October 24, 2024 by Mattha Busby
When DoubleBlind published my story on a man self-amputating his penis after eating psilocybin mushrooms, the backlash from within the psychedelic community was swift. Accusations of “yellow journalism”, sensationalism and comparisons with the right-wing UK tabloid the Daily Mail abounded. “Propaganda!” vented one commenter. “This post alone will lead to a lot of people who were on the fence to use them as healing [to] resist in fear,” wrote another.
Wait, so journalists should not publish negative stories about the effects of psychedelics – albeit rare – because it could lead people to be more circumspect about taking psychedelics and harm the wider psychedelic legalization movement?
Let’s get it straight, psychedelics do have therapeutic potential and they were unfairly stigmatized for years, seemingly for political reasons. But the truth is that they are no longer routinely demonized in popular culture. And that while they can clearly be of tremendous good for people, they do carry some serious risks, especially for those with pre-existing psychiatric conditions.
That’s why a number of the psychedelic scare stories of the 1960s – which contributed to the launching of the war on drugs – were at least in part true, because drugs like LSD and psilocybin can trigger psychotic breaks in people with preexisting psychiatric conditions. Even an actual or perceived lack of safety in a psychedelic ceremony could push someone of fairly sound mental health into a fevered state.
To put things in perspective, as I reported in the DoubleBlind story (not that most bothered to read past the headline in the Instagram post), psychotic disorders affect as many as one in 50 people, with one-in-100 Americans suffering from schizophrenia.
When someone does something crazy while on psychedelics, people can jump to conclusions and claim that psychedelics were the entire cause, and not just the trigger. As more people take psychedelics, it will be imperative in reporting to state clearly where someone does have an extreme reaction to psychedelics and has a history of illness with a psychotic condition.
In the case of the 37-year-old man in Austria, who had a history of depression and alcoholism, it was the mushrooms that appear to have led him to wield an ax to his manhood. That is exactly what we reported, based on a medical case report by the surgeon who treated him, but the suggestion from some DoubleBlind readers is that we should not report on the story at all – or erase the word “mushrooms” from the title because he has mental health issues.
It is unfortunately true that negative stories about psychedelics get into the news far more than ones with alcohol – given how normalized alcohol-fuelled behavior is in society. But, nevertheless, when did a drunk off duty pilot last try and shut down the engine of a plane? (He was in fact on an extended come down from a mushroom trip). Did a huge intravenous dose of alcohol immediately lead to the death of Matthew Perry? No, it was ketamine. When was the last time a drunk man chopped off his own penis? (Wu-Tang affiliate did it in 2014 after taking PCP).
So, evidently, whether you like it or not, psychedelics have been involved in some extremely curious and troubling near-deadly cases over the last year.
It’s an undeniable truth.
One commenter in the DoubleBlind post shared an unconfirmed story of her schizophrenic boyfriend committing suicide following a period in which he had eaten mushrooms regularly. “If you deny the dangers, you’re just denying reality or you clearly don’t have enough experience in the realm,” she wrote.
The case – as well as being an advert for the stunning medical developments within urology, given that within a few months of his penis being reattached to his body and becoming functional he was able to get erections again – is also a testament to the importance of not doing psychedelics alone, and having a trip sitter present.
After all, you wouldn’t skydive without a parachute, right? “Perfect reason why if we legalized them, we can open clinics to allow people to have therapeutic psychedelic experiences under professional supervision,” another of the more than 400 commenters said. Thus, the piece could be seen – ironically perhaps – as an argument for medical approval. The naysayers are therefore creating their own reality, stuck in a prohibition paradigm. They say psychedelics can set you free, but they can also hold you prisoner.