How Ayelet Waldman Found A Calmer Life On Tiny Doses Of LSD

How Ayelet Waldman Found A Calmer Life On Tiny Doses Of LSD

The polymath writer, known for defying expectation, turned a treatment for her unstable moods into her latest project.

The New Yorker

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/how-ayelet-waldman-found-a-calmer-life-on-tiny-doses-of-lsd

"Tiny Amounts Of LSD For Depression"
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/01/ayelet-lsd-microdosing/513035/

"A Really Good Day" Recaps A Month-Long Adventure Of Microdosing LSD
http://www.npr.org/2017/01/24/511404052/a-really-good-day-recaps-a-month-long-adventure-of-microdosing-lsd

 Nutt, David J, et al., "Drug Harms in the UK: A Multicriteria Decision Analysis." The Lancet 376, no. 9752 (2010): 1558-65

The Promise of LSD Microdoses and Other Psychedelic "Medicines"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-promise-of-lsd-microdoses-and-other.html

Alan: Here's the email I sent to my bandmates after Waldman became dinner-time conversation at yesterday's band rehearsal.

Compas, 

I had a fine time at yesterday's rehearsal. Thanks!

Can't believe I'd overlooked Tom Petty's "Listen To Her Heart" until Mark suggested we play it. (After reviewing our rehearsal tape I listened to Petty's 2006 live version and, truth be told, I like our rendition better. Well done guys!) 

Elsewhere...

Here's the LSD article I mentioned at dinner. 

Although I recognize the dangers of psychedelic drugs, I've always thought they are a deep well that deserves much more attention than they get. 

In Waldman's article I was most struck by this passage: 'The mood improvement that coincided with her microdosing changed her whole view of depression. "It was almost the first time in my life I had perspective on what my moods are. Now, when I slip back into the bad feelings, I know it could get better overnight. And also: There is better."'

The end-game-horror of psychological disease is that -- consistent with traditional conceptions of Hell --

it seems to the sufferer that mental illness is everlastingly inescapable. "Your number didn't come up and now you're f______ forever." 

Waldman's experience revealed that "There is better."

You might also enjoy Diane Rehm's treatment of the topic: 

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/10/diane-rehm-show-using-psychedelic-drugs.html

Pax

Alan 

Diane Rehm Show: Using Psychedelic Drugs To Treat PTSD & Other Mental Disorders

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/10/diane-rehm-show-using-psychedelic-drugs.html

Lifelong Marijuana User Carl Sagan's Penetrating Explanation Of Being "High"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/03/carl-sagan-was-lifelong-marijuana-user.html

Compendium Of Best Pax Posts On Marijuana

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/06/compendium-of-best-pax-posts-on.html