Can Ecstasy Help PTSD Vets?

I had a friend - I call him a friend now that he's dead - who committed suicide right before Christmas last year. A Iraq and Afghanistan vet, a true badass and a father and a husband and a really decent person. He came back with his body broken and failed to reintegrate back into civilian life. He was in constant pain from his injuries and also had money and family problems until he couldn't stand it any more and he took his own life.

Before the dicks in the Reagan administration outlawed MDMA in 1985 some very good work was done by psychiatrists and therapists working with, for example, people with terminal illness. Dying is a bummer. Let's say you only have 2 months left. You might want to spend that time saying the things you need to say to your loved ones. But dying is so much of a downer often people cannot open up. MDMA unlike any other drug seems to open up the heart and can let the love and affection flow. It gave comfort to some people in their last days. But it's also great for having a good time so of course the government had to make it illegal, schedule one, no legitimate use. So they deprived people in the final stages of life some comfort the drug could have provided. Same thing with pot. They don't care that marijuana can give comfort to a person suffering through chemo. The right-wingers can't stand the idea of someone like you are me enjoying a smoke after work.

Could Ecstasy have saved my friend? I think administered by a professional and used for psychotherapy it could have helped him cope. Maybe it could have re-kindled his relationship with his wife after he returned from war with his body broken. Him and his daughter were not talking. Maybe the MDMA could have helped him come to terms with her and prevented his suicide. If you know a vet who is suffering and you have access to real E, hook him up. Tell him it's medicine for his PTSD and he deserves it and see if it helps.

Nice article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/20/health/ecstasy-treatment-for-post-traumatic-stress-shows-promise.html?ref=ecstasydrug&_r=0

Always good to see another study. To bad it's only for two dozen. I wouldn't just had vets with PTSD MDMA though. It should be done with a professional. MAPS is trying to raise money for a phase 3 clinical trial which would help get MDMA approved and rescheduled. If you can give to them please do.

After doing a bunch of ecstasy in high school I do not think it would help with PTSD... I get an injection of Invega once a month take Klonopin and smoke weed daily to deal with my mental illness... off the meds I would go on pointless reckless drives on the back roads that put my life and others at risk so I stay stable and at home with my bong

Some research says it may be beneficial. They don't just give people MDMA and let them be on their way, let alone tell them "herre is something to help your problem." When people are dosed, it is usually in a clinical setting with a therapist or psychiatrist trained in that sort of thing. Client is then allowed to "work through" (in psych jargon) the issue.

MDMA has been used as a therapeutic quite successfully under the right circumstances. You need a qualified specialist just like with any therapy, and you need to make sure the MDMA is pure just like with any medicine. Ecstasy is a broad term and I immediately associate it with impurities and BS, so for anything other than having a goodtime with some friends' at a festy I would try and get molly.

Forgot what the title was, but I saw a doc on MDMA that interviewed a female therapist in the pacific northwest (they were obviously vague about her location and didn't give much info about her so as to protect her identity because what she's doing is still "illegal"). She helps people overcome significant psychological trama by administering low-but-noticeable doses of MDMA to the patient while they lie down with their eyes covered and proceeds to try and help them talk their way through issues that would otherwise be too painful or buried too deep to discuss. People who would have ordinarily been unable to articulate the pain/pressure of what's going on with them are suddenly able to relate their experiences in a whole new way and can participate in the therapy much more so than they would ordinarily.

I'm sorry for the loss of your friend. I wish he had been able to seek the care he needed, whether it was this course or not.

I don't know if it would have helped in his individual case, if it would have brought him to a place where he felt he could continue on. But allowing him access to MDMA couldn't lead to any worse reprocussions than what ended up happening. Another prime example of the Federal govt' not really giving a shit about it's citizens and more importantly it's veterans. They just like to appear tough on crime so they can keep building jails and throwing us all in them.