Imagine the idea that a party drug that’s usually consumed by being crushed up and snorted or taken as a pill may be the answer psychiatrists have been looking for all along to treat anxiety and other mental disorders.
MDMA, also known as methamphetamine, is a psychedelic amphetamine that produces chemicals in the brain to give a euphoric, out-of-body experience. This party drug is better known by its street names: molly and ecstasy. It is still currently a schedule-1 drug in the eyes of the Drug Enforcement Agency, however, there have been clinical trials researching the possible health benefits of taking this drug in a controlled environment.
Erick Santana has been using MDMA since he was in high school.
Born in the Dominican Republic, Santana moved to America when he was around six and has called Albany, New York his home ever since. Growing up near a big college town, there were always stories of drug use and parties going on around him as he was going to school. By the time he was a sophomore in high school, that lifestyle caught up to him. He dropped out of school and began hanging around the wrong crowd.
“I started off doing it for fun when I went out to parties. It became a habit and it started to become too frequent when I went out.”
Santana began detoxing himself from the drug and continued on with his life without it. Years went by and he faced new problems in his life, having a daughter and the stress of being a homeowner. Mentally he started to feel drained and would have outbursts with various emotions, dabbling from feeling sad and then getting a sudden rage when things don’t go according to plan.
“I didn’t know how to fight it and I began feeling lost. Then I read an article online on how there have been trials with the drug on people with similar mental health issues as me and it worked.”
He was skeptical about whether the benefits would work for him. “I knew I had an addiction to it when I was younger and I didn’t want to go through that again.”
This is when he learned about micro-dosing. Micro-dosing is a way of getting the benefit of the drug without fully taking a large amount. It is also used in practices with LSD and “magic” mushrooms.
“After I began microdosing, I saw a great deal of change. I used to be angry a lot and get emotional over things but ever since I started using it as a way of therapy, my mind became more aligned with itself.”
According to a study back in 2011, researchers found that 10 of the 12 participants in an MDMA study no longer showed signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, also known as PTSD. The science behind it is still very unclear on whether this could be a complete breakthrough in dealing with mental disorders. With these tests along with other psychedelic-induced therapy practices like the use of LSD, psilocybin, and ketamine, there could be something positive to gain.
Millions of people are diagnosed with PTSD, anxiety, depression, and many other forms of mental illnesses. One solution to combat these diseases is pills. In many cases, the pills regulate a person’s mental well-being, but it has been proven that the moment a person stops taking these medications, they start to decline. Whether it’s from the physical pains of withdrawal or having the mental illness take control again without the pills in a person’s system. In many cases, this has led to addiction, worsening of the disease, and even death. These therapy sessions with MDMA give us a glimpse into the future of medicine. With the right regulation and control, this could be the future of curing mental illnesses.
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