DMT and Trauma
Plus: can DMT be habit-forming? (Hint: yes)
See photo credit below.
The following is an excerpt from p. 165-167 of Chapter 3, “Everywhere, All the Time: DMT and Drugism” from my new book, Drugism (2022):
A major theme has arisen in my research on DMT, one I did not expect to find when I began: trauma. DMT is particularly able to produce traumatic experiences. Granted, many drugs can produce trauma. Opioid overdoses are typically traumatic. Sugar-induced diabetes can lead to traumatic results as well.
In exploring this theme, trauma, I do not intend to judge DMT nor to objectify the nature of peoples’ experiences with it, for to do so would only perpetuate the very drugism I seek to leave behind. However, I find it imperative that we remain honest about the many consequences that can come of its use. To that end, consider the following—a small dose of harm reduction.
In the vaults of Erowid, that great website devoted to drugs that many of us have perused, there are an impressive array of trip reports. Nearly every substance, every dosage, and every combination imaginable can be found amid the self-submitted reports written by Erowid readers, relaying the details of their drug-induced adventures. For anyone who uses drugs, and for students of drug culture, it is a valuable resource. Look up DMT in Erowid’s trip reports and you will find many experiences, submitted over many years.
DMT is particularly able to produce traumatic experiences. And yet, like any other drug, it can be habit-forming.
There are a handful of DMT trip reports that, for the sake of harm reduction, warrant some attention. They reveal the trauma that can result from DMT. They also show that DMT has potential as a candidate for habitual use.
The first comes from someone writing under the name DivisionBell, who, recalling her DMT experience, wrote, “I sincerely feel traumatized...I feel like I am on the verge of a panic attack writing this out.”[i] Or consider this entry from Kai the Orb Woman: DMT felt “like a traumatic event my brain is trying to protect me from. And yet,” she continues, “I have this strange desire to do it again.”[ii] In these trip reports from Division Bell and Kai the Orb Woman we see that DMT can inflict trauma and elicit craving, sometimes in the same experience. Sounds enlightening, huh?
