How To Talk About Psychedelics With Friends and Family
After a powerful psychedelic journey, it’s common to want to share your experience with others.
Who wouldn’t want to share how excited, energized, refreshed, and enlivened you feel?
Sometimes, talking about psychedelics with others goes great.
You share and feel heard, supported, and loved. This can be a beautiful way to connect and integrate.
However, we’ve also seen some instances where someone brings up psychedelics and doesn’t feel adequately supported. Maybe the other person is unsure about psychedelics, skeptical or even downright unsupportive.
As public attention on plant medicines rises rapidly, we’re seeing more and more people wondering…
How should I talk to my family members about psychedelics?
We don’t know everything, but we do know a thing or two about communicating our interest in psychedelics to others. And we’ve made plenty of mistakes, so please learn from them!
Whether you’re talking about psychedelics with friends, family, or members of your religious community, here are five tips to think about + accompanied “action steps”.
#1 Know Your Audience
Our first invitation for you is to consider whom you’re speaking with.
Knowing your audience is not just an important public speaking technique, it’s extremely helpful for sensitive topics like psychedelics and drugs.
For Example: let’s suppose you’re chatting with a lifelong friend. You’ve always found that they are understanding and caring. This might be someone to whom you would disclose more information about psychedelics compared to a distant relative or someone who hasn’t historically been supportive of you.
Here are some considerations to make when assessing your audience:
Are they open to therapy and healing in general?
Are they flexible or rigid in their attitudes and beliefs?
Do they belong to a generation that was heavily impacted by the misinformed war on drugs?
Are they receptive to new ideas or do they seem closed off?
If you don’t know the answer to these questions, you might err on the side of limited sharing.
Action Step: You can “test-the waters” with a more palatable, yet similar topic such as the legalization and medicinal use of cannabis. You can bring it up in a neutral way by saying something like this:
“Did you see that voters in Ohio passed a bill to legalize recreational cannabis use?”
If they express interest and engagement, then you can likely make the connection to psychedelics. If they are dismissive or respond with disdain, then you may want to steer clear of psychedelics.
#2 Meet Them Where They’re At
After you’ve gained a sense of your audience, see if you can set up the conversation for success by tailoring it to that person.
For Example: if you’ve tested the waters and they seem a little hesitant, but interested in clinical research, then you can lean into the medical applications of psychedelic-assisted therapy. You might avoid your personal shares or experience if it’s outside of a clinical scope.
Here are a few sample subjects and approaches you might take:
Clinical trials and research
Therapeutic applications
Spiritual and existential learnings
Connection to nature
Holistic healing
Action Step: Reflect on what you used to think about psychedelics and where you are now. How have your beliefs changed?
It may seem unlikely now, but your stubborn conversation partner may indeed experience a change in beliefs over time - perhaps, your conversation will catalyze this change!
#3 Be Mindful Of Your Needs
In many ways, this is the most important step you can take.
It’s especially important if you’re coming off of a recent psychedelic journey that’s generated some emotional energy for you.
These times can be especially tender, and you deserve to feel supported and have your needs met.
If you feel yourself getting worked up, ridiculed, frustrated, exhausted, or something else unpleasant, know that it’s entirely okay to politely excuse yourself or change the topic.
Action Step: Set boundaries for groups of friends/family members. We’ve found a three category approach helpful:
Open Sharing - With this group, you believe you can share openly about your experience and receive support. Consider including close friends and family members who are open to progressive ideas in this group.
Limited Sharing - When you speak with people in this group, you might have some boundaries in place about your own personal experience, but feel confident that they are receptive to the topic. Consider including other friends and family members who are interested in specific facets of psychedelics, e.g., clinical trials.
No Sharing - You may very much care and love people in this group, but they’re probably not the most supportive of psychedelics for one reason or another. And as a result, you probably don’t share much with them.
#4 Suggest Helpful Media or Research
The burden of educating your friends and family about psychedelics may fall on you, but you don’t have to go through it alone!
Below are three actions steps you can take to refer them to helpful resources:
1. Documentaries on Psychedelics
Lean into our culture’s obsession with digital media and suggest documentaries they can watch on the topic.
Two popular ones on Netflix are…
How To Change Your Mind - Based on Michael Pollan’s 2018 NYT Best Selling Book ‘How To Change Your Mind’.
Fantastic Fungi - It has stunning visuals, it’s narrated by Brie Larson, talks about more than just magic mushrooms and it’s only 90 minutes long.
2. Books on Psychedelics
If you’re speaking with a bookworm, you can point them to some of the most popular books on psychedelics.
Check out Our Favorite Psychedelic Books or send them the list directly.
3. Research on Psychedelics
Some people really want to know about the research on psychedelics for mental health.
In these cases you can point them to Johns Hopkins or MAPS, or you can send them some of our articles on these subjects where we synthesize clinical research and therapeutic applications:
#5 Talk About Psychedelic Therapy
Sometimes, the easiest way to talk about psychedelics is in the context of therapy.
While it’s not true for everyone, most people have come around to seeing “therapy” as a good thing, something that helps people, much like going to see a doctor or getting your car inspected.
If you’re someone who uses psychedelics outside of therapeutic settings, keep in mind that this behavior may make others feel uncomfortable (regardless of whether or not that’s fair or just).
So, even if it’s not your experience, consider talking about psychedelic therapy, as opposed to psychedelics for other purposes.
Action Step: See if there are local, accessible psychedelic therapy solutions you can discuss with them. Almost every major city in the U.S. has more than one ketamine clinic in operation.
There are also guided journeys and microdosing support offered through psychedelic therapy groups like us at Pivot. We also offer free consultations for anyone who has questions about psychedelics and is seeking answers.
Good luck and know that you are not alone!
