Impending buzz ALREADY getting double-harshed
Pharma and insurance getting ready to be jerks but also there's a Taylor Swift video here
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Psilocybin is coming, as are insurance companies and Big Pharma
Because you can’t have something good without capitalism doing it’s damndest to ruin it. Slate has a Q&A with reporter John Semley about the impending relief of shrooms and the mountain of hassle phone calls you’ll still need to make.
Pharma!
Now, specifically with Compass Pathways, they were coming under fire because people were claiming, firstly, that they were trying to patent psilocybin, which is a thing that abounds in nature, and also that they were trying to patent sort of discrete elements of psychedelic therapy that were well known and were sort of shop-worn hippie wisdom. When you see patent land grabs, when you see corporations and big money coming into this space, it just scrapes against those values. If you want to say that these drugs were originally valued—at least in the ‘60s—as a form of escape from a corporate-eye, straight-laced, capitalist world, seeing them incorporated within that world just rubs people the wrong way. It just doesn’t jive, as one person says in my story. The other thing is that for many people, [psychedelics] facilitate feelings of love and togetherness and equality, and a sort of corporatized, capitalist model stands fundamentally opposed to that.
Insurance!
As I understand it, insurance providers are the hottest under the collar for psychedelic therapies, because $10,000 for a magic mushroom treatment is nothing compared to putting someone on Zoloft or an anti-anxiety or an ADHD drug every day and having to pay for those [prescriptions] week after week. So even though, yeah, if you were to go out of pocket and pay $10,000 to take magic mushrooms, especially when you can get the same amount of magic mushrooms on the street for 75 bucks, I think people would say that seems weird. But from the insurance perspective, the total lifetime cost for a patient is going to be drastically less than the current psychopharmacological interventions.
Let’s do a quick roundup of celebrities having troubles and what they’re doing about it.
Ezra Miller, the actor who’s been arrested for a variety of reasons, says they’re getting help:
"Having recently gone through a time of intense crisis, I now understand that I am suffering complex mental health issues and have begun ongoing treatment," Miller said in a statement. "I want to apologize to everyone that I have alarmed and upset with my past behavior. I am committed to doing the necessary work to get back to a healthy, safe and productive stage in my life."
Jonah Hill says he’s not going to do the publicity circuit for his movies:
“Through this journey of self-discovery within the film, I have come to the understanding that I have spent nearly 20 years experiencing anxiety attacks, which are exacerbated by media appearances and public facing events,” Hill wrote about debuting the documentary “Sputz” at upcoming fall film festivals. The movie features Hill and his therapist openly discussing his mental health issues.
David Montgomery of the Chicago Bears is getting therapy, which helps his mind and his football performance:
He began talking to professionals. He saw the value in therapy. It allowed him to “unpack the heavy load that I carried already.”
“It’s OK to not be OK, but the part where it makes it OK is when you understand that you’re not,” Montgomery said. “We lie to ourselves sometimes when we say we are OK, sometimes we’re not. Just being able to express yourself and tell yourself, ‘I’m not OK,’ you’ve got to get all those thoughts you’ve got mentally out.”
I get a little side-eye on the Ezra Miller one
Jonah Hill not promoting movies? Sure. Who cares. If he’s having panic attacks, of course. If he’s just lying about that in order to not make the rounds, no big. Fine. David Montgomery of the Bears? Totally get it.
The Ezra Miller one, well, they say there are mental health problems at work here and one could easily accept that at face value. One should do so, in fact. But one can’t help notice that there are a LOT of legal problems that have come up and a massive investment by the entertainment industry in Ezra Miller.
I think it’s fair to notice all those things. And the idea that Miller is going away to get treated is both the right thing to have happen AND the most logical move a publicist would make in order to shield a client and a heavily invested corporate partner.
So which is it: good health treatment or a ruse? I don’t know and it’s impossible to tell.
I hope everyone finds a better, healthier, safer place.
Two unexpected directions
This went in an unexpected direction:
And then went in another unexpected direction.
I have the worst time trying to embed Tik Tok videos here. Please send your complaints to THE ENTIRE CHINESE GOVERNMENT.
Hidden behaviors of adult ADHD
There are a lot of mental health videos out there on the YouTube. This one is pretty good.