Monthly Archives: August 2017

Academic compulsion and peer-pressure adding to the woes

Psychedelic drugs are not the only cause of concern, high school students and youngsters are addicted to things like cough syrups, glue and whiteners. Recently the governments focus has only been on drug peddlers and celebrities but, the real focus should begin at home and schools.

I have patients as young as seven-years-old, who are addicted to medications like cough syrup or stationary items. This is due to the complete lack of parental guidance, opines Dr Namita Singh, neuropsychologist at Apollo Hospitals.

Further, she said that if the child is prescribed a medication for a time, h/she continues to use the medicine even after that. Excessive use of such medications can lead to failure of vital organs, like the liver, she warns.

The schooling system is also to be blamed, she argues. Because of the hectic curriculum children are constantly under pressure and they opt for immediate relief from it.

I even tried to contact some schools to conduct an awareness session for high school students about sexual education and usage of drugs but, they didnt seem interested in this.

Educational institutions are only concerned about their syllabus but, they are hugely lacking in extracurricular activities like sports, dancing or anything creative for that matter, she adds.

Speaking about the psychological conditions of students she shares, A 13-year-old kid was recently brought to me by his mother because of his erratic behaviour and loss of appetite. His mother complained that he was always irritated and physically aggressive with his brother.

High pressure from schools drives children crazy. This is no way to live a life; at least parents should understand and allow their children to participate in other creative activities, she opines.

She also says that many parents are still unaware about their childrens addictions and weaknesses, and even if they do know about it, they are unwilling to bring their kid to a psychologist.

If education doesnt begin at home then these psychological conditions will haunt the individual in their adulthood as well. Many software employees are also facing these behavioural issues at an early age.

To get away from their day-to-day deadlines and work pressures they divulge into alcohol, smoking and drugs, opines the doctor.

By: Tera Sneha Reddy

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For children, it's beyond psychedelics - The Hans India - The Hans India

The future is bright; its colours, sights and sounds more vibrant and steeped in a better understanding of our consciousness and its brought to you by the wonders of psychedelic science. It is a field of study with a storied history that is experiencing a renascence as countries around the world and their governments begin to open their minds.

For those who have experienced the wonders of psychedelics, the benefits they can offer are clear. Its easy to explain that elated sense of being and self to someone who is already an enthusiast, but for the rest of the world science is the key. That is why researchers in this field want to bring science and psychedelics together, as they once were, and in the past several years they have done just that.

Within the US the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) is on the verge of receiving FDA approval of its MDMA-assisted therapy for patients with PTSD.

A year ago MAPS wrapped up six trails conducted in the US, Israel, Switzerland and Canada in which treatment resistant PTSD was treated with MDMA inspired therapy.

Its proven to be an immensely effective form of treatment which is on track for wide-scale approval by 2021. The latest study, which included 107 participants, found that 66 percent of patients no longer qualified for PTSD after just two sessions. In their previousstudy that number was 83 percent.

The success of these trials has launched MAPS into the final phase of FDA approval in which they will continue their clinical trials as well as provide training for up to 100 therapists to be certified in administering MDMA-assisted therapy.

Brad Burge, Director of Strategic Communications for MAPS, insists that the FDA and even the DEA have been extremely cooperative with their studies. Hes seen a great reception for these alternative therapies from the scientific community and their patients and expects greater acceptance as the studies continue.

I think that the momentum is strong enough and the need for alternatives is great enough that any sort of counter marketing that big pharmaceuticals would do would probably only make what were doing more popular. Says Burge.

As with anything, there are also potential risks, but Burge notes that a large part of the governments acceptance of their studies has come from the careful procedures and practices theyve adopted. Safe storage, in house administration of drugs and most of all an openness in communication with the patient.

As far as any sort of addictive potential, Brad says, there is zero evidence that a couple of administrations of MDMA in a therapeutic setting will lead to any form of dependence.

Of the 107 patients that have been treated by MAPS, only a couple have sought out the substance outside of their scheduled therapies, those patients were compelled by the results MDMA provided yet they later admitted as Burge also insists that the therapy is a crucial element.

As a result of such studies, MDMA is likely to go the way of marijuana, in that its medicinal usefulness will eventually lead to widespread acceptance.

But one psychedelic which still has a long way to go in quelling the public stigma is ironically one which could also do a lot to ease peoples fears: LSD. Widely unknown to the public, the experience of LSD is often thought of as a hallucination-inducing brain-melter. Even film portrayals of acid trips have had a difficult time capturing the true experience.

Among those who have taken the substance, it is often thought to have a positive transformational effect in their lives, especially when as with MDMA it is administered properly and in a comfortable environment. Yet the difficulty in conveying the experience has made LSD one of the most feared drugs in the world.

Much of that fear has to do with a lack of information, and short inviting the whole world to experience it for themselves in the style of Timothy Leary, rigorous scientific study is the next best way to lift that veil.

Thats where the Beckley Foundation of the UK comes in. Their organization, which aims to bring science back into the world of psychedelics, is helping us all gain a better understanding of both the substance and our own consciousness.

When we last spoke with Amanda Feilding, co-director and founder of Beckley, they had been testing the effects of psilocybin on depression with incredible results. Now she says her focus is mainlyon LSD.

Poor LSD is still not acceptable, Feilding says with a sense of despair in her voice that only someone who truly understands the substance could convey, theres still a terrible taboo on those letters.

Having lived in the world of psychedelics since their heyday Amanda has seen the effect in science, medicine and the counterculture of the 60s. She has also seen a decades long misinformation campaign which has stigmatized recreational users and the years of scientific research with them.

In the 1950s and 60s, more than 3000 research papers were published on the effects of LSD. Among these early researchers was Ronnie Sandison, whose work at Powick Hospital for the mentally ill had become recognized around the world as a breakthrough in the treatment of mental illness until LSDs association with recreational users forced the compound into obscurity.

Even the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, Bill Wilson lauded LSD as an aid in curing alcoholism a possible use which the Beckley foundation is also looking into. Wilson who famously believed that alcoholics required a spiritual awakening in order to overcome their addiction also believed that LSD could hold the key to that awakening.

Since its founding in 1998, the Beckley Foundation has sought to revive this field of study in the name of the public good it could do. With the use of modern scientific methods and brain imaging technologies Amanda and her team can now bring scientific backing to the experiences that underground users have known for years.

In 2016, the Beckley/Imperial Research Programme produced the first images of the brain on LSD. The study was conducted on 20 volunteers, whose brains were scanned using fMRI and magnetoencephalography (MEG) after receiving either 75 micrograms of LSD or placebo.

The images, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, displayed a luminous picture of the brain in which the Default Mode Network (DMN) had been dissolved. In other words, the rigid wiring of the brain had been freed up to enable greater connectivity. This explains the increased creativity that users experience, but it also allows for therapy to be more effective.

It shakes the rigidity of the setting, Amada explains, Mental and psychological disorder like depression, addiction, PTSD are set on hyperactivity in parts of the Default Mode Network, which is like the ego, its set into a rigid and negative setting.

For recreational users, the images provided an visual representation of the illusive ego death. Its something of a mythologized holy grail of psychedelics or a state of nirvana that is now better understood by looking at the way in which LSD affects the brain.

Ego death or ego disintegration is really the same as the flip side of the expression of the mystical experience. Amada says, The ego is basically the control mechanism to keep the status quo as it is, when that diminishes in its activity there is a flood of other activity which is rather like when the cat is away the mice will play.

That level of free-form thought can be quite overwhelming, especially when the average trip could take up to8-10 hours. This is why Amanda emphasizes that the proper setting and in the case of Beckleys studies a therapeutic guide is important to ensure a positive experience. She also believes that maintaining a regular blood glucose level is an effective way to maintain clarity and stave off a bad trip. Its one theory she aims to test in upcoming studies.

Among itss newest ventures, the Beckley/Imperial Research Programme will undergo the worlds first microdosing study to investigate reports that minor doses of around 15 micrograms increase productivity while still allowing the user to function normally. The study will have volunteers playthe ancient Chinese strategy game of Go, with one player having taken a microdose and the other a placebo, to investigate whether small doses of LSD can enhance intuitive pattern recognition and creativity. All of which is to increase our understanding of LSD, rather than base our knowledge on years of misinformation.

As a once recreational user Amanda is aware of the stigma that can affect its widespread acceptance, but also believes that there are immense benefits in bringing it out of the dark.

I think LSD has gone through a great black tunnel of publicity. Shesays, In many ways I think one can say that its the most adaptable and positive of all the drugs because what it does is expand the inner person.

For her, Beckleys work is about a much more than having a way to legally access a drug again. Its a social duty if you like, its much easier to just take LSD when youre not having to change the world.

In fact, LSD is quite available already and even relatively inexpensive on the black market, but the point of psychedelic science is education rather than access. Understanding these feared substances and the way they affect the body can ultimately help us to provide the safest possible methods of using them. Whether it be recreational of medicinal, more information is always better than propaganda, but wherever the future of psychedelics leads, its sure to be a more enlightened place.

To support the research of MAPS and the Beckley Foundation visit the links below:

MAPS

Beckley

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Modern psychedelic science is reviving lost research and finding new cures - The Plaid Zebra (blog)

At some point, humankind will look back and figure out what to make of our heavy usage of psychedelics at music festivals. Despite the fact that mega-events provide probably the worst atmosphere for astral introspection, many peoples first mushroom or acid trips still happen at mobbed festivals or maybe the hardest trip theyll ever trip will take place at one. Hello, 21-year-old me at Reggae on the River. (I am not ashamed.)

The ritual of ingestion is often articulated in traditional cultures by a shaman or a guide well-read in the ways of certain substances. But in contrast with ayahuasca ceremonies, at Coachella or Burning Man psychedelic use is presided over by musicians on a stage set thousands of people away or by a friend who is just as dehydrated and medicated as you are or no one, when a overpowering wave of crowd splinters a crew.

Lacking a safe container to trip in, psychedelic complications are bound to happen in the haphazard setting of festival madness. Psychedelic users who become violent or otherwise unresponsive to official suggestion via a difficult trip can wind up at the hospital or worse, jail. Neither place is likely to alleviate the paranoia or fear theyre experiencing.

Drug research and education organization MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association For Psychedelic Studies) stepped into this disconnect when it raised the first incarnation of its Zendo Project at Burning Man in 2012. The on-site counseling program complimented MAPS larger mission to advocate for the therapeutic uses of psychedelics. The groups work often focuses on the way that drugs can be used to open up healing emotional pathways, such as a 2016 study that looked at the effects of MDMA on people suffering from PTSD.

The term psychedelic means mind manifesting, which means that our conscious mind becomes aware of subconscious things, says Sara Gael, MAPS director of harm reduction and Zendo Project organizer who has been involved since the year the program came to life and is a firm believer in the benefits associated with responsible usage of the drugs. Thats what therapy is about, exploring the subconscious and the aspects of self that society has taught us to repress.

In the uncertainty of festival chaos, worries about personal sanity or safety can complicate a psychedelic trip, rendering it all but impossible to stay open to the painful realizations that psychedelics can trigger. The Zendos infrastructure responds to this construct; volunteers erect a tent where triggered festival attendees can rehydrate, lie down, and/or snack, in addition to connecting with trained souls ready to sit with them through any threatening visions or panic-inducing paranoias.

Some of the more challenging cases we experience are people who are really frightened, who might then become aggressive, or try to run away, or feel really lost or paranoid, says Gael. Those are some of the more difficult situations to work with because were trying to keep that person physically safe. Thats why we work in collaboration with medical and security.

Today, the Zendo Project has helped 2,900 people at large events, teaming up with security and medical festival staff so that attendees receive the best treatment for their particular situation. Given the projects success, it is pleasant to imagine a larger diversity of gatherings in which Zendo-like harm reduction efforts were present. Currently, the program is limited to Burning Man and its regional events from South Africa to San Diego, in addition to the other transformational endeavors (Lightning in a Bottle, Costa Rican yoga and spirituality fest Envision.)

The Zendo Project is looking to expand, and is currently in the middle of a fundraising drive. And MAPS just publishedThe Manual of Psychedelic Support, a thick tome available for free download.

The manual outlines the logistics behind setting up a Zendo Project-like space, not to mention the inclusion of a fascinating history of harm reduction in modern Western festival culture (the original Woodstock festivals Hog Farmers, founded by Wavy Gravy, are considered pioneers in the area) and the Zendo Projects guiding principles for interactions with those on tough trips: creating a safe space, sitting not guiding, talking through and not down, and difficult is not the same as bad, in Gaels summarization.

Gael is quick to note that the core principles can even be self-applied, if you can remember them should you enter into a difficult trip yourself. When asked for a couple quick pointers for those finding themselves on shaky psychedelic ground, she ventured: What is coming up, try to turn into it rather than away from it, because what we resist, persists. Try to find a safe space away from noise with people that you trust. Find someone who is able to sit with you even if theyre not formally trained, who is not freaking out. Trying to connect with your breath and body, connecting with nature can be really helpful, finding a tree.

She adds that if youre still feeling shaken up even after youve become sober, MAPS has published a list of therapists who are educated in psychedelic integration, or the practice of connecting the dots between psychedelias half-processed self realizations.

It is clear that modern day Western society takes psychedelics under much different circumstances than the cultures that previously utilized the substances. The ritual of loading ones car up with friends and alcohol en route to Electric Daisy Carnival has little in common with the temazcals and sacrament of a Navajo peyote ceremony.

MAPS makes it clear that as part of a harm reduction strategy, the Zendo Project simply responds to the reality that this is the current situation, says Gael. And that despite policy, [psychedelic usage] is going to continue. After nearly 50 years of practice, however, new forms of psychedelic guidance in certain modern day sites of cultural ritual are being developed a nascent safety net for the psychedelic voyagers of today.

Link:

Expanding consciousness - 48 Hills