{"id":18457,"date":"2024-12-17T07:00:11","date_gmt":"2024-12-17T08:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=18457"},"modified":"2024-12-17T08:29:35","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T08:29:35","slug":"life-changing-psychedelic-for-when-life-is-ending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=18457","title":{"rendered":"\u2018LIfe-Changing\u2019 Psychedelic, for When Life Is Ending"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Barry Blechman, 81, an international relations analyst with metastatic bladder cancer, traveled last winter from his home in Washington, D.C., to a clinic in Bend, Ore., where he drank a tea containing psilocybin, the psychoactive component of magic mushrooms. He then stretched out on the floor and closed his eyes.<\/p>\n

When he phoned his wife, Kitty, 10 hours later, she was startled by the levity in his voice. \u201cHe sounded 20 years younger, like a weight had been lifted off him,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In the months since, the angst and depression triggered by his cancer diagnosis no longer hound him, Mr. Blechman said, and he has gained profound insights into aspects of his personality he believes negatively affected his relationships.<\/p>\n

\u201cPsilocybin therapy has been a life-changing experience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Blechman is among the thousands of Americans with serious medical conditions who have turned to psychedelic medicine to address the anxiety and existential distress that often accompany a potentially terminal diagnosis.<\/p>\n

Those who can afford the $2,000 treatments have been flocking to psilocybin clinics in Oregon, the only state besides Colorado where they can legally operate. (Colorado\u2019s psilocybin program begins in 2025.) Many more have been trying ketamine in their therapist\u2019s office or at home.<\/p>\n

Although not a classic psychedelic like LSD and psilocybin, ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, is widely considered a psychedelic therapy because of its effects. It can be legally prescribed \u201coff label\u201d for psychiatric conditions, and it is far less expensive than psilocybin therapy.<\/p>\n

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Barry Blechman, 81, an international relations analyst with metastatic bladder cancer, traveled last winter from his home in Washington, D.C., to a clinic in Bend, Ore., where he drank a tea containing psilocybin, the psychoactive component of magic mushrooms. He then stretched out on the floor and closed his eyes.When he phoned his wife, Kitty, 10 hours later, she was startled by the levity in his voice. \u201cHe sounded 20 years younger, like a weight had been lifted off him,\u201d she said.In the months since, the angst and depression triggered by his cancer diagnosis no longer hound him, Mr. Blechman said, and he has gained profound insights into aspects of his personality he believes negatively affected his relationships.\u201cPsilocybin therapy has been a life-changing experience,\u201d he said.Mr. Blechman is among the thousands of Americans with serious medical conditions who have turned to psychedelic medicine to address the anxiety and existential distress that often accompany a potentially terminal diagnosis.Those who can afford the $2,000 treatments have been flocking to psilocybin clinics in Oregon, the only state besides Colorado where they can legally operate. (Colorado\u2019s psilocybin program begins in 2025.) Many more have been trying ketamine in their therapist\u2019s office or at home.Although not a classic psychedelic like LSD and psilocybin, ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, is widely considered a psychedelic therapy because of its effects. It can be legally prescribed \u201coff label\u201d for psychiatric conditions, and it is far less expensive than psilocybin therapy.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18459,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18457"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18460,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18457\/revisions\/18460"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}