Source [[What a spiritual high shares with a mental breakdown Aeon Essays]] #problem #socialization #family-therapy #intervention **Prodrome signs of mental illness may reflect the social nature of the problem.** (Related to #systemic view, problem faced by patients with prodrome symptoms, or Pivotal mental state, may actually reflect the social nature. ie. the answer is in resolving interpersonal relationships.) - The social nature of the ‘problem-solving experience’ (what Carhart-Harris and I would call the pivotal mental state), which was clear to Boisen, is also reflected in the social nature of the psychedelic experience, where interpersonal relationships often rise to the forefront of awareness and are accompanied by revisions of life priorities. Consider a vision that a research participant called Mike had after ingesting psilocybin, the active compound in magic mushrooms, in a clinical trial testing the effects of psychedelic therapy on anxiety associated with cancer diagnosis: > Bit by bit, my daughters were turning into these radiant beings, cleansed of all these fears. It was incredibly emotional, because it was something I have, as their father, long known, but it’s a very great pain when you see your children being victimised by fears … to see these beautiful beings not realising their essence. I cannot speak to Mike’s intentions, but ==it is common for people who use psychedelics with the intent of resolving personal distress to realise or remember via a cathartic experience just how deeply interpersonal their problems, solutions and priorities are==. In this case, Mike envisioned the resolution of a social problem – the fears of his daughters. ==Contemporary research into psychedelics and social theories of psychosis converge on the notion that pivotal mental states, whether manifested in psychedelic, spiritual or incipient psychotic experiences, often reflect an attempt to resolve social problems.== If this is true, it raises an obvious question – why then are these various transformative experiences so often triggered by apparently non-social causes? To answer this, it’s important to remember that the serotonin system is evolutionarily ancient, and contributes not only to resolving social problems and distress, but also to addressing basic homeostatic challenges and other physiological functions. [[What a spiritual high shares with a mental breakdown Aeon Essays]]