Posts tagged "harm reduction"
Sitting, Not Guiding: The Power of Non-Directive Support
This post by Erica Zelfand, N.D. and Timothy Crespi, L.P.C., C.A.D.C was first published in the MAPS Bulletin and appears here with permission. An hour after eating psilocybin mushrooms at a festival, Olivia notices her left hand is shaking. She can stop it with effort, but prefers to just let it do its thing. She isn’t angry, yet it feels strangely good to shout fragmented thoughts and hum Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five.” The hand-shaking has progressed; now she’s flapping her whole left arm like a hemiplegic bird trying to take flight. The people around her have noticed and are keeping...
Hand in Hand: How Psychedelic Harm Reduction Is Making a Difference Now
This essay by Shannon Clare Petitt was originally published in the MAPS Bulletin, Winter 2016 edition. If you believe in MAPS’ mission of furthering psychedelic medicine while promoting harm reduction, please donate to their cause. The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) continues to make huge strides towards the goal of establishing psychedelics as legal medicines. In advancing the cause of psychedelic therapy, the organization has also become a repository for experience and techniques essential for assisting people journeying through difficult psychedelic experiences. Psychedelic harm reduction is the practice of creating safe spaces in environments where the use...
Fantastic New Trip-Sitting Guide: The Manual of Psychedelic Support
Even the hardiest, most vocal psychedelic enthusiasts recognize that trip experiences can be intense and sometimes difficult. Especially when taken in unfamiliar surroundings — such as crowded music festivals or in the desert heat of Black Rock City — psychedelics can cause untimely emotional meltdowns. Now there’s an excellent guide for handling psychedelic crises, produced by some of foremost experts on harm reduction techniques. It’s called “The Manual of Psychedelic Support,” and its laundry list of contributors includes the Erowids, Rick Doblin, Jon Hanna (the founder of Mind States), Linnae Ponté (who runs MAPS’ excellent Zendo harm reduction tent), five members of Kosmicare UK, Dave...
8 Tips for Using Recreational Drugs Responsibly
This week’s guest post is by Aaron Moritz. Aaron is an independent writer, researcher, video editor, and co-host of the Srsly Wrong podcast. Find more of his articles at his blog and check out the Srsly Wrong website. The ‘War on Drugs’ and ‘Just Say No!’ campaigns have been colossal failures, and one of the main reasons — a reason people don’t like to talk about — is that taking drugs is fun, and not everybody who does it has a problem. We don’t like to admit that, but it’s true. I am not advocating that anybody use recreational drugs....