Psilocybin for healing.

Is the pharmacology world failing people with mental health disorders?

Photo by Melanie Wasser on Unsplash

In a landmark decision Canada has allowed psilocybin treatment for end of life cancer care in four patients. This is the first medical approval in Canada since the 1970’s. A news release from TheraPsil, an organisation that is working for patients to gain access to psilocybin therapy, supported patients with their applications to seek ministerial approval. Cancer patients who have used psilocybin have reported being able to live free from fear and anxiety for the first time since being giving their diagnosis.

More and more people are turning to plant medicine, aka psychedelics, to heal mental health issues like anxiety, depression and trauma. Microdosing psychedelics (taking barely perceptible amounts) has been happening since the 1980’s but now we are hearing about it more and more; and it’s not just ‘hippies’ or ‘dropouts’. Many of these people are professionals with responsibilities and families who are choosing psychedelics over antidepressants. Microdosing psilocybin has been shown to increase creativity, productivity and mood enhancement. Microdosers have described being in ‘flow states’; a blissful state of getting large amounts of work done with less procrastination and more concentration.

When people have tried varying types of anti-depressants, with constant increase in dosage, they can begin to feel hopeless when there is no improvement. As well as this people have found that they have had to increase the dosage gradually which indicates that the anti-depressant is masking the underlying causes rather than healing the root of the issue.

Many people are turning to something that is currently illegal in the UK in a desperate attempt to help themselves. With the promise of having their mood uplifted by a natural plant medicine that, by all accounts, is harmless, non addictive and with no known side effects it begs the question why wouldn’t you? Using psychedelics as a medicine has helped people to achieve something that pharma medication has never achieved. The plants lift the blanket numbness and lethargy that depression and anxiety can bring and allow people to continue with work and family life.

Psychedelics such as psilocybin remain a schedule 1 Drug under the UN Convention and Class A under the…