Can psychedelics save a failing marriage? The research available on this topic is sparse. While some anecdotal reports suggest that tripping with your romantic partner can be transformative, it may also expedite any impending break-up.
A recent survey study of eight couples – titled “Evenings with Molly” – reports that MDMA can play a role in “relationship enhancement” and improving communication, echoing early findings from research undertaken before the 1980s ban on the “chemical of connection.”
Do you want to help academics understand the long-term effects of MDMA and psychedelics on your relationship – and sex life at large?
READ: Coca Was Used In Europe Centuries Before We Thought
Imperial College London’s Center for Psychedelic Research is recruiting participants for a planned study on how shared experiences with mind-altering drugs affect “relationship intimacy, attachment, and satisfaction.” People who are accepted into the study will receive guidance for preparing for and integrating their psychedelic experiences. Insights will be gathered through questionnaires.
The researchers have reminded prospective applicants that substances will not be provided, and that it is not a lab study.
“Are you planning to take MDMA or a psychedelic substance (such as psilocybin mushrooms, ayahuasca, LSD, 2C-B, etc..) with your romantic partner or attending a psychedelic ceremony with them?” the survey application reads. “If so, please consider signing up for this study by entering the planned date of your experience on the following page. Remember, this study is for couples having their experience in real-world settings (at home, at a festival, etc).”
Participants will be required to submit reports a week before the experience, immediately before, soon after, four weeks later, and then three months following the psychedelic trip.
The title of the research study, which is being coordinated by Imperial PhD candidate Tommaso Barba, is “Predicting acute- and long-term psychological effects of psychedelic drugs in romantic couples.”
In the notes attached to the survey, it says: “Taking a psychedelic drug can be challenging, and potentially emotionally overwhelming in some cases. Before taking a psychedelic drug it is thus important to familiarise yourself with the effects of these drugs, in order to avoid potentially challenging experiences.”
Barba told DoubleBlind: “Another promising research direction involves addressing specific relationship issues, including communication breakdowns, unresolved conflicts, and intimacy barriers. By leveraging the empathogenic effects of substances like psilocybin and MDMA, researchers aim to develop tailored interventions that safely and effectively address these issues within a supportive therapeutic environment.”
Writer Ayelet Waldman and her husband were one of the first couples to do psychedelic couples therapy back in the 1980s. “We found it really transformative: MDMA allows people to address emotionally fraught issues from a place of compassion and reciprocity, without fear or anxiety defense responses,” she told VICE last year.
READ: Microdosing MDMA: The Good, Bad & Everything In Between
“If there’s a long-held resentment or disagreement in a couple and people are too hurt or too wounded or too guarded to talk about that, but then you’re able to use the drug to temporarily get guards down … that can really help clear out a lot of emotional baggage,” Albert Garcia-Romeu, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins Medicine, told TIME.
Therapists do, however, remind couples that psychedelic-assisted therapy is not a magic pill and that both parties are required to engage in the potentially challenging process. MDMA, especially, is believed to induce feelings of love that may be fleeting and could have the effect of bonding dysfunctional couples and storing issues for later down the line.
It could also speed up a split. As TIME reported, “Sometimes, MDMA-fueled honesty reveals fundamental incompatibilities and leads to revelations—like, maybe this marriage isn’t for me.”
