After I had a stroke in 2017, my future seemed pretty bleak. I was living with my ex for about a year afterward, but it became clear pretty quickly that the situation wouldn't last for long. Although I'd helped pay the mortgage for years the house wasn't in my name, so I had to leave. A friend of mine said I could stay with him for a while while I worked it out, but otherwise, I didn't know where I was going to go or what I was going to do. After staying with another friend, I wound up at Beverly Gravina's house. Then she drove me to a hospital and left me, said I couldn't come back, and stole what was left of my things. And gave me no reason or warning for any of it. My friend came and got me from a hotel room that I rented with some money someone sent me, and I said to him something to the effect of "none of this would be a problem if I were dead". It wasn't the first time I thought about killing myself. But now not only had I suffered a devastating health event, but I'd also lost most of the things that brought me happiness, and I didn't know where I was going to live. In my mind, my best days were behind me. If there was a way to do it without experiencing it, I would've taken myself out. Luckily, someone very close to me rescued me, and my living situation got drastically better. Then I decided to try some LSD as part of a therapeutic experiment. I used to take it decades earlier for recreation, but now my circumstances were much different. After that ONE time, my views on a lot of things were extremely different. I would never do anything to hurt myself, no matter how bad it got. On the contrary, I've been doing a lot of things to help better my health. I exercise every day, I changed my diet drastically, I take some supplements... blah blah blah. My point is that none of this would've happened if it weren't for my experience with LSD. Granted, my situation is much better, but my mind frame has totally changed. Having the stability of knowing where I'm going to live combined with my perspective shift were both things I need. Although it seems like I talk about it all the time, I've done it maybe 5 or 6 times since my first re-visit. It can be so powerful that you can just do it once and take something from your experience that can last forever. I'm learning about so many studies and therapies being done that are so successful in treating so many different things. PTSD, depression, and anxiety are some of the big ones. People have used psychedelics to stop smoking, stop drinking, or stop using other substances like heroin. Hopefully, by 2033, psychedelics will be taken off the substance 1 drug list and be fully legalized. My way of thinking of psychedelics is that they can be used like a tool; you can build a house with a hammer, or you can smash yourself in the head with it.
“Psychedelics, used responsibly and with proper caution, would be for psychiatry what the microscope is for biology and medicine or the telescope is for astronomy.” – Dr. Stanislav Grof
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