Event: Full Marathon

I participated in my first official run in November 2022, a half marathon. I'm not much of a runner, I had little time to prepare, I'm not light on my feet, and my running style has been compared to Bambi on ice. The event was horrible and I found myself crawling around the house for the first few days until I could stand and walk like John Wayne. 

I thought it would be a laugh and a half to double the distance and raise some money for a good cause. I'll be running a full marathon on the 2nd of April 2023 in God's country.

Why I'm collecting

I have always been fascinated by mental health issues and the beast that is ‘addiction’. Most likely to help me understand my dad who suffered from both.

Everyone speaks so highly of my dad. People praise his strength, his generosity, his kindness and the love he had for his family. Yet this picture contradicts general perceptions of an addict. Many people seem to see addicts as being deliberately selfish, weak-willed and losers that just need to try harder to cure their addiction. From personal experience, the reasons behind addiction and the cures for it are not this simple.

I grew up around suffering and recovering addicts and I've always been aware of the burden they carry, and the pain it causes the individual and others around them.

I don't want to seem like I'm exposing my dad or slandering him. He publicly discussed his addiction and mental health issues and was proud to be in recovery. I just want to address the problem and help work towards an effective solution. 

From what I know, my dad suffered from many mental health issues including anxiety, OCD, night terrors, insomnia, panic attacks, and outbreaks of rage. His primary way of coping with the uncomfortable feelings was to drink alcohol. This numbed his pain, and, over time, he became a drinker controlled by alcohol, rather than a drinker that controlled his alcohol.

My dad tried several conventional and unconventional treatments which helped him for short periods, only to relapse multiple times. He tried cognitive behavioural theory, psychotherapy, in-patient rehab programs, acupuncture, hypnosis, EFT Tapping, exercise, and medication. He was also a dedicated member of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), and later found faith in the Christian God, which gave him some spiritual peace. I am told that he just wanted to feel normal and have a happy family life.

After 6 years of being in and out of sobriety, my dad’s recovery was cut short when he relapsed in December 2006. He had shared several times that he would try to drink himself to death to relieve the pain. He nearly did several times and eventually lost his life to alcohol on 1st January 2007.

My dad’s addiction caused suffering to himself, his family and those around him.

I am running to raise money in memory of my dad, Simon James. My hope is that my contribution to the ground-breaking research at Imperial College will lead to new and effective treatments for addiction and mental health issues.

What I'm collecting for

Centre for Psychedelic Research - Imperial College

When you hear the word psychedelic, you might think of the 60s, dropping out, jumping out of windows thinking you can fly. You might think of going crazy, however, quite the opposite has happened to participants at Imperial College.

Psychedelics can be extremely harmful when used irresponsibly, however, when utilised by professionals, the scientific literature shows they can have dramatically positive effects on mental health issues and addiction.

Studies at Imperial

The Centre has been investigating the merits of psychedelics for a range of other neuropsychological conditions such as alcoholism, gambling and mental health issues.

Psychedelic combined with psychotherapy targets the root of the problem with the goal being to make it so people don't need frequent drug use.

When Imperial gives psychedelics to their patients, they do so with full legal and ethical approval. They don't tell them to chuck a bunch of magic mushrooms, MDMA or LSD down their necks and hope for the best. They carefully prepare them for their experiences. They're looked after by a trained team of therapists.

Early trials have shown that only 21% of participants reported drinking over 14 units of alcohol per week eight weeks after the course of treatment. This outcome was better than the results seen in an earlier trial using psychotherapy alone whereby eight weeks later 76% of participants had returned to drinking over 14 units of alcohol per week.

Why support The Centre for Psychedelic Research, Imperial College

The Department of Brain Sciences at Imperial has performed very well in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 results, with the College ranking first in the UK for its overall research programme in the Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience category. Across its entire research output in this field, 75% was deemed to be world-leading, ahead of the University of Edinburgh (71%) and the University of Cambridge (69%).

Mental health, depression and addiction remain a core and academically rich focus for researchers at the Centre.

Depression

Depression is the most costly brain disorder in Europe. 15% of patients with depression commit suicide and suicide is the leading cause of death in men under the age of 50 (ONS). It is the leading cause of absenteeism from work. The annual cost of depression to the US is $200bn, which is equivalent to the annual GDP of Ireland.

In this epidemic of depression, the NHS can't afford to provide long-term treatments and years of psychotherapy for everyone.

Research suggests that if we incorporate psychedelics into existing short-term therapies, we can make treatment much more effective.

With antidepressants, you have to take them every day. They have unpleasant side effects; it takes weeks for them to work. And they are a palliative treatment, not a cure. But with psychedelic treatment, the Centre is seeing immediate reductions in depression symptoms, immediate relief that lasts for months, without side effects, and it seemed to be working on the root causes rather than just suppressing symptoms.

Addiction

Addictive drugs like alcohol and heroin tend to help people get away from their problems and reduce anxiety. Psychedelics are reported to make your problems more apparent and to sometimes increase anxiety which causes people to think about their problems and find a new perspective and discover new patterns of behaviour, and new insights. Clinical trials report patients found more motivation to participate in alcoholism treatment programs and that they found uncovered insights into why they keep returning to alcohol.

A double-blind study incorporating psychotherapy and psilocybin at NYU health with 93 participants found that more than 83% who were given the psychedelic treatment, drastically reduce their drinking, and 48% were completely abstinent eight months after receiving their first dose.

Unfortunately, relapse rates for individuals who enter conventional recovery from a drug or alcohol addiction are high. Studies reflect that about 40-60% of individuals relapse within 30 days of leaving an inpatient drug and alcohol treatment centre, and up to 85% relapse within the first year.

History of Psychedelic research

In the 1950s and 60s around 40,000 patients worldwide were treated with psychedelics for everything from alcoholism to schizophrenia.

Research began back in the 1950s with two clinical groups; one with terminal cancer where the results showed that one experience of a psychedelic called LSD could generate this profound experience and produce dramatic reductions in anxiety and suffering.

The other group was alcoholics. In the 60s Alcoholism treatment programmes integrating LSD, the success was near 60% (Norwegian University of Science and Technology).

The research came to a grinding halt in the 1970s because of the cultural and political wars.

Clinical psychedelic use was caught up in the culture wars in the 1960s & 70s. Recreational psychedelic use identified with the anti-government counterculture and the Vietnam war protesters.

Research stopped when governments around the world began to ban recreational drugs.

Half a century later and doctors are tentatively picking up this research.

Articles

• Could psychedelics be used to treat mental health disorders (Telegraph)
  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/mind/could-psychedelics-used-treat-mental-health-disorders/

Videos

• Research from NYU Langone that found psychedelics cure addiction
  Magic mushrooms may help cure addiction

• Researchers at Imperial College (BBC)
  EXCLUSIVE: Could magic mushrooms treat depression? BBC Newsnight

• Psychedelics and Addiction with Professor David Nutt (Imperial)
  Psychedelics and Addiction with Professor David Nutt

• LSD for alcoholism (BBC)
  LSD for alcoholism BBC World News TV Interview
  
  
• Can Magic Mushrooms Unlock Depression? Rosalind Watts (Imperial College)
  Can Magic Mushrooms Unlock Depression? | Rosalind Watts | TEDxOxford 

• First phase of clinical trials at Imperial College
  Psychedelics: Lifting the veil | Robin Carhart-Harris | TEDxWarwick

• How to Change your Mind, Michael Pollen (Book or Netflix Series)