> For example, maybe you'll be more open to new experiences than you were before.
Maybe so. Maybe that version of myself would even approve of that change. My current self, however, very much does not want that change. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way. Unwanted personality shifts are negative drug side effects and the people running around pitching psychedelics as miracle cures without downsides are harming people.
Yeah so hypothetically, if you were depressed and no other treatments worked, your current self would have to decide if the "negative" side effect of altered traits is worth a shot at making your life worth living again. Perhaps some of those traits are even implicated in the depression and they need to be changed for it to lift.
I do agree that patients should be briefed about trait changes, but again, perhaps that's exactly what they need.
Do you think it's common that psychedelice change people who don't want change?
It's all anecdotal of course but I've seen quite a few life-course-changes inspired by psychedelics (most of them non-spiritual: change jobs, go to college, break up, quit smoking, that sort of thing) and in most cases the openness to that possibility is why people were taking them in the first place.
From what I've seen, people who take them without a willingness to change don't typically find the experience to be meaningful or transformative.
Maybe so. Maybe that version of myself would even approve of that change. My current self, however, very much does not want that change. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way. Unwanted personality shifts are negative drug side effects and the people running around pitching psychedelics as miracle cures without downsides are harming people.