I think it's normal for each new generation to blame the previous generation for all their inherited trauma. It's just so easy to stick each other into boxes and get angry because that's what popular media says we should be doing. I woke up this morning with the The Mamas and the Papas - California Dreaming - Playing in my head and was hit by a wave of nostalgia.
My mom, who was the focal point of my last post and looks almost identical to the woman in the main picture of this post above, was so deep in the hippie movement, it's hard to imagine now. She is currently a 74 year old nurse and conservative by modern standards.
It's quite something to actually hear her stories of adventure and her youth and realize that they were the first revolutionaries of generational change. Embracing love, peace, and acceptance of everyone - regardless of age, religion, race, or gender. They turned their backs on hate and classism, many becoming activists for peace and spreading love across the world.
It's this generation that is famous for Woodstock, free love, and making daisy chains while writing anti-apartheid poetry. It's a generation that is slowly but surely, bowing out to make room for the next generation to take over.
Conversely, though, they carried with them, from their parents, the notion that mental health was not a topic to be discussed. Even in this brave new world of philosophers and freethinkers. I know my parents suffered. I know my dad never felt safe to ask for the help he needed.
What's after that? Gen x? I think? This is the generation of older siblings and I don't know if they carry the same wisdom, or if they're better or worse. I know that we millennials (I am apparently a geriatric millennial having been born in 1985 - yes GERIATRIC ... lol) certainly aren't ready to take over the role of the wise.
Most of us have no clue what we are doing and the last 30 years sped by so fast that we don't know where we are. We still think 1970 was 30 years ago. The turn of the millennium made everything so weird... one moment we were kids, the next, we were transitioning into adults and embracing (or at least trying to) the 21st century.
So, back to the title of this post, why am I talking about psychedelics? Well, it seems to be the fashion of the psychiatric community to steer away from traditional medication for depression, PTSD, and a number of other mental health issues (as they don't work for everyone) and look back at what cannabis, magic mushrooms, LSD, MDMA, and many other "controversial and illegal" substances and figure out how to harness their good qualities. there have been some promising studies, but still a lot to be learned.
On Tuesday, I went to go visit my psychiatrist. We have been battling to find the right dose and balance of medication to help normalize my depression and anxiety, and it's been tough. Weaning on and off different substances and changing doses has been exhausting.
It was really quite healing, even from the moment I walked in, a bit early for my appointment. There were people in the waiting room from 10 years old to their late 70s and we all grabbed the communal knitting needles (the purpose of which is to provide something to keep anxious patents calm in the waiting room and the end result is scarves to be donated to charity) and just got going. How lovely that across all these generations, we have found healing in creating and crafting?
Really I'm just trying to get through the day with some inspiration to get out of bed and see joy and without sheer panic and dread forcing me back under the covers. Is the world really that scary though? What if I'm right? ... Well, I still have to learn how to exist in this world.
So maybe a trip back to the 60s and 70s isn't such a bad idea. Here is a generation of post-war kids whose parents experienced unimaginable horrors and they coped with their parent's PTSD by getting high AF.
Don't get me wrong here, I'm not advocating for drug abuse here... but I was intrigued when the Dr slid this piece of paper across the table to me ... he said, "Technically, I'm not prescribing this to you, but do some research. If you are interested, I can source it for you, and coupled with hypnotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy, we may be able to do what conservative medication has fallen short of."
How many of you have tried micro dosing and what has worked for you?