Just to update you: Now that I have retired at age 65, I am planning to "get off" SNRIs in the course of one year. It is my hope that during that time, I will be able to incrementally replace SNRIs with the occasional use of the Huachuma cactus23, in order to inspire me to stay the course. Unfortunately, I cannot expect help from retreat centers because of the rare side effect called "serotonin syndrome,4" but my understanding is that the condition is usually mild and can be easily treated. But since I can't expect retreat centers to assume the liability and PR concerns, it looks like I'll be on my own in this trial of mine.
I have, I should add, also written to psychedelic researchers in the States and in Canada5, trying to encourage them to perform trials to see how psychedelics, properly monitored, can help antidepressant "addicts" get off their "meds." No one seems interested, so it looks like I'm going to have to be a pioneer in this area. That said, I wish I could get help from some Peruvian shamans, because I just cannot believe that a dependence on Big Pharma meds is the one problem in the world that plant medicine cannot treat. Sure, there are risks, but no one seems to be balancing these risks against the potential benefits, nor looking at the downsides of doing nothing, starting with the utterly demoralizing knowledge that antidepressants make the user a ward of the healthcare state and an eternal patient.
Besides, the key ingredient to a good huachuma experience seems to be motivation, and I cannot imagine someone more motivated to change than myself, or the millions like me who have been demoralized by their dependence on Big Pharma meds6.
For now, I'm working on my Spanish, in preparation for another trip to Cusco7 in a month or two. While there, I will seek out long-term housing, practice my Spanish, and make preparations of huachuma cactus (starting with smaller doses) to see if and how they might help me cope with the psychological downsides of antidepressant withdrawal. Thanks for your interest in my situation, and I wish you luck in your adventures as a western shaman. Your journeys look very interesting to me. Hopefully I can take advantage of them in a year or so when I've gotten off of Big Pharma meds entirely.
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You have been reading an article entitled, I'll See Your Antidepressants and Raise You One Huachuma Cactus: an open letter to Austin from the Huachuma Project, published on April 30, 2024 on AbolishTheDEA.com. For more information about America's disgraceful drug war, which is anti-patient, anti-minority, anti-scientific, anti-mother nature, imperialistic, the establishment of the Christian Science religion, a violation of the natural law upon which America was founded, and a childish and counterproductive way of looking at the world, one which causes all of the problems that it purports to solve, and then some, visit the drug war philosopher, at abolishTheDEA.com. (philosopher's bio; go to top of this page)
i again, Austin1. 
You have been reading an article entitled, I'll See Your Antidepressants and Raise You One Huachuma Cactus: an open letter to Austin from the Huachuma Project, published on April 30, 2024 on AbolishTheDEA.com. For more information about America's disgraceful drug war, which is anti-patient, anti-minority, anti-scientific, anti-mother nature, imperialistic, the establishment of the Christian Science religion, a violation of the natural law upon which America was founded, and a childish and counterproductive way of looking at the world, one which causes all of the problems that it purports to solve, and then some, visit the drug war philosopher, at abolishTheDEA.com. (philosopher's bio; go to top of this page)