Taking psychedelic drugs ‘cleared misery of loss’, says Prince

PRINCE HARRY has revealed how psychedelic drugs were like “medicine” in dealing with his grief and trauma.

Yet he is not the only one for whom the substances have helped ease mental health issues.

The Duke of Sussex, in a series of interviews to publicise his memoir, Spare, which is officially released in the UK today, has revealed in both his book and his broadcasts, that he has taken cocaine, cannabis and the hallucinogenic drugs, ayahuasca and magic mushrooms. All of these substances are illegal in the UK.

However, in recent years the wellness industry has been advertising psychedelic retreats that offer a range of therapies in countries where the substances are legal. At the same time, medical research is increasingly suggestive of the benefits of controlled, medically administered microdosing of psychedelic substances to treat a variety of mental health conditions.

The Daily Telegraph has spoken to experts in both clinical and retreat settings, who claim that psychedelic drugs to treat mental health conditions have not only been rising in popularity, but that they are the future of treatment.

Prince Harry told Anderson Cooper, host of the American current affairs show, 60 Minutes, which was broadcast on Sunday night, how he first sought help from a therapist seven years ago and how he turned to more experimental and controversial treatments to cope with the death of his mother, Princess Diana. The interview heard how he also took the South American plant-based psychedelic brewed drink, ayahuasca, which can cause users to hallucinate.

The drug is typically taken as a ceremonial or shamanic spiritual medicine among the indigenous peoples of the Amazon basin, and only more recently, in Western society.

During the interview, Cooper said: “You write in the book about psychedelics, Ayahuasca, psilocybin, mushrooms.” Prince Harry replied: “I would never recommend people to do this recreationally. But doing it with the right people if you are suffering from a huge amount of loss, grief or trauma,

‘They cleared away this idea that I needed to cry to prove to my mother that I missed her’

then these things have a way of working as a medicine.”

The television presenter responded: “They showed you something. What did they show you?”

“For me, they cleared the windscreen, the windshield, the misery of loss,” Prince Harry said.

“They cleared away this idea that I had in my head that – that my mother, that I needed to cry to prove to my mother that I missed her. When, in fact, all she wanted was for me to be happy.”

A recent study found that the psychedelic compound found in magic mushrooms can help ease severe depression when combined with psychotherapy.