[pbadenski]

This type of empty fear mongering comment is unhelpful at best. It's a McDonalds of a comment. What's a lot of people? Why are psychedelics so special compared to anything else (sugar, Facebook, gambling). "It doesn't happen to everyone, but it's common" - what does this even mean? "Common" based on what criterion? How should our behaviour as a society change based on your comment?

[nicbou]

It seems to be an appropriate response to an anecdote.

"I've seen it work"

"I've also seen it fail"

[tmountain]

Agreed, I'm not here to insert my opinion about the therapeutic qualities of psilocybin, but I find vague anecdotal quips like this very frustrating. If there's validity to these treatments, let's let the science prove out. There's no point in trying to discourage folks from having an open mind about something that may turn out to help a lot of people.

[jasonwatkinspdx]

Psychedelics can definitely trigger or exacerbate mental health issues. A few years ago my group of friends lost someone to schizophrenia after he started micro-dosing LSD daily.

I've tried many of these substances, and know people who have gone a lot further, so I'm not speaking out of ignorance here. There are risks to these things, and it's not a positive experience for everyone. Giving people a warning about that is entirely reasonable.

[simonswords82]

It's such a shame because I've seen people lose their minds on psychedelics and the problem is they just can't handle being out of control. If their view on the world is in any way distorted - they cannot handle it. And that's sad because life is ultimately about perception and changing your perception is usually a good thing.

[awillen]

It's not a useful warning, though - what would someone do with that?

It's like saying "driving in a car is dangerous, and many people art hurt every year doing so." Okay, so what? Are you saying everyone should stop driving? It's just not useful - compare it to something like telling people to wear a seatbelt or pointing out that driving in particular conditions is especially dangerous. Those are things that we can use to drive more safely. Saying vaguely that driving can be dangerous doesn't serve any useful purpose.

[jasonwatkinspdx]

Because many people in this thread have no knowledge or experience with these substances, so giving them accurate information is useful. I'd say it's even necessary given there's a group of enthusiasts that very clearly over hype the benefits and make absurd claims like it's impossible to have a bad time, to over use them, etc. I want people to have a balanced view of what they may be interested in trying, vs that nonsense. Otherwise they're possibly setting themselves up for a bad trip at the least.

[hnmullany]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7034876/

Be conservative with dosage, don't do multiple doses in the same session & don't use with other drugs

[PedroBatista]

I don’t know if they are “special” compared to those, but you seem to imply they are the same.

You seem so laser focused on the promising side of things that you completely “forget” each substance is different and it’s use has serious consequences if abused, if not then do heroine.

[pbadenski]

Oh I definitely don't think it's the same. I would argue the items I have listed above are significantly more damaging to society than mushrooms.

On the subject of heroin, what about more dangerous psychoactive substance - ethanol? See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11660210 and https://www.ias.org.uk/uploads/pdf/News%20stories/dnutt-lanc...

[jokoon]

Are you comparing psychedelics to sugar and social media?

Unless psilocybin is thoroughly tested and validated as a treatment that is as safe as SSRI, I don't think it's really worthwhile to jump into the psilocybin train.

[pbadenski]

In a sense, yes - I believe the damaging effects of sugar and social media on the society is far greater than psychedelics might have if decriminalised.

They definitely don't deserve to be Class A in the UK and Schedule I in the US. Even more so, they shouldn't be classified as Schedule I by the United Nations.

I'm not sure about using it regularly, but people have been using these for ceremonies for centuries. I personally believe the choice should be left with an individual.

[mellavora]

Fortunately, "as safe as SSRI" is a pretty low bar.

Should we also compare the risk of addiction/dependence? Oh, yes, lets do!

Hey, while we are at it, shall we also compare effectiveness? 2 doses vs 6 weeks? Oh, wait, that's what the study did.

I wonder how many different types of psilocybin they had to test to find the effect one for these particular patients. Because, you know, getting the "right" SSRI based coctail is actual quite hard, many people go through three or four different variants before finding the one which they think works.

Yes, I'll bet they had to compare at least as many types of psylocybin before they found the combo that worked. Right?

[singingfish]

SSRI's can be not terribly safe as well. In some people their use leads to extremely unsafe impulsive behaviour and which itself can lead to suicide.

[theshrike79]

Yeaaa, SSRI isn't safe by any means.

It won't kill you for sure. But a 100% loss in sex drive isn't really something people actually want. Took a year after stopping SSRIs to get back.

[boloust]

At the doses in question here, SSRIs have a terrible side effect profile when compared with psilocybin.

[cowpewter]

SSRIs are notoriously NOT safe. In younger people, they often increase suicidal ideation. Even in adults, there is a very dangerous period when you first start taking them where suddenly you have more energy, but you are still massively depressed. People die because before they were so depressed they couldn't even take action to suicide, and the drugs give them just enough of a lift that they can.

Apart from that, there's the massive list of side-effects, many of them extremely common.

Complete loss of libido, erectile dysfunction, or worse, your libido is unchanged but you completely lose the ability to orgasm.

Insomnia, cause that's what a depressed person needs, even less sleep and more time for rumination in bed.

Akathisia, which is an uncontrollable need to move your body, think restless leg syndrome but it's your entire body. You literally cannot sit still.

Less life-destroying but still very obnoxious: increased sweating, dry mouth (which can ruin your teeth if you don't manage it with biotene or gum or something), blurred vision, headaches, the list goes on.

This is without even mentioning the risk of serotonin syndrome yet, which can straight up literally kill you if you don't make it to a hospital. It happens when your serotonin level is too high, and can cause seizures, fever, arrhythmia, or death.