Psychology

What do we tell our kids about drugs?

In truth, what is really needed are… drug education programmes focused primarily on parents and young adults, teaching them the facts about the most prevalent drugs used in our society, and the real risk factors posed by different substances. As parents, we need to respect our children’s intelligence and trust them to make sensible decisions…

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Psychology

Developing integration of visionary experiences…

Usually, after intense experiences in expanded states, each of us does (or doesn’t do) our own integration. The experience remains in our memory, and when we reflect on it, there is usually a certain echo of what was experienced. These memories can be brought up in certain situations or circumstances. One can feel how that…

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Psychology

Defending MDMA [sassafras] as a Treatment for PTSD

The hypothesized mechanisms underlying the effectiveness of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy to treat PTSD are not based on its producing euphoria, but rather on its capacity to make confronting trauma-related thoughts, feelings, and memories more tolerable during therapeutic processing with support of a co-therapy team.​ MDMA is a monoamine releaser, but unlike stimulants, it preferentially releases serotonin,…

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Psychology

To avoid a bad trip, be prepared before trying LSD

Whether or not you’ve tried LSD before, you have heard about bad trips.  For [those] looking to take LSD while avoiding these nightmarish experiences, self-examination is your best bet … To avoid being overwhelmed… recommends that if [someone] is going to take LSD they should always do so with a group of close, supportive friends…

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Psychology

It’s time to debunk prohibitionist narratives and calls for monopolies within psychedelic science

…exposes a blind spot in the logic of [psychedelic] medicalization. While numerous sanctioned psychedelic researchers tout their belief that psychedelics can “effect true healing,” rather than mere symptomatic treatment, their fixation on the individual as a wholly-bound entity, divorced from their environment, misses the bigger picture. While psychedelics may “effect true healing” of the individual,…

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Psychology

Men who have used psychedelics are roughly half as likely to commit intimate partner violence

A new study has found evidence that men who have used psychedelic drugs in the past have a lower likelihood of engaging in violence against their current partners.  “We were interested in looking at the association between psychedelics and violence for a number of reasons,” said Michelle Thiessen, a clinical psychology graduate student at the University…

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