Potential Healing Path Psilocybin Provides in Treating PTSD
Post traumatic stress disorder is strongly prevailing around the globe and affecting everyday life of millions of people. Anyone who suffered from painful trauma such as accidents, disaster, physical harm, or sexual abuse, PTSD can be happens to anyone. Whether it's a routine task or any triggering event, PTSD symptoms could arise anytime. Since ages conventional PTSD treatments are here to heal a person such as psychotherapy and certain medications. However, therapists are getting more interested in potential healing path psilocybin to treat PTSD. Traditional therapies are not found to be too beneficial for veteran PTSD patients and cause some adverse effects. Being a natural drug and emerging healing option, psilocybin in treating PTSD is getting more hits.
Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy (PAP) involves psilocybin prescribed dosage under safe and secure settings to treat PTSD. In this blog we will dive into the significance of the psilocybin healing path to treat post traumatic stress disorder.
Five Stages of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder:
Before comprehending the potential healing path psilocybin for PTSD it is necessary to know the five stages of PTSD starting from negative effects towards positive healing. The PTSD treatment may vary according to the phase and severity of the disorder. The stages are as follows;
Impact/Exposure: The first stage of a traumatic event is impact that shows reactions like shock, emotional numbness, and perplexity. The patient might feel lightheaded, nausea with a strong heartbeat or palpitations.
Denial: After the shock wears off, here comes the stage of denial. Brain starts developing a coping strategy to run off from the traumatic memory and settles into the denial state. But this automated tactic, brings back flashbacks, nightmares linked to the event or thoughts. This leads to interfering day-to-day activities of the survivor.
Avoidance: PTSD survivors develop techniques to avoid places, people, or events that are connected with traumatic memory. The outcomes are anti-socializing, introverted traits, lack of confidence, and emotional numbness.
Adaptation/Reconstruction: This is the healing phase of PTSD survivors. Following help, people realize the real issue asn start to absorb the traumatic memory with patience, therapy, and support.
Post-traumatic growth: This is another healing phase of PTSD. People attain psychological shifts and learn to fight with their trauma. This is known as post-traumatic growth and could occur in curtain survivors. This growth promotes fresh outlook on thor life, establishes good relationships, and supports personal strength.
Potential healing Path Psilocybin to Treat PTSD
Recent findings show strong evidence of the remarkable role of psilocybin in treating PTSD. That’s the reason people are choosing it due to its effectiveness to treat depression, substance abuse, and anxiety. Nonetheless, considering psilocybin, there is a lot of interest in researching the effectiveness of psilocybin therapy for treating PTSD:
Activating Default Brain Network
Psilocybin for treating PTSD works as a brain network activator to develop favourable personality changes, openness, connectivity, and perspective taking. It also enhances psychological flexibility and mental well-being.
Induce Emotional Breakout
Emotional breakout is one of the essential parts of potential healing path psilocybin treatment for PTSD. This induced experience helps to long-term mental changes and might also be helpful for other mental conditions.
Works in Fear Extinction and Promotes neurogenesis
Treatment of PTSD through psilocybin therapy involves fear extinction and supports neurogenesis. Both of them play an integral role in the treatment of post traumatic stress disorder.
Decrease Amygdala Activation
Psychedelics and PTSD healing journeys are connected with the reduction of the amygdala during the emotional process. Thus, this reduction leads to improved PTSD symptoms and enhances traumatic memory processing.
Accelerate Emotional Empathy
While discouraging avoidance, potential healing path psilocybin enhances emotional empathy. This leads to boost connectivity, mindfulness, and acceptance hence rewind PTSD symptoms.
Psychedelics and PTSD Research
Psilocybin and PTSD research is still in its infancy but several studies showed a potential healing path of psilocybin therapy and concluded it as a safer and effective treatment plan. Besides PTSD, psilocybin shows good results to treat OBCD, depression, and treatment-resistant depression.
Jama psychiatry published a study that shows psilocybin therapy for PTSD reduced its symptoms.
Under the supervision of a trained therapist, study participants took two doses of psilocybin. From pre-to-post psilocybin sessions, they merge psychotherapy with it to treat PTSD. The results show that psilocybin treatment lessens the symptoms of PTSD including painful thought processing, hyperarousal, and avoidance habits.
Which Psychedelic Substances Are Best for PTSD?
According to the findings, MDMA and psilocybin are two most promising psychedelic drugs to treat post traumatic stress disorder. To produce sensations of empathy, connection, and decreased fear, MDMA mainly increases the release of dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin. This makes it possible for people to deal with triggering memories in a more secure setting.
While the psilocybin supports neuroplasticity and promotes emotional processing. To develop long-term psychological flexibility, the potential healing path of psilocybin cannot be denied. Psilocybin might be more appropriate to encourage a deeper understanding of the self, while MDMA might be more effective in lowering fear and anxiety during trauma processing.
Conclusion
For PTSD survivors who are unable to recover from traditional therapies, potential healing path psilocybin therapy is a one-of-the-line plan for them. Survivors struggling to achieve cognitive improvement could be healed through psilocybin-assisted therapy. Psilocybin for treating PTSD activates the same receptors and brain regions as those that are the focus of traditional pharmaceutical drugs. Psilocybin is already being used in conjunction with psychotherapy since it contributes to neuroplasticity and may impair defensive mechanisms.