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Comment by CephalopodMD | Hacker News Reader

Can I get a source on that last claim?

The only real long term dangers of psychedelics would be impaired driving while under the influence (obviously) and increased likelyhood of psychosis if you were already predisposed to schizophrenia or bipolar. "Dangerous to a stable mindset" what does that even mean? Is that supposed to sound scientific?

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Is it not? Psychedelics are being tested for treating PTSD. What is chronic PTSD other than a stable mindset? The point of psychedelic treatment being to destabilize an unwanted mindset.

I don't think I'd put it that way. They make you more receptive to/show you different perspectives that you would not experience sober. You're supposed to return to sobriety with the same stable mindset plus a new perspective to consider. Hopefully that combo leads to new and better behaviors in the future.

PTSD is anything but stable. It's highly volatile and extremely unpredictable day-to-day, hour-to-hour.

It's not only "unstable" matching the classic example of a small force on an inverted pendulum will topple it over in dramatic fashion, but it's also "chaotic" -- "exhibits sensitive dependence on initial conditions, which can often lead to seemingly random or unpredictable behavior over time, despite a system's deterministic nature."

Thanks. I see my comment was lacking. I intended to say something closer to returning a chaotic state. An inverted pendulum will become stable but someone with ptsd will continue to be chaotic. Saying psychedelics are dangerous for a stable mind doesn’t mean much if the mind is experiencing chaos and the danger has a chance to reduce the chaos.

I took this as a tongue-in-cheek remark akin to "dead patients are stable" - the implication being of course that "stable" doesn't mean "good" or "healthy".

Not tongue in cheek but you basically have my meaning. Reaperman was closer with his statement that they’re chaotic. I mean to say they are stuck in a chaotic state which they wish to escape but cannot.

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