in clinical contexts, and the doses that are prescribed for psychedelic-assisted therapy are far below the level that could pose such a risk.

All that being said, signing up for psychedelic-assisted therapy is a major decision. Being ready to take the courageous leap toward wellbeing with the aid of psychedelics is a big step, and it’s very normal to be a bit nervous or scared. At Innerwell, licensed psychiatric clinicians are present at each step of your journey to ensure your experiences are safe and beneficial.