In AppleTV’s The Me You Can’t See, Prince Harry highlighted the use of psychedelics in therapy. The idea and science behind using LSD, ayahuasca or other psychedelics is that those drugs can help break down psychological walls and help people have mental and emotional breakthroughs which unmedicated talk therapy might not be able to achieve. I believe it, especially if you’re taking those drugs within a therapeutic or spiritual setting – many people have spoken about how the drugs helped rewire their brain in a positive way, and helped them achieve some kind of breakthrough. Harry also wrote about his drug use in Spare, although the Netflix series kind of glossed over Harry’s recreational/therapeutic marijuana usage. Anyway, in his weekend talk with Dr. Gabor Mate, Harry got even more specific about drug use and the benefits of psychedelics.
The Duke of Sussex has said his use of some drugs “really” helped him mentally, as a trauma expert diagnosed him with attention deficit disorder (ADD). In his controversial memoir Spare, Harry admitted to regular drug-taking and describes how in 2015, while living in Nottingham Cottage in the grounds of Kensington Palace, he smoked marijuana.
On Saturday, he spoke to Dr Gabor Mate, author of The Myth Of Normal: Trauma, Illness & Healing In A Toxic Culture, in a live interview, with topics including his use of cocaine, marijuana and alcohol.
Harry said “(Cocaine) didn’t do anything for me, it was more a social thing and gave me a sense of belonging for sure, I think it probably also made me feel different to the way I was feeling, which was kind of the point. Marijuana is different, that actually really did help me.”
The duke also told of using psychedelics such as ayahuasca. He went on: “It was the cleaning of the windscreen, cleaning of the windshield, the removal of life’s filters just as much as on Instagram, these layers of filters. It removed it all for me and brought me a sense of relaxation, release, comfort, a lightness that I managed to hold on to for a period of time. I started doing it recreationally and then started to realise how good it was for me, I would say it is one of the fundamental parts of my life that changed me and helped me deal with the traumas and pains of the past.”
To me, this reads as old news, considering Harry has been open about most of this since The Me You Can’t See and Spare. But of course, everything Harry does makes news, so following the talk with Dr. Mate, the British papers are launching into a 1980s-style anti-drug campaign centered on willfully misconstruing Harry’s words. They’re acting like Harry is going into elementary schools and passing out cocaine. He is not. He has always maintained that, specifically for psychedelics, he would like to see them used in controlled medical and therapeutic settings. As for marijuana… lol, after I read Spare, I was like “man, he must love it in California, with all of those pot dispensaries.”
Photos courtesy of WellChild, Travelyst, AppleTV.
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- London, UNITED KINGDOM – Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, attends the draw for the Rugby League World Cup 2021 at Buckingham Palace. Pictured: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex BACKGRID USA 16 JANUARY 2020 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- London, UNITED KINGDOM – Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, attends the draw for the Rugby League World Cup 2021 at Buckingham Palace. Pictured: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex BACKGRID USA 16 JANUARY 2020 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
While the BM is on an anti-drug campaign, are they including those crack babies that W&K are so fond of on their list?
It’s so funny because most of them even in government are doing lines of cocaine. It’s so prevalent in their upper class and culture.
I bet most of these journalists and commentators going on about the dangers of drugs think nothing of polishing off a bottle of wine or two after a hard day at the office.
Er, everything in excess is bad and the normalization of excessive drinking is too but cocaine and wine are pretty different animals.
C – Not really. Alcohol is a drug, but because it has been (mostly) legal for so long people don’t think of it that way, it’s more socially accepted.
No, they are absolutely not the same.
People often make the argument that alcohol is just as harmful only more socially accepted but in many comparisons it is not accurate at all.
Wine is a relaxant that contains protein, resveratrols, and quercetin and the craft of it is an art form that has been maintained for thousands of years even if excessive consumption is to be avoided.
Cocaine has been used from indigenous populations to notaries such as Sigmund Freud in various forms but the stimulant crack cocaine of modern usage is hyper addictive and destructive in all its forms.
Will they bring back the DARE shirts? Was that a thing in the UK? I think we even had DARE Friday’s or something. Very distant memories.
LOL, I can still sing that “DARE to keep a kid off drugs (KIIID OFFFF DRUUUUUGS)” chorus from the early 90’s. We had to perform them in assemblies, haha.
Okay, I’m vaguely remembering the assemblies. But the only reason I ever remember it is bc they used to play other music before it started and they always played Man in the Mirror. So I remember that song way more than the DARE one😂
One of my proudest childhood moments was when I got kicked out of class for “well, actually-ing…” the DARE officer one too many times. My mom died of a drug overdose, so my dad did his best to make sure I was accurately educated (in an age-appropriate way) about drugs from an early age. That “slippery slope” nonsense, like one day you smoke a joint and the next day you’re living on the street and turning tricks to get your next fix, never helped anybody. I think there have been studies showing that DARE actually INCREASED drug use, because their claims were so obviously hyperbolic that any genuinely useful information they gave was so drowned out by the bullshit that many kids just ignored it all.
DARE taught me how to buy drugs.
Okay it’s epic that you were kicked out of DARE for daring to ask questions. Badass.
DARE, and the whole “war on drugs”, was an epic failure. Yet still going strong over 30 years later. Prohibition failed, and alcohol is far more addicting than Marijuana, but we still have this mentality that all drugs are bad.
I watched the Apple TV series and totally missed this cause I was focused on other revelations.
Harry’s book was honestly the first time I had heard of using psychedelics in a controlled setting to deal with trauma.
I say good for anyone who is able to break free and live a healthy happy life.
admitting you are going to therapy is hard enough in the UK so I imagine they wouldn’t take well to this.
Thankfully Harry is in America where we are more accepting and he can really help a lot of people by speaking out.
Yeah, also thankfully, Harry is insanely rich, since only those people can afford therapy here in our accepting America. The rest of us get lip service. So thankful!
P.S. Obviously not Harry’s doing, but it feels shallow to celebrate his moving to America when so many people here struggle getting anywhere near the same level of help for their traumas.
As much as I hate to admit that I know this….Joe Rogan has been talking about this for years. It is really good for PTSD, anxiety, depression, and ADD. I want to say that studies on veterans have shown that one medically controlled trip was able to help for up to 6 months. I am not well versed on all of that, my brother was the one with all the info. But I will say I did some Psilocybin chocolates last year and it did help me. I didn’t trip trip, only microdosed, but it is something I would fully support for those that need it.
A friend who went through a lot of trauma has done ketamine with the mind bloom program, she said it was life changing. He advocates for it in a controlled setting with therapists.
I have family and friends who have had horrible life changing experiences with drugs, and most of them were self medicating for mental health issues.
I’m all for harm reduction, and if this type of thing can bring genuine relief and healing, I’m for it.
Yes! I actually paid for Mindbloom for a friend after my own positive experience with ketamine infusions in a clinical setting. (Ketamine isn’t technically a psychedelic — rather, it’s an anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties — but it works the same way therapeutically.) Michael Pollan’s Netflix series ‘How to Change Your Mind’, based on his book of the same name, is a great overview of the kind of stuff to expect with psychedelic therapy.
The only caveat I’d offer is, I’ve seen ketamine *not* work for people who are still in an actively traumatic situation, who are NOT “safe.” But psychedelic therapy does expedite healing in people with PTSD (and it seemingly does so by resetting the nervous system, restoring neuroplasticity to people whose brains are otherwise refusing to process pain any further).
In a controlled setting with a licensed professional, I’m all for psychedelics if it can offer relief to people truly suffering. I think marijuana use is a generational thing, in my day it wasn’t legal but now that laws are changing, people are realising that it’s the young’s version of booze and not being so judgy about it…
I can see some types of psychedelic therapy (used appropriately with guidance) as being life-altering for people with PTSD. Not sure how it would be helpful for ADD though.
I’ve seen the royalists raging and concern trolling about this. But as Kaiser said this is nothing new and it was first talked about it in the Me You Can’t See docuseries which had an entire segment about treating mental illness with LSD.
Bessel van der Kolk has done a lot of research in trauma and PTSD and the use of psychedelics to treat patients. I would highly recommend his book “The Body Keeps The Score” it is life changing.
The way they are deliberately gaslighting about this form of therapy is dangerous and extremely unethical. It has benefitted many especially those with ptsd. But outright lying and gaslighting seem be a British national motto with the current Government, BRF and tabloid mouthpieces which all have a very incestuous relationship.
I’ve used a lot of Psychedelics and they have really helped me and changes my thoughts and see things in a bigger picture. While I think psychedelic therapy is great in theory, the truth is in that controlled setting they will only be available to the wealthy as the costs are insane and insurance won’t cover them. A client who’s building I manage do psychedelic therapy and they’ve done it for I think a decade or so and it’s legal in my state but it’s $10,000 for treatment sessions. Unless it’s affordable to normal people, big pharma will use it as another way to exploit people and make insane profits. Honestly if more people were able to just do some mushrooms while camping or take some LSD with some experienced friends they could probably have the exact same healing effects for 10 bucks as thousands in some therapy setting. Glad Harry is talking about it but The only reason he’s allowed to is because he did it the “right” way and has the money and privilege that most of us don’t. Unless we just legalize these substances for fall then only the very few will get the benefits.
LSD and mushrooms and stuff should be available for anyone, inexpensively. Michael Pollan’s books (and the documentary) about the subject are good.
I’m sick of big pharma and their endless bs with everything.
Because they only make money on the “treatment”, not the “cure”. Why should something be legalized if you can’t profit from it? Our entire health care “system” needs to be thrown out and replaced with “health care” for all citizens.
@Amanda, I understand your concern but what the UK media is doing with their misinformation is why psychedelic therapy needs to be done in controlled settings. Lets not forget what happen in the 60’s and why these medicines ended up on the schedule 1 controlled substances list.
As for it becoming a rich person therapy that is not completely truth. I’m not a rich person, I’ve used lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) with the help of my therapist. Another issues is that most therapists and doctors are still reluctant to prescribe these medicines for fear of prosecution and outdated moral/societal thinking. The goal of having these medicines remove from the schedule 1 controlled substances list would happen faster if there are very few incidents/zero incidents (these are not party medicine, like some people are prone to use them) that the media can use as a drumbeat to sell their papers. Right now, this field cannot survive with any negative media attention. I want these medicines available to the public but I think we need to tread carefully until they are off the schedule 1 controlled substances list. I look forward to the day when these medicines goes the way of cannabis is now in the culture.
I’m so happy you found these medicine helpful in your life. Continue to spread the word.
I also did an ayahausca journey and I found it to be life changing. It’s not for everyone, but it can open up doors in your mind that you did not know existed.
Harry seems like he digs his drugs, though-he hoovered up all of Meghan’s nitrous when she was in labor, too. hopefully he keeps it in check now.
Me, I got to a point where I didn’t like the feeling of being f*cked up. So I haven’t had pot in more than a decade. I’ll have the occasional beer or glass of wine with supper. Never any more than that.
People look up to Prince Harry, He is a role model to young people. So I am not sure whether it is a good thing for him to expound and make public the benefits of certain drugs helping him to deal with his emotional and other issues.
It’s a good thing. People should know psychedelics are safe and effective.
I must say I was rather surprised at the number of references that Harry made in Spare to his drug use. But I think it was all part of his determination to be totally honest.
Looking back I think now that Harry could have gone into even more details about his drug use but has not. The truth is that drug use is more common than we think, and almost all families have someone directly or indirectly affected by drugs, and Harry is trying to take away the stigma of talking about it.
Harry is definitely not the first or last royal to use drugs……
One thing that I think is missing is the full extent to which Meghan has helped him with this issue.
The British media naturally have come down on Harry like a ton of bricks, and out of all the things Harry discussed with Dr Mate the only thing they wanted to focus on was drug use, and distort Harry’s words and make it look like he was encouraging people to take drugs.
But Harry will not be at all surprised because as in Spare where the media just sensationalised two or three things that were not very important in the book such as losing his virginity and his frozen willy, and of course telling lies about what he said about the Taliban, information that was already in the public domain.
What issue? A LOT of folks use drugs recreationally. It doesn’t make them addicts. This is an important distinction. Harry was pretty clear in Spare that hard drugs weren’t something he used regularly. He even talked about cocaine and how it wasn’t something he liked.
Harry may have been taking drugs ‘recreationally’ but he also says that he was taking drugs (marijuana?) for therapeutic reasons to help his mental health issues, which is different.
For Harry it is a topic that goes past just taking drugs for a bit of fun.
Context is everything. He talks about psychedelics WITH a professional. His dabbling otherwise he repeatedly says he wouldn’t recommend it and it wasn’t for him (cocaine for example). The mushroom story was the only one I felt was meh, but he also illustrated how it can go VERY wrong aka what happened to his friend.
He does talk about weed a lot, I’ll grant you that, there’s literally an entire industry (partly now legal and being HIGHLY monetized) so I’m not gonna get on a soapbox here.
Yes, he has a platform, but also the job of any discerning human is to grasp context and nuance. If we are suddenly worried about young people being influenced by Harry I’d say read his words about the importance of truth, anti-bullying, anti-racism and misinformation…
Exactly.
Thank you for posting this. Twitter is alight with “outrage” over Harry using his “platform” to peddle drugs. It’s so funny how when HE is speaking and criticizing the RF and/or BM, it’s “borrrrring, he’s irrelevant” (keep beating this drum and trying to manifest rota, I’m sure it’ll help you sleep at night), but when he’s trying to share his own truth, his “important platform as someone who young people listen to” is being misused.
There was even a link to parents whose son sadly passed away from a drug overdose, squarely blaming Harry. Like?!?!
How depraved does the media need to be to exploit grieving parents just for the Sussex clicks? I honestly wonder if I will ever wake up in a world where H&M are simply left to just live their lives…NOT holding my breath here.
People are morons and too lazy to find out about things, thinking mushrooms are the same as fentanyl. People are just idiots.
Cary Grant was famously a proponent of LSD therapy which he took multiple times in the late 1950’s to help overcome the trauma of his early life. His background was working class, and his mother was no Princess Diana. But in a parallel with Harry, Grant’s mother disappeared suddenly from his life when he was about 10. His father soon started a family with another woman. Grant learned much later his father had had his mother committed. By the time he was 14 he was working with the acrobatic troupe and off to America for good by 16.
Drug factories painted LSD as evil on purpose. I’m revolted by business people involved in healthcare.
Even my psychiatrist said I’m a prime candidate for ketamine infusion treatment. He showed me research that shows what a world of difference it makes for C-PTSD patients. The research is still pretty new but psychedelics are great for trauma patients. Surprisingly, with my psychiatrist signing off on this, my insurance may actually cover treatment. Harry has the money to do this treatment with or without so I’m glad he’s talking about it. The more discussions we have about it, the more it benefits people like me.
The UK media misinformation agenda is very problematic. For people interested in the field of psychedelic therapy, please visit John Hopkins Center for Psychedelic & Consciousness Research. I was unable to post a direct link of the site here. Also, google Roland R. Griffiths, PhD, he is the founding direction of the center.
there are many ongoing studies right now with psychedelics such as psilocybin etc. Right now it’s hard to say what benefit they have and for which condition (depression, ptsd, etc.) are they most effective. We will have to stay tuned as more research is done.
John Oliver did a great feature on psychedelic therapies on LWT just a few weeks ago, which touched on a lot of the points made by celebitches here. Seemed like a nuanced take on what can be a complex issue, but one which has the potential to do good under the right conditions.