Spare | Harry’s drug connection: Why it is unsafe to use psychedelic drug to deal with trauma

Prince Harry admitted in his book Spare mentioned that he used psychedelic drugs to deal with him mother Lady Diana’s death. Ever since that psychedelic drugs have become a hot topic of discussion. During Harry’s interview with Anderson Cooper for 60 Minutes, he touches upon a topic from his book about how he used psychedelic drugs to deal with the death of his mother several years later. He mentioned that he had a lot of trouble coping with the loss, even having a hard time believing she was truly dead.

Psychedelic drugs come with their own share of effects and adverse effects. Further studies are definitely required to know the long term side effects due to regular and prolonged use of these drugs. Though many studies have shown that addiction and abuse of psychedelic drugs is not a problem, it is the tolerance part that is a worrying attribute.

Dr. Sonal Anand, psychiatrist, Wockhardt Hospital, Mumbai says “Although most psychedelics have not been directly responsible for causing death, the judgment of users is certainly impaired and can pose a greater risk in an unsupervised setting. The safety concerns with psychedelics are predominantly psychological but studies have shown that pre-existing physical conditions might show exacerbations because of tachycardia, increased blood pressure and heart rate. One major concern of hallucinogen use is that hallucinogen persisting perception disorder. It is characterised by re-experiencing of the perceptual distortions

induced by a hallucinogen at some later time. HPPD is composed of afterimages, and perceived distortions of movements. These can cause more anxiety, can lead to re- experiencing the same trauma and worsen depression and PTSD or acute stress. Due to tolerance increased doses of the psychedelics might have to be taken to relieve trauma and these increased doses might not have the same pleasurable effect.”

Why Harry used psychedelics drugs

In his book Spare Harry mentioned, “For a long time, I just refused to accept that she was— she was gone,” Harry said. “Part of, you know, she would never do this to us, but also part of, maybe this is all part of a plan.” He even thought maybe she had purposely disappeared and “she would call” him and his brother, William, to “go and join her. He claimed that psychedelics worked as a medicine to deal with the misery of his loss.

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