Update from Lisa: A Sexual Assault Survivor Who Benefited from MDMA

Last summer, I published a testimonial in the MAPS Bulletin about how MDMA helped me heal on a deeper level from lingering trauma many years after a sexual assault. Several months later, I was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after I'd already begun to recover from it. Ironically, I was making an appeal in my testimonial in support of clinical testing for a disorder that I didn't even know I had.

Without a doubt, MDMA was the catalyst that began and accelerated my healing. It made me more aware on a conscious level of the fundamental problems I was facing. It helped facilitate effective communication with my therapist. And, most significantly for me, it gave me a goal. I wanted to feel connected to others and accepting of myself as much and as often as I possibly could.

It's remarkable how calm and happy I am now. The recurring nightmares have not come back. I sleep and eat better. I'm not constantly focused on negative thoughts or replaying events from the past in my mind. And, for the record, I have not had a desire to take the drug again. Although, it would be reassuring to know that I could safely and legally if I ever wanted that kind of healing again.

MDMA is certainly not a panacea, but it is inhumane to deny its therapeutic benefits to people who could have their lives restored if they had safe, clinical access to it.

Many blessings to those of you who are working to modify the current fear-based policy.

Lisa

To read Lisa's original account in the Summer 2002 MAPS bulletin, click here.