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Jeers
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Personality Changes After Taking Psychedelics
#26957180 - 09/27/20 08:57 AM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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Psychologists often talk about the "Big Five" personality traits - Openness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits
I read years ago about a study that showed just one trip on psilocybin can result in a longterm shift in personality towards greater openness. So I'm curious... How have you seen psychedelics change your personality? I think we all become more open to new experiences after trying psychedelics, but have you seen changes in other aspects of your personality? Which psychedelics seem to have the greatest impact?
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funky123
Pilzfreund


Registered: 08/27/17
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Loc: Austria
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Re: Personality Changes After Taking Psychedelics [Re: Jeers]
#26957317 - 09/27/20 11:26 AM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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I don't think it is possible to reliably self-assess personality changes. Having said that - I'm convinced my psychedelic trips changed me. But I can't really say how exactly nor whether for the better or for the worse. They definitely didn't improve my life in any substantial way.
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mushiesneedhelp
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Re: Personality Changes After Taking Psychedelics [Re: Jeers]
#26958170 - 09/27/20 11:57 PM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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I've read a lot of these studies! Usually, psychedelic use is correlated with long-term decreases in neuroticism and increases in extraversion and openness.
Personally, I'd say I became a bit less neurotic. I've always been perceived as extraverted because of how I portray myself (though I prefer to keep everyone at a distance) and I'm pretty open. But I've always been very detail-oriented, a perfectionist, and I basically let to-do lists run my life for years.
During my second trip I had an epiphany, "FUCK STRUCTURE, FUCK ORDER, FUCK TO-DO LISTS, JUST LIVE. BE IN THE MOMENT." A radical thought for me, dare I say. But the next day it really sat with me. I realized that while to-do lists can be helpful, the way in which I obsessively bowed down to them like my own form of worship was unhealthy, lol.
Definitely cut back on my need to plan out every nitty gritty detail and spent more of that energy focusing on enjoying the moment, appreciating spontaneity.
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PsychoReactive
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Re: Personality Changes After Taking Psychedelics [Re: mushiesneedhelp]
#26958371 - 09/28/20 06:23 AM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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Psychedelics do not normally change a person, a teacher appears but its up to you if you want to listen.
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Socrateshroom
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Re: Personality Changes After Taking Psychedelics [Re: PsychoReactive]
#26958444 - 09/28/20 08:19 AM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
funky123 said: I don't think it is possible to reliably self-assess personality changes.
This is an important point, although those around you might see the change, if one occurred, and perhaps bring it to your attention (which would then confirm the change).
However, I'm also convinced that one way to see if something changed you is to observe your day to day life and if anything has changed. It is important to note, however, that correlation does not infer causation, and thus this subjective looking at oneself through oneself might not be adequate to confirm how said changes came about.
Quote:
PsychoReactive said: Psychedelics do not normally change a person, a teacher appears but its up to you if you want to listen.
I disagree with this sentiment. If the psychedelic experience had something to say, and you listened, which led to changes in your life, I'd say that is the psychedelics indeed "changing" a person.
Any experience can change a person. And traumatic or intense experiences often do change a person (sometimes for better and other times for worse). Well, I classify a full psychedelic experience as an intense experience (assuming that the subject took a dose high enough to get them to a powerful experience). And thus, I believe it CAN change people, not that it necessarily does.
On a personal note, I was changed by my first mushroom experience. It is important to notice that, in many ways, my first experience was in a set and setting that was beyond perfection to me. I was lucky enough to be directed by the world to this experience exactly when I needed it most. So all of those factors play a role in my change.
That first experience had completely restructured the way I view life. I was able to dissolve a lot of resentment I had after working with some of my past traumas during that experience. Consequently, my depression has decreased significantly. My openness has become truly genuine whereas before it was a front to try and reap the benefits of such a trait. I am stronger mentally whereas before I only pretended to have mental resilience. I am more emotionally stable and my mood doesn't shift as significantly as before my psychedelic experience.
Note, this was all a result of letting go of much disdain and resentment that I held due to past traumas. So were my "personality" changes, or changes in general, a result of that healing of traumas? I would say yes. Would it be possible without that psychedelic experience? Perhaps. Although it would probably not happen as I would have refused to see a psychiatrist or any mental health professional for that matter. And I clearly wasn't healing it myself. So mushrooms were the catalyst to that experience. They opened me enough, and brought the trauma forward to a degree where I can work with it. For that, I highly believe that mushrooms CAN catalyze change within the individual, but don't always do so.
And to address the last sentence of the previous paragraph, I think that the degree to which a psychedelic experience will change a person directly correlates to the set/setting. I've had numerous experiences since that first one that did not evoke any "significant" change for me, although many of those experiences did help me build on the initial positive changes. I've also had experiences that were no more than a good time. And a few experiences that were merely disorienting.
So I think psychedelics can change a person. I believe they have changed me tremendously, initially, but the individual must put in tremendous work after the fact to maintain and build upon said changes.
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rustygrape
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Re: Personality Changes After Taking Psychedelics [Re: Socrateshroom]
#26958656 - 09/28/20 11:22 AM (3 years, 4 months ago) |
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I would argue that personality does not change. Rather, you are coming to integration of the parts of yourself, "becoming whole" as one might put it, and this sense of inner peace between previously opposing fragments of yourself, have found resolve, You function more and more as in integrated and "healed" individual, as a result the "mask" (what we could call personality) you have shown to the world and even to yourself dissolves.
Edited by rustygrape (09/28/20 11:23 AM)
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