h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/02/25/ecstasy.study/index.html
PTSD

<<<"When someone is traumatized, walls form around trauma -- like a scar >>>

How true. i am just so unsure whether i really want, or need to remember it all. The bits that i can remember are bad enough, maybe it's best to let sleeping dogs lie?

"They" have tried to hypnotise me, i am just about the most uncooperative subject on earth! Lack of trust, fear of losing control i suppose. i would be very wary personally of this, but it might well work for some.

zdt

Very interesting item Abbi. I'm not sure what I think. I'd like to see more about the proposed trial. I'd also love to read more about the early experiments done in the 70s. Might see if I can dig anything up on the internet.

Will the doctor publish much about his methodology before the trial do you know?


Terri, I agree that for many remembering isn't inherently the best thing. I think therapy focusses on this way too much. My feeling is that when people are ready to remember and are in a position to cope with the memories then if it's necessary for their healing they will be able to remember.

I could see some benefit perhaps to the Ecstacy if people were remembering spontaneously and couldn't control or manage. Certainly it might be an improvement on some of the current psychiatric drugs in use to manage anxiety etc.


I wouldn't trust hypnotherapy as far as I could spit it. Apparently it does good for some, but I'm like you Terri - there is no way I'd give up that kind of control. Which I think is a highly developped sense of self care

Based on what I know about Ecstasy and its effects on the mind, I would not consider it a safe drug to use in a study on human volunteers ... but anyways, if they want to do the study, I can't stop them. I think though that the person who commented on the placebo effect might be right. Unless the placebo has effects pretty similar to that of Ecstasy, the people will know whether they received the real stuff or the placebo. And if the placebo has the same sort of effects, then itself might have some of the desired beneficial properties. In other words, a study of this might be scientifally unfeasible at the very core.

Well, since I've got PTSD and have done plenty of Ecstasy, I see zero value in it as a therapy - all it does is conflate paranoia and depression once the high wears off and reality returns.

Bearing in mind that none of this was *medical* MDMA, and in many cases could well have been cut with god knows what, I can't entirely validate that assessment; but it does seem to me that a drug univerally known for its depressogenic/paranoiogenic qualities won't be even remotely useful for an illness the two most significant symptoms of which are, er, paranoia and depression.

Awareness of consequences of the trauma and the emotional, psychological and physical effects of revisiting it should be most important; supportive and understanding friends (dare I say family?) and colleagues second. Anything beyond that can only be a panacea I think, but E? Leeches for aneamia.

Hi Krispy! Yeah, that's the sort of stuff I saw in the psychiatric hospital too. I don't think it's the stuff they cut it with ... I think it is an inherent property of MDMA which is a kind of amphetamine after all.

Basically I think it's not a good idea to 'break down the walls'. I know that I have walls between me and other people, and I have walls on the inside as well. These are there for protection! Long ago I had no walls, and I was wide open to anything and everything coming from the outside, and that's when the bad sh*t came in and messed me up, and that's why I had to construct those walls. If there are now too many walls, still it may not be a good idea to tear them all down. Maybe just build a few doors and gates, which can be opened, but also closed if needed.

I have been looking for the hour special that was on TV right after I posted this and I cannot find it. I will keep looking , did anyone else see it?

My friend a social worker in a trauma hospital saw a man whom had an non-traditional experimental therapy for PTSD through the military in 1971. I think it may have been this. He said it worked well but also erased all of his high school years. He did well until he was in a horrible accident and had PTSD from that. Since that has occurred his former military related PTSD has returned too. He asked if anybody was giving this therapy and if she thought it would work.

The thing I do not undertsand is that teh drug is said to dry up your stress handling chemicals like other recreational drugs can. That is the confusing part. There have been reports of losing the pleasure center. This makes it sound more like ECT therapy or a lobotomy *lite* ! Although I have never heard of memories returning with ECT

It would be interesting to know if the man above had his memories return or the the symptoms of PTSD without the memories. It seems it would be harder to treat without the memories.

I just did a websearch (teoma.com) on 'PTSD' + 'MDMA' + 'ecstacy'. I haven't read the articles yet, but am bookmarking them so thought I'd post them here in case anyone else wants to have a look:

Lots of links about the PTSD/MDMA research projects:

http://www.maps.org/research/mdma/index.html


Personal telling of using ecstacy and LSD as healing tools by a woman with PTSD (I found some of this account very moving. There are also possible triggers there for trauma survivors):

http://www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=9813


Abbi, there is a link about the tv programme you mentioned, on the maps site.

Thanks Kea
With my computer acting up it is hard to surfso I appreciate it!