Psychotherapy session for couples using MDMA helps improve relationships
A forbidden but pleasant way to find out a relationship is gaining popularity in the USA and Canada. But this is not just for you to drink bitter water and trample the dance floor in Ibiza under Solomun, this is about a long, difficult and frank conversation, revealing accumulated grievances and wounds, that not everyone leaves in an embrace after such therapy. MDMA is not a love potion with guaranteed results. Sometimes drug-induced honesty reveals fundamental contradictions in partners, and they come to the conclusion that the relationship cannot continue. In this case, MDMA accelerates the inevitable.
“This drug helps people feel more open, empathetic, builds confidence and relieves tension. Discussing difficult topics becomes painless—both partners feel empathy for each other,” says Albert Garcia-Romeu, assistant professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University, who studies psychedelics.
MDMA stimulates the activity of feel-good neurotransmitters in the brain while calming the parts of the brain that respond to threats. There is a release of the attachment hormone - oxytocin. Psychotherapists who work with psychedelics that are legal in some states (such as mushrooms, DMT and ketamine) believe that the effects of MDMA therapy do not end with the drug. Research shows that it makes it easier for patients to discuss traumatic topics, which means it may have good results in treating PTSD.
Officially in the United States, MDMA is still on the list of prohibited drugs. However, in the 70s and 80s, the drug was used legally by therapists specifically in couples counseling. A study by psychiatrist George Green was published, where he documented the effects of the drug on 1980 people from 1983 to 29, 21 of whom were partners. Patients experienced greater intimacy and began to respond more easily to criticism. Negative side effects include a tense jaw, anxiety, and fatigue. After the ban, MDMA was no longer used for therapeutic purposes. It is only in recent years that scientists have again become fascinated by psychedelics and their positive role in treating complex mental health disorders, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. As this acceptance has grown, some researchers have also turned their attention to MDMA-assisted couples therapy.
Many people are not waiting for official approval, although doctors and scientists predict that it will happen in the next two years. They are looking for underground practitioners offering family therapy with psychedelics. A 55-year-old businessman from Los Angeles shared his experience: “My wife and I lived together for 30 years and separated. But it was so hard that we decided to try talking to each other while on MDMA. This is the best thing that happened to us. Imagine talking to your partner about all the difficult parts of your relationship without any hard feelings or expectations.” MDMA therapy should never be carried out without a doctor who knows the dose, and before the session it is necessary to clarify whether there are any psychiatric diagnoses. Otherwise, everything may end in psychosis. I saw a friend of mine at Burning Man, a psychiatrist who was prepared to be banned, after taking MDMA, and it was very scary - she fell into a serotonin hole: she cried for a week, realized that no one needed her, that the years had gone wrong, etc.
PS: MDMA has already been approved in Australia.
Author: Yunia Pugacheva
