Therapeutic Benefits of Psychedelics for Eating Disorder Recovery
Eating disorders and disordered eating affects more people than we imagine. So much of it goes unacknowledged or unsaid. Much of our normalized, cultural norms around food are rooted in restriction, competition and comparison. Many people are not even aware that they are swimming in this bubble of judgement around food and body. Diet culture is so pervasive that many of us don’t even see the authoritarian reality of how we relate to food and body. For those who are struggling, there is often a lot of shame in speaking out or asking for help. Many people keep their difficulties inside, finding exhaustive ways of hiding from others. And finally, individuals who are engaged in eating disorder treatment often don’t see the results.
An eating disorder is unconsciously employed as an attempt feel protected in the world, and to even give a sense meaning and identity. The internal world is fractured and the eating disorder is a way to try stitch things together even if it’s an unsustainable method.
Eating disorders, disordered eating, and the trance of diet culture are some of the most challenging energetic frequencies to break out from. This is why we need to look at recovery in a new way. Previous methods have just not worked. Plant medicine can be the doorway into breaking free from the trance and help us look inwards in radical ways. Psychedelics could possibly be the way helpful for those who are traversing the complex and curious road of eating disorder recovery.
how can psychedelics be therapeutic and increase wellbeing?
Plant medicine can positively influence psychological and emotional wellbeing and social harmony and cohesion, leading to greater sense of connection to the world, one’s purpose, and trust in the unfolding of one’s life. For people with eating disorder behaviours, this is a biggie because we are moving from rigidity, a narrow vision, gripping, and isolation, into embodying more expanded states.
Psychedelics promote “decentering,” or the ability to observe thoughts and emotions as transitory events of the mind without being trapped by them. We come to realize the impermanence of life, including how the eating disorder is not fixed or part of our identity. We can see things from a different lens and let go of the beliefs we once tightly held onto. In the space of non-grasping, we can lean into trust; trusting the organic, ever-changing spirals of life.
Plant medicine enhances cognitive flexibility, allowing people to contemplate events, situations and relationships from detached perspectives. We get out of our own way and see how our behaviours are influencing our lives. From a new lens, we can view things with greater objectivity and start making changes that are more aligned with our true self. We get cannot help but get radically honest with ourselves when we see our beliefs and actions in a new light. From this place, we can start to see how there is medicine in the eating disorder; that going through the hardships and suffering, we have emerged stronger, more resilient, more sensitive, and transformed. We can express gratitude to all that we’ve moved through. And with the power of gratitude, our perception of reality changes instantly. Gratitude is a master teacher and powerful catalyst for change, healing and transformation.
Psychedelics like psilocybin or Ayahuasca strengthens connections between brain networks resulting in novel and new links. These plant medicines increases the strength of the connections responsible for how we sense the world whilst decreasing connections related to how we understand signals from our environment. How we sense and understand our environment is what may cause these altered states of consciousness.
When we trip, the lines between ourselves and the world break down. This leads to feeling more connected, not separate from the world. This why psychedelics can be so helpful for people with eating disorders where there is usually such a strong sense of separation (from one’s body, purpose, essence, heart, community, and the world).
Plant medicine don’t suppress anything but rather bring up whatever strong emotion that is present to the surface to be looked at. Confronting difficult emotional or psychological content can be transformative and healing. The seeing is the healing. Psychedelics increase our self-awareness, and when coupled with the practice of self-compassion to whatever is arising, we make space for what wants to be heard and seen. We no longer hide from ourselves, including the grief, depression, anger, fear. It is all laid out on the table. By seeing it all we can reclaim the fragmented pieces and return to wholeness.
When journeying with psychedelics and engaging in post-journey integration, people can find they rely less on the eating disorder (or addiction) because there is a general sense of ease in the world and more internal wholeness. We can get in touch with our essence, and connect with our inherent worth, belonging, dignity and divinity. Psychedelics can help us embody pride and self-acceptance. We can connect to love, and feel our capacity to give and receive love.
I really do think psychedelic research and eating disorders are going to continue emerging as a safe, effective and transformative avenue for healing. What do you think?