Hallucinogens: What can they actually do for us and why aren’t we using them?

Why are we prescribing endless pharmaceutical drugs with endless side

effects when a safe solution has been in front of us all along?

Adrienne Magness

Professor Brian

Bailie

English Composition 1001

Mental health issues are something that have long been up for debate across the world,

but especially right here at home in America. For decades most people wouldn’t even

acknowledge or accept the validity of things such as depression or anxiety. One would simply

be called weak and told to “suck it up”. Over the past decade or so the field of psychology has

grown immensely and the overall awareness and acceptance of mental health issues being just

has important as physical health issues has slowly begun to climb as well. Unfortunately, for all

our awareness of people suffering from things like depression, our treatment of such things still

seems to be severely lacking most of the time.

Long before we began to pass out pills like they were candy, early psychologists were

employing the use of talk therapy, and it yield promising results for the most part. The early

1980’s saw the beginning boom of taking pharmaceutical prescription drugs to treat various

mental health disorders, and when Prozac hit the market in 1987, the amount of people being

prescribed antidepressants quadrupled. This issue has only multiplied more in the years since,

the first decade of the 2000’s showed over a twenty percent increase in people being prescribed

pharmaceutical medications. With this rise there also came a dip in actual psychological

treatment being had. These days you can simply go into your primary care physician, tell them

you are feeling anxious or depressed, and they will write you a prescription. There is no actual

psychological examination being done to determine what the patient is actually suffering from

and what the best course of action would be.

As you can see, the amount of prescriptions medications being taken far outweighs the

amount of any type of psychological treatment being received. I would argue that this stems

from two different problems. One being the unfortunate remaining stigma surrounding talk

therapy and the act of opening up to someone about your problems. The second, and I believe

bigger issue, is the absolute hold pharmaceutical companies have over our government and

therefore our medical care. The latter of these two bring me to my main issue that exists in the

world of therapy and mental health today.

Talk therapy can be very scary and uncomfortable for many people. Just the thought of

sitting across from a practical stranger and baring your soul of all its deepest and darkest secrets

that we all keep so carefully hidden to appear put together, that can be enough to make anyone

back out no matter how desperately they want the help. This hurdle alone is why I believe the

involvement of certain hallucinogenic drugs, or certain compounds found in them, is so crucial to

the actual treatment and possibly cure to a variety of mental health disorders.

Throughout the 1960’s and 70’s many people began experimenting with hallucinogenic

drugs on their own, such as LSD, magic mushrooms, ayahuasca and of course the more popular,

cannabis. These people weren’t using these substances legally nor were they always using them

safely, but we still saw quite a unique effect on our society during this time. It was no

coincidence that this time period marked a very clear start to an age of open-mindedness.

Women’s rights, ethnic rights, disabled rights, all these things began to see a marked

improvement from shortly before. There is still a lot of room for growth, but it can be easily

seen that people began to pursue things such as peace and equality with much more vigor while

so many people were also taking part in these hallucinogens.

Unfortunately, people who open their minds tend to be harder to control, and so towards

the end of the 1960’s most hallucinogenic drugs were made Schedule 1. This was detrimental

not because the general public couldn’t legally access these drugs, but because this took away

even scientists’ ability to do any type of testing on the drugs. Before this there was some very

interesting studies going on that were pointing to the abilities these drugs had to open up the

mind in a way nothing else had before. Shortly before the drugs were marked Schedule 1, some

scientists and psychiatrists were studying the effects these drugs had one soldiers suffering from

PTSD. The limited results they got were promising and seeing how we still struggle to treat this

disorder today, it’s a shame their research was stopped in its tracks.

One drug that shows the most potential for both positive results and lack of negative side

effects is magic mushrooms, or more specifically the chemical found in the mushrooms,

Psilocybin. Psilocybin is a strong hallucinogen that can trigger both visual and auditory

hallucinations for anywhere from an hour all the way up to five hours, depending on the strength

of your dosage. Most people may think that taking this will simply cause one to “trip”, that

you’ll see or hear a bunch of crazy things for awhile and then it will be over. This is not how

these chemicals actually effect the brain though. Actual scans of the brain done before and after

dosing with Psilocybin show that there are lingering effects on how our brain works after taking

it. Psychological personality testing backs this up as well, with results showing a distinct shift in

certain personality aspects after taking such drugs.

One such study done ran full psychological personality tests on twenty different people

before doing any type of drug. Throughout the testing the participants were given a small dose

and left alone and later they were given a much larger dose and talked to therapists throughout

the trip. The overall results showed a definite increase in the extroversion areas of personality

and a drop in the neuroticism areas of personality. These are the areas that most often correlate

with those who suffer from depression and anxiety. For example, those with an increase to

extroversion tend to experience less anxiety.

These results are highly encouraging to anyone who has suffered from these and other

mental health disorders. Many people choose to stop taking medications to treat their illness

simply because they feel even worse on the medication than they do off it. Many report feeling

like a “shell of themselves” or even compare themselves to a zombie. Because of this many

choose to suffer alone without any help, or simply try to get what they can out of simple talk

therapy. Talk therapy can have extremely positive results for many people, but if someone is

struggling from an illness that is caused by an actual chemical imbalance in the brain or suffering

from severe trauma, getting lasting results from talk therapy alone can be very difficult.

Having done an unofficial survey of many people that I work with, I simply asked people

if they suffered from a mental illness, and if they would prefer a more natural hallucinogenic

option combined with talk therapy over whatever they have tried in the past. Over ninety percent

of the people I talked to said they would be much more likely to try therapy again if they were

offered this approach. Many of them had experienced a variety of negative side effects from the

past prescriptions they were put on and were left dealing with the same issues they had walked in

with if not more. Interestingly enough, the few who said they prefer the pharmaceutical

approach admitted that they had never tried anything else, nor did they participate in talk

therapy. They simply take a pill to best ignore what is bothering them, and when pressed further

they admitted that they still suffer daily and the pills just make it bearable.

The rates of depression and anxiety in our country continue to rise, as does the rate of

suicide, especially among the younger generations. It has become fairly clear that the method we

are currently using is sorely lacking and not meeting the needs of the majority. One must ask

then, why do we not try a different approach? Why would we not take advantage of a possible

solution right in front of us? Why would we want to watch nearly an entire generation, now two,

suffer daily in their own heads?

The answer to this is sadly simple; money. Pharmaceutical companies are pushing out

new kinds of pills to treat your every ail every day, as long as you cover your ears while they list

the many side effects that come with them. These same companies make so much money off

these “band-aid” type pills that they filter an entire chunk of their profits into our government.

They can essentially fund whatever candidates will continue to keep the way clear for their drugs

while simultaneously blocking the way for what could be safer and more effective options by

keepings drugs like psilocybin and cannabis listed as schedule 1 so no can even solidly study

them and prove their worth.

The first big step in getting people the right to seek out the treatment they really need,

that could truly improve their quality of life, is to get these drugs off of schedule 1 listing. Even

if they are not made legal to the public, they should be made legal for scientists and doctors to

study and research. Once this is done, should the results yield that these drugs truly do have to

capacity to help people process trauma, to change the chemical makeup of the brain, then a path

towards implementing them within therapy could be explored. Things such as therapy-dosing

and micro-dosing are options people have longed asked for.

It shouldn’t seem extreme for someone to ask to take a certain medicine with their doctor

that will provide and immediate strong effect with longer lasting minor effects. We currently

have no issue putting children, teens and adults alike on a multitude of medications they are

expected to take daily, and sometimes they must take more pills to counteract those very pills

side effects. If we are so readily ok with giving out genuinely dangerous medication to those in

need that isn’t even guaranteed to help them; then why shouldn’t we be able to allow those

suffering to try something that could help them truly face their issues, with the help of

professionals and natural drugs.

People are suffering every day, on or off prescription drugs. Allowing this to continue

simply because the companies making these drugs have gotten so large and so wealthy that they

can buy politicians is unacceptable. We shouldn’t be afraid of the unknown or ashamed of the

stigma. People deserve to be helped and to feel better; companies need to be held in check and

take responsibility. We as a society must demand better; mental health is far too important for us

to remain quiet and wait for someone else to figure it out. If something out there can help people

be at peace with themselves, we should figure out how best to give them access to that.

Works Cited

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“Effects and risks of ayahuasca, the hallucinogen sought after by Canadians

travelling to the Amazon.” The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation,

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"Salvia Ingredient Studied As Medical Treatment." Morning Edition,

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