Interested in your guys opinion on what the effect of smoking dmt might be on the mind, specifically those dealing with "mental health" issues
You can discuss other substances as well, id like to focus on plant based such as mushrooms or cactus or ayahuasca, as i feel lsd may be more susceptible to psychosis, but i would be interested to hear about your opinion om that as well
I know a lot of indigenous cultures believe it is medicine for the spirit and mind and some dont conform to the idea of "mental illness" or the inability to treat it with plant medicine.
What do you think?
Are these substances capable of aiding all different levels and areas of the mental health issues that plague our modern day societies, such as those here in the US?
Is it dangerous for some? Such as those with schizophrenia or those susceptible to psychosis?
Syd from pink floyd comes to mind.
Are there similar stories in plant based medicine? Where mushrooms or dmt for instance were thought to have been a part of the downward spiral of mental health into sickness?
And i also ask specifically in terms of smoking dmt, as in my experience it can be quite dark and powerful and chaotic, and potentially carry less potential for healing capacities, your thoughts?
Yet I have more experience with small doses which i always found to be very beneficial and cleansing to my spirit.
Therapeutic and grounding, reaffirmation of what is important and of ones need for purity in the form of what we eat or drink or speak or how we act toward others
What do you guys think about all this?
-------------------- Within You , Without You
      
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As with other psychedelic drugs, I believe set and setting play a crucial role in the outcome. A comfortable setting can be the difference between a transcendent experience and a nightmare.
Intention and integration are important, too. If you enter a psychedelic experience with the intention to heal, with the intention to accept whatever happens and to face whatever comes up head on, then that can play a role in the outcome. Integration is super important, I think - especially with DMT. That is, it's really important to discuss your experience afterwards (even if that just means writing about it in a journal when sober). Sometimes, getting feedback from other people on my experiences can help me distinguish between good life lessons and things that I was looking into too deeply.
Generally, it's advised that people with a history of psychosis stay away from all psychedelic drugs, and I agree. I don't see why DMT would be an exception to this rule. Schizophrenia in particular is no laughing matter - it's a very serious mental illness, and if it runs in your family, why tempt fate? Even if psychedelic drugs can be healing for some people, there are other ways to heal.
As for my own experiences, I have a decent amount of experience with DMT, and I wouldn't say it's harmed me at all. That said, I can't say it's been particularly medicinal, either. However, I haven't ever used DMT with a medicinal intention - I've always used DMT at the more mentally stable points in my life, and usually the largest motivating factor for using DMT is curiosity, rather than healing, for me. Most of my DMT experiences have been pretty difficult to describe, and that's probably the most useful lesson I've gotten from using it - that there are some experiences in this world (very real experiences) that are beyond human reasoning and description.
I've also known a lot of people who have used DMT frequently, with widely varying results. The thing that freaks me out the most about DMT are users who have a lot of trouble integrating their experiences. When a DMT experience is integrated well and reflected on in a healthy manner, it can be a beautiful, life-changing experience. A few of my friends have told me their first time using DMT was one of the most important experiences of their lives, and they're relatively healthy people. However, I've also met people who have had trouble distinguishing everyday reality from their DMT experiences due to lack of proper integration. I've met some people who start reading too deeply into details of their DMT experiences, and they start to become difficult to communicate with. It's hard to explain exactly, but perhaps you've met people who just seem a little bit too detached from reality after lots of DMT.
I'm sort of rambling, so I'll wrap it up with this: there are responsible and irresponsible ways to use DMT (and any psychedelic, for that matter). I believe that the more research you do, the more you ensure a safe setting, the more aware you are of your state of mind prior to the experience, the more intentional you are, the more effort you put into reflecting on your experience and integrating it back into your sober life, the safer you will be.
-------------------- Nonagon Infinity Opens the Door
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I haven't experimented with DMT myself, but I have read multiple accounts from many different people that higher dose DMT without a MAOI inhibitor is somewhat useless in dealing with these kinds of issues for many people, both because of its sheer intensity and its duration. It's more for the eye-candy and experiencing it for itself, like a roller-coaster. It makes sense to me. I can see how it would be hard to deal with say, an alcohol addiction, if you're blasted off to hyperspace and all you can think about is how insane the visuals and sensations are. Then BOOM, you're shot back into your body before you can even begin to deal with anything.
Ayahuasca, on the other hand, as you said, is one of the classics to deal with mental health for the very reason that it makes the experience less intense and more drawn-out. You have the time to evaluate yourself in a similar time-span as the other classics like L and shrooms.
I think that any and all psychedelics have the potential to be a double-edged sword in terms of if they will benefit certain mental illnesses or make them worse. I'm sure smoked DMT has helped plenty of people too. It depends on the person's body chemistry as well.
They also aren't a blanket cure-all. I believe some psychs may be better for certain issues than others. Furthermore, I don't trust anything that purports itself to be a "wonder drug" that cures anything. That just isn't reality. It's not a one-size-fits-all thing when it comes to drugs. That's why it takes so long to find pills that work for you in the pharma sphere.
For certain, I definitely agree with the old wisdom that you shouldn't give a psychedelic to anyone who potentially suffers from psychosis.
I have also seen first hand how LSD exacerbated my fiancee's psychosis, to the point that we had to take her to the hospital. She has been diagnosed with schizophrenia since then, however, she was already suffering symptoms of it that I was unaware of. Acid for sure threw gas on the fire. If you already have the genetic makeup for it, psychedelics can definitely pull that trigger.
On the other hand, the very same molecule helped me work through years of depression and anxiety, to the point that I became self aware that I'm on the autism spectrum, which was confirmed by my parents. But I'm not going to say it didn't fuck my fiancee' up for a while.
Who knows if it's more likely to cause psychosis or not? I think the jury is still out on if it does so more frequently than the naturals. For one, acid could be more popular than the other psychs to begin with, thus skewing the results. Until we have a clear answer, I'm just going to assume that any and all of them have that equal potential to do it, so don't mess around or assume you're safe from it if psychosis or schizophrenia run in your family.
I'm with Nonagon Infinity. Put the work into ensuring you aren't being stupid about it, and you lessen the chances of having a bad, potentially psychotic time.
-------------------- "The only constant in life is change."- Heraclitus
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