It's an interesting theory. My personal experience with the drug has been positive but it's very hard to say if it was necessary for me to get where I am now.<p>I had crippling social anxiety throughout my teens and into my early twenties. I had fully accepted that I would always be alone and I was happy for the most part. This all changed around age 25 as I (seemingly all of a sudden) became physically attractive enough for women to be interested in me. Without wanting to go into too much detail, my life was turned upside down and I started to learn lessons about people, society and relationships that I feel like I should have learnt 10 years prior. I no longer have social anxiety and can have meaningful relationships with people.<p>During this renaissance period I did use MDMA. But what did it do for me, if anything? Did it enable me to learn these lessons in a way that a normal 25 year old wouldn't be able to? Or did it show me things I wouldn't have seen otherwise, but were still within my natural ability to learn? Or was it simply a fun thing I did but ultimately I would've got where am I today anyway?<p>My feeling is the drug did help me, but I wouldn't just recommend it to others in my position. It won't do anything for you if you just take it in your bedroom with no other changes happening in your life. But if you find yourself, like me, learning how to be social much later in life, it might be worth a try. It won't harm you if you do your research (read erowid).
Taking MDMA with my girlfriend was one of the greatest experiences of my life. Brought us much closer together. I can imagine it would be a wonderful addition to couple's therapy because it makes you so comfortable speaking and turns empathy into your instinctive response.
Did you know that there is very poor evidence for the benefits of cannabis and creativity? As a self-proclaimed "high-functioning cannabis user" cannabis is an incredibly reliably part of my creative process. It almost always results in some kind of powerful idea or insight.<p>While I'm fully aware that it is possible that I'm a deluded drug user, I suspect it's the lack of research — and potentially a failure of methods. That is, I'm not sure cannabis would help me think of more uses for a brick (a test of divergent thinking) nor help me gain insight into how to tack a candle to a wall (a classic test of convergent thinking and insight). But there is a definite change in the clarity and volume of my inner voice and mental imagery — and this can be extremely useful for conceiving new product concepts.
Even the positive article already says: "may be linked to the psychedelic’s ability to reopen a “critical period” in the brain for social reward learning." That's a lot more weasel words than the headline. That's without adding "You have to have used MDMA in a therapeutic setting," which is to say it hasn't been found to work in a natural setting, only in the experiment. No link to any article, so grains of salt included.
I definitely think that the research indicates MDMA or even microdosing can be beneficial to some people, but we can't even get marijuana removed as a schedule 1 substance... I doubt they'll allow MDMA therapy anytime soon.
“Critical periods are periods of time, usually during development, where the brain is extremely sensitive to the outside world and the ecologically relevant cues that it needs to learn from,”<p>I must have learnt so much about drum & bass
it appears to be a write up from a webinar related to this publication: <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30944474/" rel="nofollow">https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30944474/</a>
by the scientist who runs this lab: <a href="http://www.dolenlab.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.dolenlab.org/</a> where it appears the fulltext pdf is also hosted
I did a lot of MDMA and ecstasy in my 20s. The experience definitely rewires you. I’m laughing at anyone who has never done it, or any psychedelics, speaking with authority on the matter and harrumphing about a lack of evidence. Do a high dose and you’ll see everyone around you in a new light.<p>Now, I really just want everyone to feel great. Most people who I talk to seem to be stuck in a rut of stimulus/response patterns and feel unappreciated. I really enjoy listening to people, even their bullshit. Making someone laugh is one of the most enjoyable and satisfying things in the world.
Its an utter abomination that MDMA and psychedelics are criminalized.<p>I find law laughable in this regard and i find law makers a bunch of clowns for not giving me the basic freedom of finding ways to make myself happy.<p>We need a constitutional law that prohibits prosecution for victimless crime. And we needed it already a long time ago. Think of all the resources wasted, lives destroyed by upholding such rotten laws: laws against having fun.