It can be really helpful or harmful, depending on the context. I think there’s a ton of promise for psychedelics for mental health, but I get nervous about people taking them to self-medicate.
It’s one reason I’m more interested in psychedelic assisted therapy, because in my personal experience, while I did have some positive changes, I think I also didn’t interpret some of those new perspectives in an ultimately healthy way. In the end, I feel like I learned that I’m not mentally healthy enough to responsibly take psychedelics outside of a professional therapy program.
Fortunately I was able to do some genetic testing through my psychiatrist, and I was finally able to find an antidepressant that actually works with minimal side effects, after a lot of trial and error with stuff that I reacted really poorly to.