(Part 11 of the story of my psychedelic-enhanced journey to mental health) — It was about 5:00 pm before I had emerged sufficiently from the influence of the psilocybin to look at the clock. I had eaten the mushroom around 11:00 am, so I had been on a six-hour trip, most of that time in deep hallucination. Although I could now converse more…

(Part 10 of the story of my psychedelic-enhanced journey to mental health) — The magic mushrooms gave me another sequence of hallucinations in addition to what I have just described. This second set of hallucinations started with me finding myself naked and submerged in a small “pond” of black, viscous and disgusting liquid-like sewage. …

(Part 9 of the story of my psychedelic-enhanced journey to mental health) — I had no idea how long it had been since I ingested the mushrooms, but it didn’t seem very long ago, and it felt like my trip was just now beginning. Previously, I had been panicky and uncomfortable, but now I felt relaxed and curious, ready to start making progress…

(Part 8 of the story of my psychedelic-enhanced journey to mental health) — On the morning of my psilocybin trip, my therapist, David, and my trip-sitter, Jimmy, arrived right on time. We retreated to the basement, where Jimmy set up a small “altar” next to the couch that I was sitting on. Though still eager, I was nervous now that the time to…

(Part 7 of the story of my psychedelic-enhanced journey to mental health) — I felt frustrated and discouraged. My progress at ridding myself of my sense of shame had halted and seemed to be reversing. The talk therapy was making no progress on lowering my emotional shield. …

(Part 6 of the story of my psychedelic-enhanced journey to mental health) — In the days following my ketamine session, I felt triumphant and euphoric. …

(Part 5 of the story of my psychedelic-enhanced journey to mental health) — My ketamine session had been wildly successful at helping me understand the origins of my sense of shame and the underlying trauma. Just a minute or so after the ketamine had started flowing into my bloodstream, I had become cognitively aware of patterns of events that had eluded me during…

(Part 4 of the story of my psychedelic-enhanced journey to mental health) — I met David, my therapist, at the ketamine clinic. Because of COVID, it was the first time I had met him in person. All of our prior therapy sessions had been via tele-health. I had feared that meeting in person might be awkward, but it wasn’t. …

(Part 3 of the story of my psychedelic-enhanced journey to mental health) — Andrea and I had mutually decided to switch to a different couples counselor, but we had no one in particular in mind. After some internet research, we contacted a therapist named David, and he arranged an “intake call” with us to check each other out. The call lasted maybe fifteen…