This is the letter I wrote to Utah lawmakers and read at the press conference at Utah Capitol Hill yesterday:
Hello, my name is Shawn Blymiller. Thank you for the opportunity to speak of my experience and why I believe in the power of psilocybin for therapeutic purposes. I was first introduced to Psychedelics while in Graduate School at Grand Canyon University for a Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health. In my first research project I decided that I wanted to study something interesting and counter-culture. At that point, I knew very little about psychedelics but I was amazed and astounded by the amount of clinical trials happening across the globe with psilocybin. These trials were showing awesome results for people with treatment-resistant depression, anxiety, PTSD, OCD, smoking cessation, alcohol addiction, etc. You can see for yourself by searching on PubMed and Google Scholar.
I was personally diagnosed with depression in my younger years. I even took antidepressants for almost 10 years. But I decided to come off of them in 2016 because I hated the way they made me feel. They watered everything down. I was never able to experience the full emotion of life because the anti-depressants held me at a moderate 4-6 on a scale from 1 to 10.
Then I had a son diagnosed with a rare illness called PANDAS. It is an autoimmune illness that causes inflammation of the brain. In the worst of his flares, my wife and I took turns holding him down so that he wouldn’t self-harm. He got into the habit of punching himself in the head, scratching himself until he bled. I never truly understood what an existential crisis was until we faced this diagnosis and doctors told us there wasn’t much they could do. They even told us to plan on having him live with us forever. What I imagined life would be like as a father, changed forever. Every day seemed like an unbearable mountain to climb.
After seeing the clinical trials I made a decision to experience psilocybin for myself. I speak for a patient population that I care deeply about because I am one of these patients. I’m in the process of starting a non-profit for special needs parents. We have had parents reach out to us from across the globe. These parents are struggling. Special needs parents are running a never ending marathon. We are stressed all the time. I have tried yoga, hiking, and meditation, and all have helped to some extent. But nothing has been more powerful and offered more clarity in mind than psilocybin. This compound earth medicine has helped me to understand my own consciousness and the reason behind everything that has been given to me.
So as you consider this bill, please think of the parents that aren’t getting much sleep, are burned out, exhausted and need some additional tools. I want to be the best father to my kids, the best husband to my wife, and the best citizen of our community that I possibly can be. Psilocybin helps me do that.
Thank you so much
#psychedelictherapy
