After being BBC Persia’s lead anchor for 15 years, Rana Rahimpour is now retraining as a psychedelic therapist after being plagued by threats and intimidation from the Iranian regime. The constant stream of bad news has led her to question the impact of crises on people’s mental health and wonder whether many people are becoming more depressed as a result.
Psychotropic compounds including DMT, mescaline, LSD, and psilocybin, which are part of the natural psychedelic category, are being celebrated as a possible solution for tackling mental illness. Rahimpour says that these psychedelic treatments help to take individuals to the root cause of a problem and provide a spiritual way of dealing with it.
While having a trained therapist is advised to share tools like breathing techniques and be present during the trip experience, bad trips are still a possibility as these therapies trigger non-ordinary mental states that may heighten anxiety or fear.
Although mainstream medical circles and many indigenous communities have used psychedelics for centuries, the use of naturally occurring psychedelics such as magic mushrooms remains banned as class A drugs in the UK. However, Australia gave permission in 2023 for the use of some psychedelics in the clinical treatment of PTSD and depression, while the US and Canada have similar permissions in individual states, while magic truffles have long been legal in the Netherlands.
Rahimpour is continuing to read extensively to learn more about psychedelics and is considering joining a formal training program in the US or the Netherlands in her mission to become a qualified psychedelic therapist to provide this treatment to those who need it. She remains optimistic, believing that the clinical application of psychedelics would soon become legal in the UK, and she wants to be ready to practise when it does
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