Psilocybin & Magic Mushrooms
Writing in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, the Johns Hopkins researchers note that most of the 36 volunteer subjects given psilocybin, under controlled conditions in a Hopkins study published in 2006, continued to say 14 months later that the experience increased their sense of well-being or life satisfaction.
"Most of the volunteers looked back on their experience up to 14 months later and rated it as the most, or one of the five most, personally meaningful and spiritually significant of their lives," says lead investigator Roland Griffiths, Ph.D., a professor in the Johns Hopkins departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Neuroscience.
Griffiths also notes that, "while some of our subjects reported strong fear or anxiety for a portion of their day-long psilocybin sessions, none reported any lingering harmful effects, and we didn't observe any clinical evidence of harm."
<Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. "Spiritual Effects Of Hallucinogens Persist, Researchers Report." ScienceDaily 2 July 2008. 16 December 2010. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080701083522.htm>
Psilocybin, aka magic mushrooms, actually calms, rather than stimulates, certain brain functions. Psychedelics, and psilocybin in particular, might actually be eliminating what could be called the extra "noise" in the brain.
LSD-assisted Psychotherapy
Swiss psychiatrist Peter Gasser and his colleagues conducted the double-blind, placebo-controlled study, sponsored by the non-profit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). They tracked 12 people who were near the end of life as they attended LSD-assisted psychotherapy sessions. In his report, Gasser concluded that the study subjects’ anxiety "went down and stayed down."
MDMA
The drug MDMA (aka ecstasy, or Molly) promotes release of the "love" hormone oxytocin, which could help treat severe anxieties like PTSD, and social anxiety resulting from autism.
Ayahuasca
The results of the first North American observational study on the safety and long-term effectiveness of ayawaska treatment for addiction and dependence were published in June 2013 in the journal Current Drug Abuse Reviews. All of the participants in the study reported positive and lasting changes, and the study found statistically significant improvements “for scales assessing hopefulness, empowerment, mindfulness, and quality of life meaning and outlook subscales.
Cannabis
Cannabis strains high in CBD are well suited for reducing anxiety. If you have access to legal medicinal cannabis you have to try it, you have nothing to lose.
