Can a Psychedelic Trip Reboot Your Brain and Cure Depression?
A Midlife, Menopausal Mom Seeks Medicine in Magic Mushrooms
There was a moment at the airport as I waited for my flight to Jamaica that I wondered — have I lost my freaking mind?
I was riding solo this trip, reeling from an unholy midlife trinity: menopause, empty nest, and marital separation. As I looked around at my fellow travelers, feelings of isolation and unease grew. I was surrounded by joyful honey-mooners, intact vacationing families, and Christian missionaries in matching pink T-shirts. One of these things didn’t belong, and that thing felt like me.
I wasn’t embarking on a fun-filled vacation in the sun. I was flying to Jamaica, where I would take part in a psilocybin-assisted retreat.
That’s right — I was going to Jamaica to get high.
Only a couple of people (including my children) were fully aware of my plans. I didn’t want to worry anyone or endure their judgment or misgivings and told most people I was going on a wellness retreat (which wasn’t a lie). The decision to attend a psychedelic retreat was not an impulsive one. I had thought this through for close to a year, listened to Michael Pollan’s How to Change Your Mind audiobook, and studied the research coming out of the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic & Consciousness…
