Psychedelic Integration, Part 1 - Introduction
DISCLAIMER - Psychedelics are still largely illegal in the United States. I am not a medical doctor and cannot recommend any types of medication. This post is not encouraging anyone to engage in illegal activities or consume illicit substances, and I cannot provide the substances themselves or any help in obtaining them. The decision to try such substances should only be made with careful consideration and in consultation with your physician, as there can be an array of complications including negative interactions with other psychotropic medications. But if you are considering using these substances in your own healing work, then you should have scientifically accurate information about them, and about how to get the most from these types of experiences.
If you’ve been paying attention to the mental health space lately you’ve probably encountered talk of the psychedelic renaissance (for a good introduction to this topic, check out Michael Pollan’s highly accessible How to Change Your Mind). These substances - including everything from LSD and magic mushrooms to Ketamine and MDMA - have demonstrated a remarkable effectiveness in treating many conditions that have been largely impenetrable to other therapeutic modalities. These include anxiety, depression, PTSD, addiction, and existential crises.
But as miraculous as these substances are proving to be, they do not work in a vacuum. That is, most people can’t just drop in, take a dose, have the big experience, and walk away cured. Rather, these types of journeys have to be part of a larger process (I’m focusing on psychedelics here, but the same can be said of any big experiences - nature solos, meditation retreats, Inipis, etc.) that takes whatever insights or clarity are gained through these experiences and integrates them back into day-to-day life. Indeed, one of the biggest pitfalls of this avenue of personal development is having one of these experiences, feeling totally changed for a week or two or three, and then finding yourself slipping back into old patterns because you haven’t made the systemic changes in your life and relationships that would help solidify your gains.
We see this over and over again in psychotherapy - and particularly with psychedelics - that people can be in whatever setting they choose to do their work in - therapy room, meditation sangha, or whatever - and get a lot of insight in that space. But if that insight isn’t being translated into dynamic changes in people’s lives then nothing really gets better. Indeed, if you’re not making those changes then sometimes these experiences can actually make things worse, as you have a picture of how things COULD be but aren’t, and now you have to sit with the knowledge of that discrepancy.
Hence, integration. Many times this part of the process can be very frustrating to people interested in using these substances to hit the turbo button on personal growth, because it’s slow, painstaking, and requires a significant amount of discomfort. But if you’re interested in real growth rather than just cultivating novel experiences (nothing wrong with novel experiences, but let’s be honest about what it is!) then integration is where the real work of change happens. So you need to be asking yourself if you’re just interested in being a psychedelic tourist, taking an occasional vacation to an exotic locale and then returning to your life as is, OR are you interested in making real change in your life and wanting to use these substances in service of that change? Again, nothing wrong with either one, but if it’s real change you’re interested in, then integration is THE most important part of the process.
The posts in this series will explore different aspects of the integration process, and provide some prompts and encouragement along the way. And if you’re interested in finding help with this part of your journey then please reach out to me - I’m happy to provide one-on-one support around this and I also regularly offer integration groups, which can be a very effective tool for making sure you get the most out of your journey.