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PhishDoctor t1_itt0glz wrote

Would you be able to share your thoughts on the difference between Drug Induced Psychosis and ego death? I feel like anyone who takes enough of any drug will experience some sort of psychosis, and it is up to the environment (and biochemistry of the user), whether that experience is good or bad. I for one had an ego death, where my sitter's couldnt keep me under control - and thus the scenario ended up pretty bad. But I cant help feeling like if I was in a different environment, things would have ended differently. General thoughts?

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psychsafetyalliance OP t1_itt2yhj wrote

To start with the initial question: Drug-induced psychosis (DIP) refers to a clinical diagnosis. DIP may encompass a few different symptoms that demonstrate a lack of connection to reality, such as hallucinations and feelings of paranoia, and is, by definition, always triggered by use of a drug of some kind. Ego death is a single symptom that some folks may experience, which is not necessarily attached to a psychotic episode (let alone specifically one that is drug-induced.)

To your broader experience: that's unfortunately more common than we'd like to see, and is often preventable with some care taken on the preventative side. We really advise folks take their time to prepare for an experience and really think through all the individual factors that could lead to a difficult time - when you minimize risks, it usually also maximizes potential benefits. We made a checklist of our dosing protocol here, and a more specific one about evaluating set & setting here. Creating a safe container for you to voyage in is absolutely critical, and if you don't have that safe container you're a lot more likely to have a difficult time like what you've experienced.

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