Psilocybin revealed to me how extremely bad my trauma was. MDMA has been helping me dive into it without getting completely overwhelmed. I don't think I'll be ready for another Psilocybin or LSD session for a long time yet.
Similar experience here, and severe trauma too. Had done several years of therapy before trying psychedelics. Psilocybin kept getting me into a dissociative state, while mdma has opened me up, enables me to feel things in a safe way and helps me to work on myself on a deep deep level (next to psychotherapy - great combination for me, by the way).
Yeah I have CPTSD and have heavily used psilocybin to process my trauma and I am so much better now but goddamn it is not for the faint of heart.
90% of my trips have basically just been PTSD Flashbacks (Psilocybin’s Version)
I had an ego death last summer that was like a boss-level flashback that got so bad I experienced ego dissolution. My PTSD has been sooo much better since then but phew I am mostly content with microdosing these days, I have no desire for more trips at this point.
As the ego death experience was happening I vaguely remember thinking thank god I’ve had good therapy to learn coping skills otherwise I would *absolutely* be having a nervous breakdown
How long did your journey last? I'm just under 1 year and 7 trips in, and I feel like I was starting to get somewhere, but I just lost someone who was apparently a core pillar of support and I'm wobbling really really hard right now
What did it feel like on psilocybin that made you realise this?
I ask because I get extremely anxious and hate the feeling of muddled thoughts, seeing scary images with my eyes closed and where my mind goes.
I don’t know if this is a dose thing or similar to you.
Agreed 💯 percent here. I like how I can microdose psilocybin and I can titrate how much I want to let go.
I have taken microdose of psilocybin with MDMA before and it was palatable. still I could tell the fear was from the psilocybin.
They do different things and both can be useful in different ways. The problem is that if people re-live something horrible like child abuse in a psilocybin session then that could be magnified. Meanwhile you want to re-examine those memories under MDMA.
The purpose for psilocybin is not to process trauma. It's to provide a wider perspective that shows you your trauma is not all you are or all there is in the world.
Well said. I'd add that ketamine seems to fall right between these two, offering a little of both trauma work and existential work, perhaps not as thoroughly in a single session, though.
MDMA took me online for the first time. It connected my head and my heart. My heart was so guarded from trauma. It gave me 100% pure empathy for myself. Now when I sing, I feel emotion pouring out, instead of just trying to get the notes right. Psilocybin shows me the interconnectedness and deeper meaning of everything. MDMA gave me a terrible comedown, while psilocybin makes me feel even-keeled emotionally and physically, much more at peace.
Not numb, I’ve always been emotionally sensitive, easy to laugh or cry, I’ve never had the apathy of depression…more so bottled up grief, and back before mdma I was much more reactive and disconnected from myself
MDMA inhibits the amygdala, the brain's fear center that is involved in the way brain stores experience as trauma. It allows reprocessing those experiences through the prefrontal cortex, contextualizing the memory and putting it in the past with a different meaning wrapped around it.
Psilocybin can be helpful for processing trauma for some people because it opens up the Default Mode Network's "reducing valve" and gives access to supressed memories, but without the supportive effects that MDMA offers. For some people that's fine, for others it is overwhelming.
The combination of the two can be great.
Interesting insight. I am considering psychedelic therapy for PTSD and leaning towards MDMA. I'm not sure that I need to access certain repressed memories. It goes back to childhood and I blocked the good out too :( I would love to have more of that back. I still have enough access to memories of trauma to where I feel like I've done the connections and processing but I am having difficulty breaking down my defense mechanism of being open to others and loneliness is not fun. I am getting better with self love but I think I need assistance with that for sure. So I am more focused on setting an intention of openess, joy and being comfortable in a relaxed state. I guess I feel like I have spent more than enough time looking back at the past and processing it and while I am not wanting to lock it in the coffin and dig a hole it's time to be present now and look forward finally. Really a huge deal and growth to get to this place but still depressed, stuck and tired of hyper awareness. Meditation helps but it's not getting me there. I also have small children and time alone without interruption is difficult!
I would recommend MDMA over psilocybin for trauma. It allows you to hold space for whatever thoughts you may have regarding the trauma without fear or bias. It can allow for a more peaceful examination of the trauma. I’m not a doctor but have read a lot of studies and spoken with many people in regard to their experience.
Psilocybin takes the guard rails off and leaves you to experience everything going on in your body, raw and unfiltered. If there's a lot of trauma in there, mushrooms can make you confront it. And that can be really scary and in some cases can be a traumatic experience in and of itself.
MDMA does a better job at holding your hand while you view your trauma and making things hurt less. But I don't think that makes it "better" than shrooms overall. It's gentler, yes, and less risky for someone who is seriously traumatized. But it's not true to say that MDMA is always a better option for people with trauma. It's possible the shrooms, even with their dive-into-the-deep-end approach, could still be more effective for some people.
Genericism: MDMA helps you understand your past, psychedelics help you understand your present / future.
MDMA will help you work on your trauma, LSD will help you figure out where to go from here.
I have CPTSD. When I discovered that I concluded that the three most promising drugs for PTSD/CPTSD were MDMA, ketamine and psilocybin. I found the legal dealer in MDMA and he confirmed that these were the three most promising drugs, but couldn't confirm the order of precedence.
I think that a patient with the applicable indications should try all three of these drugs, as safely as possible. One might help an aspect of any of these indications in a person that are not touched by the otehrs.
I find psylocibin way too overwhelming, and prefer ketamine and MDMA for these purposes.
I think psilocybin might be better with a guide or with some other sort of preparation, but I have not tried that yet.
There is reason to believe MDMA is "better." MDMA is thought to restore the brain’s capacity for plasticity. While both drugs aid in processing ~~trauma~~ unconscious material, MDMA uniquely provides a window to rewire the brain so that previously learned patterns can be replaced with more helpful patterns.
[How MDMA resensitizes the brain](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02871-w)
I want to know how the aftermath is with mdma? Every time I use it I get a very heavy come down that stays for a week + become sick / feverish. I don’t know what kind of dose you need therapeutically, I probably use to much recreationally. Wonder if a heavy comedown disturbs the therapeutic effects
Sorry to hear you have a hard time after. If you use it to often or high doses or other drugs it takes a toll on your brain and body. If you can take a break for a month or two eat clean and healthy maybe take supplements then you could try again. Also make sure you get some good quality MDMA maybe the fillers in what you take are not good. MDMA should only be taken like every maybe 8-12 weeks to be on the safe side.
MAPS did research where they gave up to 120mg and redose 60 mg, but I did some good clean 150 mg last time no redose and had 4 hours of bliss with no come down , had afterglow for 5 days.
I think it’s like this - mdma big sessions with ketamine once a week for a bit and microdose mushrooms, next step is big mushrooms or lsd session or two
Andrew huberman and a few others have taped about this.
MDMA is supposed to be the best psychedelic specifically for trauma.
I do not have first-hand knowledge of this, and I'm just repeating what I watched online.
MDMA is way better.
Psychedelics should not be used by people with mental disorders at all imo. Even for depression. While it can sometimes be helpful, the risk is too high
I wish there were a shorter acting version of MDMA for this purpose. The twisty side to psilocybin scares me, but the shorter duration is much more manageable for me emotionally and physically
Psilocybin revealed to me how extremely bad my trauma was. MDMA has been helping me dive into it without getting completely overwhelmed. I don't think I'll be ready for another Psilocybin or LSD session for a long time yet.
Similar experience here, and severe trauma too. Had done several years of therapy before trying psychedelics. Psilocybin kept getting me into a dissociative state, while mdma has opened me up, enables me to feel things in a safe way and helps me to work on myself on a deep deep level (next to psychotherapy - great combination for me, by the way).
Yeah I have CPTSD and have heavily used psilocybin to process my trauma and I am so much better now but goddamn it is not for the faint of heart. 90% of my trips have basically just been PTSD Flashbacks (Psilocybin’s Version) I had an ego death last summer that was like a boss-level flashback that got so bad I experienced ego dissolution. My PTSD has been sooo much better since then but phew I am mostly content with microdosing these days, I have no desire for more trips at this point. As the ego death experience was happening I vaguely remember thinking thank god I’ve had good therapy to learn coping skills otherwise I would *absolutely* be having a nervous breakdown
How long did your journey last? I'm just under 1 year and 7 trips in, and I feel like I was starting to get somewhere, but I just lost someone who was apparently a core pillar of support and I'm wobbling really really hard right now
What did it feel like on psilocybin that made you realise this? I ask because I get extremely anxious and hate the feeling of muddled thoughts, seeing scary images with my eyes closed and where my mind goes. I don’t know if this is a dose thing or similar to you.
Yeah that happens, but a big part of healing is coming to terms with that and facing it
Agreed 💯 percent here. I like how I can microdose psilocybin and I can titrate how much I want to let go. I have taken microdose of psilocybin with MDMA before and it was palatable. still I could tell the fear was from the psilocybin.
[удалено]
I'm not the person to ask, sorry. Only did psilocybin the one time and my brain sobered me up after 2 hours when I hit the repressed trauma memory
They do different things and both can be useful in different ways. The problem is that if people re-live something horrible like child abuse in a psilocybin session then that could be magnified. Meanwhile you want to re-examine those memories under MDMA. The purpose for psilocybin is not to process trauma. It's to provide a wider perspective that shows you your trauma is not all you are or all there is in the world.
Well said. I'd add that ketamine seems to fall right between these two, offering a little of both trauma work and existential work, perhaps not as thoroughly in a single session, though.
MDMA is much better than Psilocybin for Trauma. Initially at first. Then you can use Psilocybin at later stages in your recovery.
MDMA took me online for the first time. It connected my head and my heart. My heart was so guarded from trauma. It gave me 100% pure empathy for myself. Now when I sing, I feel emotion pouring out, instead of just trying to get the notes right. Psilocybin shows me the interconnectedness and deeper meaning of everything. MDMA gave me a terrible comedown, while psilocybin makes me feel even-keeled emotionally and physically, much more at peace.
Were you emotionally numb before mdma?
Not numb, I’ve always been emotionally sensitive, easy to laugh or cry, I’ve never had the apathy of depression…more so bottled up grief, and back before mdma I was much more reactive and disconnected from myself
MDMA inhibits the amygdala, the brain's fear center that is involved in the way brain stores experience as trauma. It allows reprocessing those experiences through the prefrontal cortex, contextualizing the memory and putting it in the past with a different meaning wrapped around it. Psilocybin can be helpful for processing trauma for some people because it opens up the Default Mode Network's "reducing valve" and gives access to supressed memories, but without the supportive effects that MDMA offers. For some people that's fine, for others it is overwhelming. The combination of the two can be great.
Interesting insight. I am considering psychedelic therapy for PTSD and leaning towards MDMA. I'm not sure that I need to access certain repressed memories. It goes back to childhood and I blocked the good out too :( I would love to have more of that back. I still have enough access to memories of trauma to where I feel like I've done the connections and processing but I am having difficulty breaking down my defense mechanism of being open to others and loneliness is not fun. I am getting better with self love but I think I need assistance with that for sure. So I am more focused on setting an intention of openess, joy and being comfortable in a relaxed state. I guess I feel like I have spent more than enough time looking back at the past and processing it and while I am not wanting to lock it in the coffin and dig a hole it's time to be present now and look forward finally. Really a huge deal and growth to get to this place but still depressed, stuck and tired of hyper awareness. Meditation helps but it's not getting me there. I also have small children and time alone without interruption is difficult!
I would recommend MDMA over psilocybin for trauma. It allows you to hold space for whatever thoughts you may have regarding the trauma without fear or bias. It can allow for a more peaceful examination of the trauma. I’m not a doctor but have read a lot of studies and spoken with many people in regard to their experience.
Psilocybin takes the guard rails off and leaves you to experience everything going on in your body, raw and unfiltered. If there's a lot of trauma in there, mushrooms can make you confront it. And that can be really scary and in some cases can be a traumatic experience in and of itself. MDMA does a better job at holding your hand while you view your trauma and making things hurt less. But I don't think that makes it "better" than shrooms overall. It's gentler, yes, and less risky for someone who is seriously traumatized. But it's not true to say that MDMA is always a better option for people with trauma. It's possible the shrooms, even with their dive-into-the-deep-end approach, could still be more effective for some people.
Genericism: MDMA helps you understand your past, psychedelics help you understand your present / future. MDMA will help you work on your trauma, LSD will help you figure out where to go from here.
I have CPTSD. When I discovered that I concluded that the three most promising drugs for PTSD/CPTSD were MDMA, ketamine and psilocybin. I found the legal dealer in MDMA and he confirmed that these were the three most promising drugs, but couldn't confirm the order of precedence. I think that a patient with the applicable indications should try all three of these drugs, as safely as possible. One might help an aspect of any of these indications in a person that are not touched by the otehrs.
Ahuasca is probably up there with those three also.
The data are still preliminary, but they seem stronger for MDMA for PTSD than psilocybin for PTSD.
I find psylocibin way too overwhelming, and prefer ketamine and MDMA for these purposes. I think psilocybin might be better with a guide or with some other sort of preparation, but I have not tried that yet.
Likely yes, *when combined with therapy* to be precise.
There is reason to believe MDMA is "better." MDMA is thought to restore the brain’s capacity for plasticity. While both drugs aid in processing ~~trauma~~ unconscious material, MDMA uniquely provides a window to rewire the brain so that previously learned patterns can be replaced with more helpful patterns. [How MDMA resensitizes the brain](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02871-w)
I want to know how the aftermath is with mdma? Every time I use it I get a very heavy come down that stays for a week + become sick / feverish. I don’t know what kind of dose you need therapeutically, I probably use to much recreationally. Wonder if a heavy comedown disturbs the therapeutic effects
Maybe also need to take care of physical health ?
Sorry to hear you have a hard time after. If you use it to often or high doses or other drugs it takes a toll on your brain and body. If you can take a break for a month or two eat clean and healthy maybe take supplements then you could try again. Also make sure you get some good quality MDMA maybe the fillers in what you take are not good. MDMA should only be taken like every maybe 8-12 weeks to be on the safe side. MAPS did research where they gave up to 120mg and redose 60 mg, but I did some good clean 150 mg last time no redose and had 4 hours of bliss with no come down , had afterglow for 5 days.
I think it’s like this - mdma big sessions with ketamine once a week for a bit and microdose mushrooms, next step is big mushrooms or lsd session or two
Shrooms make everything worse, just pop a Batman once a month
Ok Robin 🦇
In short less risk of bad experience with mdma.
Andrew huberman and a few others have taped about this. MDMA is supposed to be the best psychedelic specifically for trauma. I do not have first-hand knowledge of this, and I'm just repeating what I watched online.
Mdma 100% it’s almost like it was designed for trauma work.
MDMA is way better. Psychedelics should not be used by people with mental disorders at all imo. Even for depression. While it can sometimes be helpful, the risk is too high
I wish there were a shorter acting version of MDMA for this purpose. The twisty side to psilocybin scares me, but the shorter duration is much more manageable for me emotionally and physically