Integration, in the context of psychedelics, is typically defined as the process of making sense of psychedelic experiences and applying the insights contained therein to one’s everyday life. But how does this definition of integration apply to traumatic psychedelic experiences? For those unfortunate to undergo them, they can make immediate sense (in terms of why they were traumatic), and the experience itself may have provided no spiritual or therapeutic insights (at least, not yet).
The definition of integration above often feels meaningful in the context of challenging psychedelic experiences, as these may be challenging for reasons conducive to insight, such as insight into one’s past, present, and future trajectory. Post-trip, it’s common for psychedelic users to feel grateful for the challenging experience, viewing it as highly valuable, and often more valuable than a joy-filled experience. However, traumatic psychedelic experiences differ from challenging ones; they are the types of experiences that tend to result in long-term difficulties. This can leave people with PTSD-like symptoms, including anxiety, social disconnection, sleep difficulties, reactivations, and derealisation.
It is, of course, possible to grow through recovery from a traumatic trip, but we also cannot discount people’s valid wish that the experience had never occurred, that it did more harm than good, and how difficult it can be – emotionally, socially, and financially – to recover from it. To judge an extended difficulty after a traumatic psychedelic experience as a ‘failure to integrate’ or, less harshly, as illustrating the ‘need to integrate’, that person’s emotional suffering is minimised. This gaslighting is common in psychedelic circles: people who have been lucky not to have had a traumatic psychedelic experience, causing extended difficulties, may claim that ‘there are no bad trips, only challenging ones’ or ‘bad trips are the most valuable ones’. We wouldn’t respond in this way to someone else who had a traumatic experience caused by something non-psychedelic, such as an accident or crime. If we did, it’d be right to call that tone-deaf and a form of toxic positivity.
Concepts like the ‘dark night of the soul’ or ‘shadow work’ (perhaps referencing Jung quotes like “No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell”) may also be used to shine a positive light on every type of challenging psychedelic experience. This is simplistic and unhelpful for those who’ve had terrifying trips that have ruined their mental health and ability to function normally at work, school, or in their family or social life.
While being given unsolicited advice to integrate a traumatic psychedelic experience is going to rub the wrong way, people who’ve undergone one may still be left questioning what to do with what they experienced. Is integration a meaningful concept when applied to these sorts of non-ordinary states? I would argue that, based on the aforementioned definition of integration, it isn’t always helpful. Nevertheless, I believe we should broaden the concept of integration to include the attitude we adopt towards the experience.
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