If you’ve listened to the PsychedRx series, or ever contemplated experiencing psychedelics, you’ve probably asked yourself what a trip is really like. Well, I’d very much like to tell you what it’s like, but it’s much like trying to describe an exact shade of purple velvet. It’s deep, rich, bright, dark, it changes as the light shifts. When you touch it, everything changes. It’s different in the morning than it is at night. It’s simultaneously warm and cool, comforting and challenging, but it’s something you can’t fully appreciate or describe without seeing it in person.

For additional exploration and examination, we’ve engaged a first-rate scientist and psychonaut of sorts to help us understand, as best we can…

With that, we’d like to thank Juan for sharing his experiences and perspectives with us. We’d also like to thank all of our participants for their time, dedication, talent, and insights. Finally, we’d like to thank each of you for taking this journey with us.

Hazzah!

Hello all,

This is JoJo, your friend and co-host of SKRAPS.

I grew up around construction. Tradesmen and experts at the crafts of building and repairing homes were omnipresent in my childhood. From a very young age, I knew more about framing than I did about Barbie dolls. I was comfortable in the world of power tools and knew the importance of “measure twice, cut once” before I knew my multiplication tables.

Any contractor worth his or her salt will tell you that a sound foundation is the most important thing you need in any structure. A compromised foundation will compromise everything that you build on top.

People have foundations, too. Our education, our family, our upbringing, our experiences and support systems all contribute to building our own foundations. Even with a solid foundation, it can become cracked when the earth below us shifts or when external forces push us too hard. Theses cracks and shifts are sometimes the cause of immense pain - pain so deep that no amount of paint and putty and window dressings can fix the real problem. Oh, we can try and DIY our way out of it - watch a few episodes of “Flip or Flop”, dress up our homes and ourselves, but the cracks remain. And the cracks eventually get bigger.

Sometimes, not often, but sometimes, we can find the tools to fix the cracks and bring the foundation back to a sound a solid state. But all too often, we lack the proper tools and skills and the pressures are just too much. The foundation finally gives way and our structures come tumbling down.

Why am I speaking in construction metaphors? To demonstrate to you that our tool kit is inadequate. That the chaos and destruction of unaddressed mental health issues are ruinous and that they need a shopping spree at Home Depot. If we can expand our mental health tool kit to include tools like psychedelic medicines, maybe we can salvage a few more homes.

Thank you Lindsay for sharing your story of your journey with Justin and for inspiring us to support meaningful research that can give us more, better, and different tools.

-JoJo Platt

Over the ten episodes in this series, it’s clear that we are enthusiastic about the future of psychedelic medicines. There are so many potential applications for responsible, physician-assisted therapies that it almost seems as though psychedelics are a silver bullet, or a little black dress - perfect for any occasion and applicable to myriad diseases and conditions.

Not to contradict ourselves, but there are definitely situations in which psychedelic medicines are not only ineffective, but ill-advised or flat out a bad idea. We hope to provide responsible and balanced information to our listeners and believe that we have done so. The PTSD episode, you heard from the leaders of Heroic Hearts and Heroic Hearts UK about their non-negotiable exclusion criteria. But the same way you heard emotional personal stories about their success, we thought it imperative to share with you a story about why not everyone and not everything can be helped with psychedelic medicines and why responsible use is the only possible solution.

We give our special thanks to Dr. Erika Ross for sharing the story that changed her life. This one is for Kreg.