Category: Entheogens

Compared with SSRI anti-depressants (which tend to numb our emotional receptivity altogether), according to this article, psilocybin may actually increase our capacity for equanimity.

I’ve never used pharmaceutical anti-depressants, and it’s always seemed a bit strange to me that we should treat depression with an anti-anything … surely the trick is to promote greater acceptance of all emotions, especially the “bad” ones, using either mindfulness or … this:

The researchers don’t know for sure why that is, but after the experiment the patients reported “a greater willingness to accept all emotions post-treatment (including negative ones)”, whereas they felt their previous depression treatments [with SSRI anti-depressants] worked to “reinforce emotional avoidance and disconnection.”

“I believe that psychedelics hold a potential to cure deep psychological wounds,” Roseman told PsyPost. “And I believe that by investigating their neuropsychopharmacological mechanism, we can learn to understand this potential.”