On his site Ecstatic Integration, the writer Jules Evans published a post titled ‘Are you a psychedelic cultist?’ It features a ‘Psychedelic Cultism Questionnaire’ to help readers assess how ‘culty’ they are when it comes to psychedelics. It consists of eight statements – all in the vein of a rosy, utopian, ‘no bad vibes allowed’ type of attitude. By adding up your scores of how much you agree with each statement on a scale from 1–5, with 5 being your strongest level of agreement, you can find out to what extent you’re on Team Psychedelic.
While not explicitly stated in the piece, I think an additional statement of the psychedelic cultist variety is ‘non-psychedelic medications for mental health are inferior’, or something similar like ‘psychedelics are better than antidepressants’ or ‘psychedelics, unlike antidepressants, offer true healing’.
However, some statements in Evan’s piece could include these stigmatising attitudes against antidepressants. ‘Psychedelic substances are ‘medicine’’ could be varied in the following way: psychedelics are the only true or the best psychological medicine. The statement ‘Humanity can be cleanly divided into the psychedelically initiated and the psychedelically uninitiated’ could also be used to look down on those who use antidepressants instead of psychedelics. Other statements could also be used to pass judgement on those who don’t use psychedelics to better themselves: ‘Psychedelics have played and will play a crucial role in the spiritual evolution of humanity’ and ‘Psychedelics will help humans wake up and achieve a higher level of consciousness, when all or at least some of humanity will be closer to my lofty level’.
The stigma against antidepressants is widespread and societal; it is not exclusive to the psychedelic community. But the way it manifests in this community is unique, as it is filtered through a pro-psychedelics lens. There are many reasons why this common attitude in psychedelic circles is troubling. The valid benefits of psychedelics (for many) and the disadvantages of antidepressants (for many) are used to promote black-and-white thinking when it comes to using substances to improve mental health. As well as fostering a culture of self-judgement and judgement towards others – which hardly promotes ‘spiritual evolution’ or ‘a higher level of consciousness’ – it may get in the way of oneself or others choosing a treatment option that could genuinely be helpful.
How Science is Used to Feed Stigmatising Narratives
Because of the promising research on the therapeutic use of psychedelics and increased awareness of the risks of antidepressants and issues in research on antidepressants, it is understandable to view using psychedelics to improve mental health as the safer and more effective option. However, this can morph into a form of anti-antidepressant stigma: in the psychedelic community, this involves rejecting the antidepressant option as the ‘less informed’, ‘less intelligent’, ‘less awakened’, or ‘less wise’ option.
Patients enrolled in a psilocybin therapy for depression trial reported that antidepressants led them to a feeling of disconnection and avoidance (of emotions), whereas psilocybin produced the opposite feelings: greater connectedness and acceptance (of emotions). Indeed, researchers have found that psychedelics help depressed patients reconnect with their emotions, which is seen as the (often) opposite effect of antidepressants – an emotional blunting or numbing effect. The result is that things no longer feel as pleasurable as they used to. Additional research has found that the mental health benefits of psychedelics are strongly linked to emotional breakthroughs.
People may see this kind of research and use it to form, justify, or bolster the view that using antidepressants is the less ‘brave’ choice. It is seen as the intention to avoid facing difficult emotions, or the root cause of one’s mental distress, and instead opting for the ‘easy, surface-level’ solution. This is a general anti-antidepressant attitude that exists in society – also born out of valid concerns about antidepressants, which turns into judgement against others – but in the psychedelic community, this attitude involves the defence of psychedelics as the superior option.
This is not to say that the science itself is promoting or encouraging such stigmatising views. The problem is a pre-existing stigma that people feed with science (which they see as supporting their judgement of others’ decisions). Nevertheless, there is also a problem of confirmation bias in antidepressant stigma in the psychedelic community: this involves denying or downplaying the harms of psychedelics, exaggerating or hyping their benefits, ignoring the evidence on the efficacy of antidepressants, and overstating or overgeneralising the harms of antidepressants.
Regarding emotional catharsis driving the benefits of psychedelics, for instance, the psychiatrist Andrew Penn argues in a piece for Psychology Today that the show Nine Perfect Strangers misleads the public about the need for emotional breakthroughs or catharsis in psychedelic therapy. This fits in with the more general Hollywood picture of healing in therapy only occurring when the client reaches a state of emotional breakthrough or catharsis (Good Will Hunting is one film that comes to mind here).
A lack of nuance when researching the benefit/risk profile of psychedelics versus antidepressants can strengthen stigma against the latter. However, if one were to acknowledge the psychological risks involved in taking psychedelics (especially for certain vulnerable individuals) – not seen in antidepressant use – this stigma would be weakened. (The point here is not that we should reduce antidepressant stigma by being more afraid of psychedelics than antidepressants; instead, it’s important to recognise that their different benefit/risk profiles means they work differently for different people, and so it doesn’t make sense to make blanket judgements about one being ‘better’ than the other.)
Recognising Negative Views of Antidepressants and Their Relation to Psychedelics
I have been curious for a while now as to whether antidepressants would improve my mental health in a consistent way. I’m aware that there can be side effects and risks, such as emotional blunting and withdrawal, but I also know these effects aren’t guaranteed and that even if they do occur, they may be reduced or avoided by changing the medication or dose. Still, I’m somewhat resistant to trying this option. It’s partly out of concern about side effects and risks, but also because of a belief that I would get deeper healing through psychedelic therapy or a psychedelic retreat. These are not legally or financially viable options for me currently, yet I still recognise this underlying feeling that a profound, cathartic psychedelic journey – or a similar altered state – is what I need, rather than the less emotionally intense option of daily antidepressant use.
I do believe that this attitude is partly driven by internalised stigma against antidepressants and the promise of psychedelics (despite the fact that I’m more disillusioned by psychedelics and more aware of their risks than I used to be). When you read so many glowing accounts of rapid and long-term cessation of mental distress following a big psychedelic journey, I think it’s easy to fall into thinking that one’s mental health should look the same. There is a particular allure to the ‘Hero’s Journey’ narrative involved in these stories of psychedelic healing: it is often a more tantalising narrative than the story of healing through antidepressant medication.
The Need for Less Judgement
Giving too much power to people’s trip reports – or the stories one tells oneself about psychedelics and antidepressants – can get in the way of healing. If psychedelics have offered you no major therapeutic benefits, limited benefits, only short-term benefits, or they’ve harmed you in some way – and you avoid antidepressants because of stigma against them – then you may miss out on a potentially helpful option.
Of course, trying one or more antidepressants may not be helpful. It may also lead to side effects that aren’t worth the benefits that you do experience. However, many people do find that taking antidepressants provides unparalleled well-being and functioning in life, even after having tried psychedelics. Some may find this medication to be life-saving. This is why it’s important to be more flexible and open-minded with respect to antidepressant use; for many people, it’s a decision to feel glad about.
Taking antidepressants is not a decision one should feel ashamed or embarrassed about. But in the psychedelic community, it may feel difficult to talk about. Returning to the theme of psychedelic cultism, it can feel almost sacrilegious to tell others who’ve found the greatest healing through psychedelic states that one found it through the more medically mainstream and less mentally dramatic option. But if psychedelic users truly want to promote empathy and open-mindedness, this has to include non-judgement towards people who have not been helped by psychedelics – or who might’ve been harmed by them – who have found instead that antidepressants offered a preferable or more reliable road to long-term recovery.
For other people, their mental health journey can involve both psychedelics and antidepressants, such as trying one before the other or trying both at the same time. (Individuals who are on an antidepressant before taking a psychedelic experience reduced subjective effects and similar antidepressant effects compared to those not on an antidepressant.) It would be a shame if others feel discouraged from trying this kind of strategy for themselves purely because of self-judgement or fear of judgement from others, stemming from antidepressant stigma. Psychedelic advocates may passionately promote psychedelics in the name of better mental health for greater numbers of people, but if this aim carries along with it negative opinions about antidepressants, then the aim could be undermined.
There is, of course, a problem of antidepressants being overprescribed and a risk that they may mask the sociopolitical and economic roots of psychological distress. But these criticisms could be levelled against psychedelics too. Nonetheless, these critiques do not justify stigma against antidepressants or psychedelics. So long as people are experiencing severe or chronic forms of distress, it’s valid to seek out relief, regardless of what the root causes of distress may be. Finding this relief does not preclude one from being aware of – and working on – these root causes. It’s not a zero-sum game. No one should be judged for trying to cope and feel happier and more like themselves in difficult life circumstances and a difficult world.
I did the test and got called a square! And they said that I’ve no real experience, when I’ve got 50 years experience. 😆 but most of the questions were ridiculous! Like giving three things true and one false and say choose true or lie! 🙄 in my opinion, the author of the test needs more trips to figure out what’s really going on! 🥴
I personally would not use antidepressants, just because they are pharmaceutical and I prefer a wholistic approach, and they are symptomatic so will ease the pain that’s purpose is to instigate a reaction to deal with the cause. But I am more powerful than most when it comes to determination….and have always been able to walk a fairly non distracted path. Some have called me “obsessed.”
I feel antidepressants would be fine for me at the end of life for palliative care, but I’ve had so many trips when I was depressed and the world was opened into the darkest hopelessness and gloom, I’ve contemplated suicide often while tripping. but I always got what I came for and found my way back out. It never cured the depression, but it gave me the tools to work on it. And I personally need the immediate painful instigation to help me stay aligned with my power. When I’ve dosed when depressed my intention has been to find helpers and it has always plugged me into the perfect helpers on the other side.
I don’t agree that Psychedelics could be used to mask symptoms except if micro dosing.
I don’t Judge others speed of walking their paths…. We all have different experiences and needs. I’ve always been hyper vigilant to my path and walk at a very fast clip compared to most. but then again I also look ten years older than I am, and tend towards an anxious disposition, so who is to say just because I’m progressing quickly, and am a very hard worker, that life is about those things. Some times I wish I had indulged a bit more along the way.
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I think I was called a square by the test as well – but that’s okay, I’m a square and proud.
In terms of psychedelics masking symptoms, I think this can be possible in some instances, for some people. It’s true that you can’t always hide from yourself in altered states, since it magnifies the conscious and unconscious. But it’s possible to use them for escapism as well. If ketamine counts as a non-classic psychedelic, this escapism seems more likely with that than, say, psilocybin mushrooms, although I have read accounts of people using classic psychedelics (such as DMT) frequently; it became a way to escape sober reality.
Perhaps a more common way that psychedelics mask symptoms is masking the ego. Psychedelics can be used as a form of spiritual bypassing, or even as a way to magnify the ego – we see this with unscrupulous guru figures in the psychedelic space. It seems that psychedelics have the potential to spiritualise and inflate certain people’s egoic or narcissistic tendencies.
I love your perspectives and how articulate you are! I get your point clearly. I see that daily with my friends and pot. I’ve got friends here in Hawaii ( where the pot is sooooo abundant and strong) who are so interesting and profound while stoned, but an absolute desperate mess without it. 😬
For me when I loose ego I also loose belief systems that supported it, as l long to learn and trace back the steps to empower my life. I refuse when possible to surrender into being lost. And when I feel close I call out for helpers and my other side is full of them! I’m an elder so have lots of beloveds who crossed before me, I’m also a 57 year vegan so animal spirits especially respect my journey and want to help me in integrating my powers. I suppose I’m a meaning junky, and l also do psychedelics so rarely, that makes a difference too.
I had never heard of Ketamine. That’s sad to me that humans have found symptomatic medicine so “necessary” just to survive in such loneliness. To me that’s called end of life palliative care. But reminds me of these trans folks who want to have their fetishes or puberty confusion “treated” with life destroying surgeries and endocrine destroying hormones…and legally demanding us to affirm them. Society seems to have grown insane with cognitive dissonance. Maybe I’m just an old woman who life is preparing me to step out of the main flow, so my own path towards leaving my body is a more a mote interesting journey than the one around me. 🥴
From one proud square to another…. Bless you Sam.