What is the best way to study your own mind? See your psychiatrist and ask them for their opinion? Get a brain scan? An EEG? Read neuroscience papers? Smoke weed and watch your thoughts as they float on alpha waves? Take a psychedelic drug and meet your demons? There are arguments for each conjecture. Today’s common treatments for anxiety and depression certainly do not include altered states of consciousness, yet the current landscape for mental health treatment is barren and fraught with side effects. New “mental health” companies and therapies are cropping up around every corner; take telehealth on demand, such as Better Help, therapist chatbots operated by AI machine learning, and at-home ketamine clinics such as Mind Bloom. The variety demonstrates society’s acknowledgement of the pervasive mental health crisis and large consumer market. So, what is the solution?
Psychedelic experiences, or fluid experiences that can work against disorders of rigidity, are often described as “shaking the snow globe,” referring to the effects of psychedelics on pervasive thought patterns. There is a growing interest in altered states of consciousness to better investigate the troubled mind, and I believe it is important to further investigate mind-altering substances for mental health, especially those that impact consciousness. Some see these drugs are in contrast to current treatments such as Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, which are the most frequent medication treatment for anxiety and depression, the two most common mental disorders today.
Although scientifically debated, I see weed, specifically THC, as a “psychedelic” primarily because of its altering effect on a user’s state of consciousness. While this word has become somewhat taboo over the last century, due to Nixon’s War on Drugs, it has recently returned to modern day psychiatric use. Upon discovery, Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD), for instance, was used in psychiatry and to effectively treat alcoholism before it was used by 1960’s teenagers looking to escape reality. All drugs exist on a spectrum, or therapeutic index, which is the difference in the amount it takes to feel the drug versus the toxic dose; some are considered more dangerous than others due to an ambiguous therapeutic index. High doses of cannabis can induce hallucinogenic effects often associated with psychedelic states, however many people do not consider a psychedelic drug like LSD in the same camp as THC due to the different dosages that result in hallucinogenic effects. Furthermore, the trajectories for weed and LSD have been very different. The exploration of both can lead us to a better understanding of the current landscape when it comes to anxious minds and the use of psychoactive drugs.
Anecdotally, many people I know who struggle with anxious and depressive symptoms use weed to temporarily relieve symptoms, a trend not isolated in observation. A 2018 study conducted by the Journal of Affective Disorders discovered that weed can reduce self-reported symptoms of depression in the short-term, but does not result in long-term alleviation. Nonetheless, it is important to note that the effects of THC are not consistent across the board, and for some, can lead to counterintuitive effects such as restlessness and paranoia. Further research is mixed on the positive and negative links between THC and mental health and what facilitates the relationship.
There are three types of brain waves: alpha, theta and beta. Alpha waves are usually seen in an individual’s state of an awake brain at rest, and are most common right before sleep. They are associated with creative, reflective and introspective states, and have been linked to reduced depression symptoms and are known to be a bridge between the conscious and the subconscious mind. Alpha-wave states are dominant under the influence of weed. Notably, in order to complete cognitively demanding tasks, it is necessary to swiftly down-regulate alpha waves. Particularly in adolescents, THC makes it more difficult to exit the trance-like alpha wave state when presented with a cognitive demand. So smoking weed and going to class might cause more stress than it relieves if you are trying to force your brain out of alpha waves when it really doesn’t want to.
Apart from the fact that alpha waves are directly linked to human creativity, and creativity is linked to optimal human well-being, calming the mind is itself enough of a benefit. During the few hours when one forgets programmed worries, they can reflect, dream, and fantasize: all the aspects critical to flourishing that are nearly impossible to cultivate with a depressed or anxious brain.
For those caught in a repetitive thought pattern, as seen in anxiety and depression, psychedelics have been shown to take them out of a negative thinking loop, also known as facilitating neuroplasticity. If your brain is more plastic, or more malleable, you can see problems from a different perspective or stop and re-evaluate a negative thought in its tracks. Psychedelics can help people see their thoughts from new angles and make novel connections.
However, even though both THC and LSD are consciousness-altering substances with the potential for positive psychoactive experiences, LSD has been assigned the stereotype of psychedelics. Yet according to a 2004 New York Times article, psychiatrist Dr. Humphry Osmand, who originally coined the term “psychedelic”, defined the term as “mind manifesting… ‘clear, euphonious and uncontaminated by other associations.’”
It is a shame that today, “psychedelic” has been contaminated with a host of other associations, especially here at Harvard where psychologists and heads of The Harvard Psilocybin Project, Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert, used to hand out LSD tabs after psychological discoveries they made while on the drug. It is true that LSD can induce horrific and adverse effects, but this was largely in part to its use as a “club drug” and uneducated dosing before accurate research of the drug had been conducted.
60 years after the inception of the War on Drugs, research on LSD specifically has made a comeback. Scientific interest in altered states of consciousness has increased given an increase in widespread understanding of these drugs’ utility for dramatic and long-term solutions to treatment-resistant mental illness.
I am not promoting the use of mind-altering substances for mental health, but it is important for those struggling to get help to consider the landscape. The two most common mental illnesses today, anxiety and depression, are characterized by consistent, unavoidable loops of thinking that are hard to break. Rumination, the act of repeated and inescapable negative thinking, is a symptom of depression, and is known to predict the severity and pervasiveness of depressive states. Especially for anxiety, people are directed towards SSRIs; this is admittedly an easier approach than confronting the demons of the wandering mind.
I personally believe that when doctors prescribe SSRIs, they are insinuating to their patients that they cannot help themselves without medication. SSRIs then allow and encourage a patient to adopt helpless behavior when it comes to their role in their own mental health. Although it is difficult to slow the mind down enough to observe and reorganize thoughts, current research on THC and classical psychedelic drugs suggest that the positive mental health outcomes observed under the influence come from an ability to calm the mind, step away from current thought patterns, and potentially reorganize and re-evaluate.
Modern day psychedelic research is still unarguably young, but it should be noted that the synthetic psychedelic, LSD, was brought to the limelight at first not as a party drug, but to investigate the mind—an origin that unfortunately has been woven into American history as a dangerous substance. Original LSD advocates, such as Alan Watts, Adolphus Huxley and countless others, saw the drug as a way to open the Doors of Perception. For mental health, however, these substances should not be used to escape reality, but to calm cyclical thoughts and investigate the mind.
Anyone can be a great scientist, for each of us have the tools to investigate the greatest biological mystery of mankind, the mind. It might be a waste of a lifetime to miss the opportunity to study your own.
Disclaimer: This article is not promoting or suggesting the use of THC or psychedelics for mental health. This is not a replacement for doctors’ advice, please seek help from a professional.
Kate Tunnell ’24 (katetunnell@college.harvard.edu) writes Forum for the Independent.