Psychedelic drugs are drugs that are psychoactive and primarily change the brain’s thought processes. Most of the psychedelic drugs are said to disable the filters that suppress the signals, which are related to each day’s functions from getting to the conscious mind. These kinds of drugs have been used in Psychedelic therapy.
Psychedelic therapy involves the usage of the psychedelic drugs, especially the serotonergic drugs like psilocybin, LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide, DMT (diemethyltryptamine), 2c-b and mescaline to basically help in psychotherapy. The term psychedelic (mind-manifesting) emphasizes that people who use the drugs for therapeutic practices believe that these drugs are able to facilitate the beneficial exploration of the psyche which is true. The use of these drugs, however, needs the assistance of a doctor for their effectiveness
How to use psychedelic drugs effectively
It should be noted that psychedelic drugs may be of harm to some people, It is important to be knowledgeable about their benefits for the mental health problems.
The following guidelines will help one to make sure that the application of psychedelics in medical trials is safe and the benefits are achieved effectively:
- Creating a relationship that is full of trust between the client and the therapist is very vital. The client has to be educated and explained to about the experience of psychedelics. The therapist is also supposed to control the client’s mind-set or context during the time of experience, thus ensuring relevance to the goals of therapy.
- The experience has to be in a safe and comfortable setting always. The medical, psychiatric and drug history of every client has to be assessed well to reduce the chance of extreme effects.
- The treatments should be limited to once in a week, which will make sure that the addiction risks are negligible. Most clients usually require a few sessions.
- The administration of psychedelics should be done in a setting that is controlled and only under the supervision of a well-trusted therapist. A pharmacological antidote will be used to end the psychedelic experience, if need be.
The precautions facilitate a psychedelic administration that is safe for relieving symptoms of anxiety, depression, or PTSD. However, the fears of using the drugs may be unfounded largely. A complete researchers’ study concluded that the reports of negative effects of psychedelics are somewhat exaggerated.
According to the report, After adjustment for any other risk factors was done, the use of mescaline, psilocybin, or even the past year usage of LSD did not link to any mental health problems of higher rates.
How Psychedelic drugs help
Psychedelics ensure symptom relief since they create a neural plasticity state in the brain, which allows alteration in perception, self-awareness and thought processing. They establish an insight into one’s problematic cycles of feeling, behaviour and thought.
The latter cycles are then able to be expressed, faced, interpreted, explored, accepted and then finally they are fixed back into the client’s psyche with assistance from the therapist’s help.
Although the use of psychedelics might be a polarizing issue among mental health professionals, those with symptoms unrelieved by prevailing medications or treatment methods may welcome this potential therapeutic option.
Verdict
The use of psychedelics may be greatly controversial and some may be against it. It is however important to know that they are able to benefit depression and anxiety effectively when administered in a corrected manner, thus with the help of a trusted therapist.
Image source: Thinkstock/omairhq
Posted on May 22, 2023