HEALING TRAUMA IN VETERANS
WITH MDMA-ASSISTED PSYCHOTHERAPY
NON-PROFIT RESEARCH MADE POSSIBLE BY YOUR SUPPORT
I'm Rachel Hope. I live in West Lost Angeles
I was one of the original subjects in the clinical trial in South Carolina, testing MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy to treat PTSD.
My name is Tony Macie. I went to Iraq in 2006 and 2007. When I got back I was diagnosed with PTSD.
I was diagnosed with acute complex post-traumatic stress disorder
and that's because I had many different kinds of traumatic events that collectively created a really complex and difficult one to resolve.
The first eight hour session I had with MDMA-assisted psychotherapy,
I immediately had a reduction of symptoms that was obvious.
A lot of different participants have stated over and over is, this is like having three years of therapy in one day.
And with MDMA, we're really offering a very short term treatment that requires only taking a medicine two or three times.
Well in our first study people had to have had psychotherapy and medications for PTSD and not been helped adequately,
and the average duration of the PTSD in that study was nineteen and a half years
and most people had to have lots of therapy and a number of medicines.
Once they got MDMA-assisted therapy 83% of the people who had not responded to other treatments,
responded to MDMA versus 25% with the same therapy but without MDMA.
I remember during the therapy one of the first things I said when it kicked in was,
this is what I've been looking for. I reconnected with myself.
I, I did a lot of internal work and afterwards it was like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders.
For like 20 years, I was trying to use all these other therapies and wanted to be free.
I wanted to be able to have control over myself. I didn't get any real healing until MDMA.
Since the MDMA-assisted therapy, even the first session, it was like 75% of all that just went away.
I went to the VA on and off, I don't know how many times, and did the therapy that they had,
did the medication therapy, and then I kind of just fell off the radar and secluded and did my own thing and got really dependent on one of the meds.
The emphasis is on MDMA assisting psychotherapy rather than MDMA
being the drug that is given automatically by itself.
We see the MDMA as a catalyst to help people have a therapeutic experience,
not just we give a drug to change the symptoms but we give the drug to help people have an experience
that then gets at the root of what underlies the symptoms.
That MDMA is really the, the support, the support that then allows the participant to go fully into their, the expression of their trauma
and their emotions, and that as a therapist we're just holding that container for them to be able to go through that process.
By adding this tool it might not be the end all but it's going to be a tool that can help a lot of people drastically,
and that's what we're looking for right now is new or different approaches that will work.
I'd say it's important for the study to be completed just because of the world we live in.
We need evidence based data for this to go forward and the evidence is pointing to really, really good results,
better than a lot of other things.
Almost all of the study subjects in both studies have said, especially I think the veterans,
have said that they're doing the study for themselves but they're also doing it for other veterans.
I think that we all owe them to do something for them.
Since I've been cured with PTSD I only suffer from one thing from PTSD and that's kind of this survivor's guilt.
I got help while I am surrounded by people who are suffering who don't know they have any hope.
For people that are considering making a contribution to this study. I would say that your donations will be highly leveraged
that first off you will help us finish this study. It's total cost of about 1.4 million. We've already raised almost 900,000.
We have substantial support. We have a fair ways to go but helping us complete this study
gives us the evidence that we can then use with the Veterans Administration, the Department of Defense, the National Institute of Mental Health,
foundations and other donors to liberate millions of more dollars for the furthering of our study.
If you put on one of those yellow ribbons on your car, or say, if you support the troops
and you have the ability to actually support them. Here's your opportunity.
Help transform the lives of veterans, firefighters, police officers, first responders,
sexual assault survivors, victims of violent crime, natural disasters, terrorism and many others suffering from PTSD
The sooner it gets finished, the sooner we can help more people.
Help complete this study
Support MDMA-assisted psychotherapy research for veterans with PTSD on Indiegogo
mdmaptsd.org/healingtrauma
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