Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy is one of the emerging options in psychiatric therapy. However, can everyone undergo such therapy? Is it safe? Is it the right therapy for you?

Psychedelic Therapy or Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy (PAP) is one of the emerging psychiatric methods, involving psychedelic substances. The consumption of either one of the substances – magic mushrooms, MDMA, LSD, Ayahuasca, or Ketamine – will allow the users to experience psychedelic trips.

What psychedelic trip?

A psychedelic trip is experiencing a temporary alteration of the state of consciousness, perception, cognition, emotions, and sense of time.

Tripping with psychedelic substances can either be good or bad, depending on the tripper’s preparedness, the substance used, and the dose. Generally, people who undergo psychedelic tripping will experience the following:

• A distorted vision where the tripper is seeing swirling patterns, changing colors on the wall, more.
• Sensitivity is sensory, especially the sense of smell and taste.
• Hallucination
• Sudden mood changes
• Profuse sweating, an increase in heart rate, and more.

However, some trippers experience bad trips, especially if the tripping session is unsupervised by the experts. Here are a few effects of a bad trip:

• Extreme and disturbing hallucination.
• Extreme sense of fear and paranoia.
• A disturbing sense of time standing still.
• Abrupt and extreme mood swings.

To avoid experiencing bad acid trips, it is highly recommended to undergo psychedelic therapy.

Benefits of Psychedelic Therapy

Rather than experiencing a psychedelic trip on your own, why not choose to have your first psychedelic trip with the professionals? Here are a few benefits of PAP:

• Safe psychedelic trip
• Experiencing relaxed tripping
• Positive connectedness to the surroundings during the trip session.
• Having spiritual experiences.
• Experiencing introspection.
• Improved sense of well-being after the session.

How does Psychedelic Therapy work?

During the assessment, the doctor or psychiatrist will determine if psychedelic therapy is the right method to use. And if it is, the doctor will have to find out what type of psychedelic substance will be safe and effective for their patients.

There are various drug options for psychedelic therapy, including the following:

• Psilocybin (found in magic mushrooms)
• LSD
• Mescaline (an active compound found in peyote cactus)
• DMT

After determining the right psychedelic substance, the doctor will now need to determine what method of the psychedelic trip is ideal for the patient:

• Drug-assisted therapy

This method is the safest and most common type of psychedelic therapy, where the doctor will do psychotherapy during the psychedelic session.

• Psychedelic alone

In this method, the doctor provides the right psychedelic substance and watches over the patient throughout the session. The method does not involve counseling; however, it involves assisting the patient in not experiencing a bad trip.

• Guided therapy

In this method, the doctor will provide strict instructions to the patient or the patient’s significant other to help the tripper to remain calm during the tripping session.

Who can undergo psychedelic therapy?

Not everyone can undergo psychedelic therapy, unless necessary. However, individuals with the following conditions can experience psychedelic therapy:

• Alcoholism
• Suffering from mental conditions (anxiety, depression, and more).
• Individuals with PTS or PTSD
• Terminal-illness

Final Thoughts

Experiencing psychedelic trips must be under the supervision o experts to avoid experiencing a bad acid trip.