59. Survivor Science Soundbites: Recapping Psychedelics in Stroke Recovery

In this Survivor Science Soundbite, I’m following up on our discussion from Episode 1 about psychedelics and their potential role in stroke recovery. Earlier this week, we explored the emerging research on psilocybin, the active compound in ‘magic mushrooms,’ and its potential to support neuroplasticity, brain health, and resilience post-stroke.

Today, I’m sharing what I’ve learned since that first dive, including insights from The Psychedelic Handbook by Dr. Rick Strassman, and reflecting on the bigger picture of what psychedelics could mean for recovery. This isn’t about replacing the hard work that recovery demands; it’s about considering psychedelics as a potential tool to supplement the process. I also talk about my personal experience with SSRIs and the importance of knowing when certain treatments have served their purpose.

This episode is all about keeping the conversation open and understanding that every stroke recovery journey is unique. If you’re curious about what psychedelics could bring to the table—or if you’ve been putting in the hard work and wonder what else is out there—this one’s for you.

I’ll be back next week with more of these quick Survivor Science Soundbites and a full episode mid-week. Let me know your thoughts! What topics would you like me to explore? And remember, I’m just here sharing my story and what I’m learning along the way—always do your own homework and find what works best for you.

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Transcript

0:01

What's up everybody. Welcome to episode two of survivor's science soundbites. Last time we talked earlier in the week about psychedelics as a potential tool in recovery. I mentioned the focus on schedule one drugs and PTSD and how that was a really interesting. Conversation to start having. At least in my experience, now, the reason I want to have it is because I think. A lot of the research is pointing to beyond PTSD. I had done a previous episode about two weeks ago on PTSD and stroke recovery. And how. It's not exactly a one-to-one and I don't think everybody has PTSD. But I think there are some interesting things that happen as stroke survivors. Some people. Like myself might be prescribed SSRI drugs. Uh, I've been on them for a while. In fact longer than I really probably should have been in. That's been a thing I've focused on this year. Slowly starting to come off it because I think. Everybody's different. I think a. You know, but I realized this year I was like, okay, I've dug good. I've made a longer progress. And I just don't think. SSR eyes are a long-term solution now. To be clear. I agreed to that after my stroke in 2019, early 2021, I went into inpatient rehab. And I do think SSRS initially were a good thing for me. Uh, and again, I probably could have come off them sooner. I didn't really think about it. Nobody really thought about it. Nobody mentioned anything. It's not a huge deal. It just kind of occurred to me this year. To really make an effort to get off them. And it's not because I'm afraid of him. It's not because there's a stigma. It's because I don't think there are supposed to be a long-term thing. Especially after I started running. And after last year I ran over 5,000 miles. This year I've ran over 7,000 already. So I think. It's different for everybody. But again, Back to the topic I was talking about psychedelics early in the week. This is survivor size soundbites. Number two. Where I said, I come back here on Friday and kind of recap for the week and I have a lot of thoughts. I've done some research. I would not say it's thorough. Well, no, it's thorough, but it's not extensive. It's only been five days. And I think it takes a lot more than five days too, but I wanted to come back and recap and tell you where I'm at, share what I've learned this week. And I do think this will be an ongoing conversation. So again, Right now the majority, if not all psychedelics are schedule one drugs, which means they are illegal. They are. There's some caveats. I think there are some clinical studies going on. There are some interesting things in the science world. There's definitely some books on this. Now. I know, obviously we're not. I'm not a doctor. You're not a doctor, but we all know there are things on this in the world. You can get your hands on them. That is up to you. I'm not recommending that. I am only recommending this as a conversation. Much like you hear, if you listen to podcasts like Joe Rogan, other podcasts is there's a lot of podcasts there's out there talking about. Psychedelics for a variety of reasons. I think the majority of times I hear it related to PTSD and veterans. Again, that is something. You know, I'm not a veteran, but it's certainly near and dear to my heart. I have a lot of friends that are vets. I believe in this. I think we should be helping them more. This is just a really interesting conversation to me. And the further I've dug into it and learned about it. Again, I think. There are some benefits for strokes virus, potentially. So where, where are we going to start here? So I picked up the book the psychedelic handbook by Rick Strassman which. You know, there were a bunch on audible. There's a bunch that you can get on Kindle. There's a bunch of Kibei. I like audible just because yeah. I'm able to do it while I'm running. Or I'm at the gym or I'm in the sauna or I'm driving. It's just a really. You know, it's easier to carry a book on your phone. Than it is necessarily dragging a book around all the time. When you're being a parent, you're going to meetings you're in between work things. You're going to run around like an idiot chicken with your head cut off. But there's always this You can always listen to something while you're doing some more mundane tasks. So this book. Again, it's the first book that I've read. I just kind of wanted. Uh, base. I want us to learn more about these, you know, I've heard about Iowasca, I've heard about pretty much every drug on the planet. I've heard about to some degree. But this book in particular. The research has focused on silicide blend. Silicide been, sorry. I just have trouble saying that as a stroke survivor Cylo silo. Ben LSD ketamine MTMA Iowasca it does not, I don't think cover marijuana. That's kind of a separate thing. And again, that's legal now, a lot of states or at least medicinally. I've taught, I did an episode very early on about my experience with medical marijuana. Not against it. Uh, I think. You know, that was an eye opener for me because I thought, oh, maybe this'll be the magic pill that I'm looking for. And I think if you're always looking for a magic pill, you're probably on the wrong track now. There's a lot of people who enjoy marijuana. There's a lot of people that use marijuana. There's a lot of people that are medically. You know, like myself, Have a medical marijuana card, although mine did expire this year because I've kind of moved on from the marijuana. I'm just the kind of guy that that's. It's not for me. It's not good or bad. I just, there. It wasn't enough. Benefits. I don't have a lot of residual chronic pain from my stroke or the Ms. It's a bad, but I think I get more benefits by exercising now. I think, uh, you know, it certainly was helpful early on where I was kind of still. Working to the point I'm at now. Now I can exercise and lift weights and do enough strength, training and running. That I, I, the medical marijuana doesn't have the benefits for me that it might have for somebody else. And that just like stroke, right? Every stroke is different. Every body is different. Everybody's biological setup is different. People have different reactions. And I think that's really one of the big things to harp on here is that. I'm just curious about the psychedelics and the potential benefits that can have and why. You know, I'm sharing my story. So why I'm interested in this is because yeah, there's some PTSD from stroke. I think there's some things. I've put a lot of work into my recovery. And I think I want to preface everything by like, this is not meant to be your cure all. And again, this is just a conversation starter. Where I'm coming at it from is like, okay, I've done a lot of work now in my recovery. And I hope you have too. And I think everybody has. Do you know, everybody's making progress, hopefully the way that's best for them. And so because of different strokes, because of different deficits, you might, you might have good experience with one thing. You know, like Botox, for example, how it keeps coming up. I had a good experience with Botox in my leg. It didn't do as much for me in my hand. I'm coming at it where from the angle of like, okay, I've done a lot of work. And I'm not looking for a magic pill, but is there something that could. Maybe take me in a direction that I'm not getting. From running or walking or exercise or all the other things I'm doing in terms of my, my rehab from Schoeke and then, you know, dealing with the Ms. Is there something, you know, potentially that some of these psychedelics could unlock that I haven't been able to unlock yet to this point. And much like when I found briefing and breath work, I talked about it with, uh, a friend of mine yesterday. It's like, does it really work? And I'm like, well, Here's the thing. I can't say it will really work for you, but for me it really worked breathwork and again, I hate the term breath, work, breathing exercises, definitely something. That makes a lot more sense to me, but you have to put it in context. Why did it work for me? Well, it worked for me because I used to be a smoker. I used to be a drinker. I was an athlete. Most of my life and through my twenties. And then in my thirties, I just got kind of big. Sorry. Oh, add a shape overweight. And so after the stroke, My, you know, I wanted to do the work and I think breath work for me and breathing in general. I realized, oh, it could be improved. And so my starting point was much worse perhaps than somebody else. So. You may not find it as beneficial. I think there are really good things that breathing does. If you really focus on your breathing and your breath work, and you concentrate with your breathing and you try to optimize your breathing. It can help with. Circulation, it can help slowing down the mind. It can help with clearing the mind. Uh, focusing, you know, I don't think everything needs a pill. And again, it's nice to have pills like. All the medications for ADHD. Those are great. Some people really need them. I don't know if briefing would work for everybody in that case. But I do think kind of settling nerves, some anxiety, like really taking 10 minutes a day, five minutes a day to really just focus on your breathing and settle your body down. Sometimes it's really all you need. And again, that might not be for everybody, but it's, it's interesting. And again, that's where Cub, the psychedelic thing comes in. It's interesting to see. Some of the different case studies, some of the different benefits were around neuroplasticity and brain recovery. You know the book again, I'm not fully finished with books. So I think this will be more of a ongoing conversation because these little soundbites each week, each episode is only supposed to be about 10 or 15 minutes. And I don't want to go over 15. So. You know, I want to mention the book. I think there's a lot of interesting books. I encourage you to read them. One of the interesting things is that, you know, there does seem like the things that I'm interested in are like, what's different between. Second. Psychedelics in particular like mushrooms versus ketamine versus MDM, a. And how do these different drugs? Relate in particular to stroke and neuroplasticity and the brain's ability to rewire we shape. Transform. There was definitely some talk in the book. And again, I didn't pull out all the specific examples. Uh, It doesn't mention a stroke at least. We're through chapter eight or nine, I believe it mentioned stroke a few times. And again, it talks about enhanced neuroplasticity. Kind of just see enhance emotional resilience, you know, that kind of emotional resilience. You can kind of tie that to. Some of the you know, I think a stroke survivors, we all go through an emotional process, a healing process. It can help maybe accelerate some of that little bit of PTSD or emotional processing. And. A lot of stroke survivors face mental challenges. You know, there, there is a lot of anxiety. There's a lot of fear of the unknown. There can be a lot of depression. There could be a lot of. Isolation and loneliness and, and, and yeah, there's a lot of things that go on. And go into this right. It's very, no nuanced. Again, I talked to many survivors this week and if. I met a few new people. That Lu. Aren't in the same situation as me. Yeah. I met a gentleman. Who's huge wife, unfortunately, or his, I don't know if it was his no, not his wife. But he's a longtime partner left him, you know, that's, that's something that's not uncommon in the stroke community sometimes. Uh, wife, husband, partner, whatever. A significant other. Often. May leave the person whose you don't. It blows my mind. I feel horrible for these people because. It's hard to be a stroke survivor. Difficult. It's hard enough. I couldn't imagine where I'd be. If my wife had decided to leave. And I'm very grateful and very thankful that she didn't and that she, she wants to be a part of my life and I want to be better for her. And I want to be better for my kids. So there's a lot of things, right. And this is again, why we're having this conversation. Not even just, you know, there's a lot of things to discuss in the book. I don't have all the notes in front of me. I should've had them all in front of me. I was just thinking about a lot of stuff today as a pairing for this episode of the gym and thinking about things. You know, there's a lot of initial research benefits that are discussed, whether it's acutely, you know, acute treatment for stroke, it's motor recovery. You know, The research is a little thin right now, from what I can tell, but I feel like if I went digging, I could find a lot more. And so that's something I'm going to do, you know, and we'll talk about this down the road in the future. Again, I really want it to make an effort to get that episode out Monday, or at least an episode with bill Whole episode on Wednesday and this'll be out today, Friday, November 15th. You know, I wanted to come back and share what I learned this week. And it's not everything it's not totally comprehensive, but it's a start. And I definitely. And more and more curious, the more I learn, the more I read or with more listening to on audible. About those benefits again, neuro-plasticity. We talk about it. At nauseum. Resilience emotional resilience, improve motivation and improve motor skills. These are all kind of interesting things. Anyways, I'm going to leave it there for today, but I just want to wrap up that, uh, you know, Back on Monday with another episode, I have a couple ideas. I don't want to tease anything in particular, but there is a book that I've really enjoyed that I read this week as well. Called w uh, do hard things by Steve Magnus. Really interesting book. I like books on this cause I like. Were they, I like doing hard things again. I joke all the time that I love doing hard things. I might've not chosen to be a stroke survivor in hindsight, but you know, Life throws things at you and you just have to kind of adapt and overcome. I know that very cliche and easier said than done. But, uh, yeah, it's, it's really interesting. So. Anyways. I hope you had a great week. I'd love to hear what you were up to. What did you, what success did you have this week? You know, could be big, could be small. Share with me. Uh, what kind of topics do you want to hear on these episodes? That I have a lot of thoughts. I've, I'm really interested in a lot of topics. I like the way this is going. I hope it's sustainable. I like having a little conversation on Monday to kick off the week, wrap it up on Friday and then, you know, trying to have more guests on the full episode. So I could, you know, I don't mind doing solo episodes, but I think having guests on. More regularly as something that's kind of getting, I'm getting in that flow, of course, towards the end of the year as we go into the holidays. So we'll see how that goes. But I'm committed to it. Uh, you don't want to commit it to the rebrand. That's going to happen again. The lovable server podcasts will be com. Survivors science. So they'll, they'll still be these soundbites, but that's kind of this transition that we're going through right now. Where the little bull server by the end of the year, would that be. Renamed and rebranded to survivor science and everything will fall under. As I hit my microphone, the big umbrella of survivors science. So yeah, go to the, go to the website, survivors, science.com. Got some new articles out there. Got, uh, you know, this coming out today, Friday, November 15th. And again, curious to hear your thoughts. What are some topics you would like to hear about? What are you, do you like talk about? Yeah. And it was hope you have a great weekend. Hope you enjoy some downtime. Hopefully you get to relax. That's always important as it Stokes to wherever. Try not to overdo it. I'll try not to overdo it, but, uh, we'll see where we're at. And, uh, yeah, I'll see you back here on Monday. So have a great weekend.