On the third day of 2024, I was set up to take a glance back into 2023 and write a summary of how things are and where we are now. And, also, where we might be going in 2024, mostly from a mental health viewpoint, in the beautiful qathet region.
I thought about some of the heavily influential events in 2023. For example, artificial intelligence (AI) and its invasive introduction into the machinery of our information-driven society.
AI has the potential to be a ubiquitous and omnipresent influence in everything we do, from designing supercomputers for space travel to being an artificial architect of the future; we finally get the long promised flying cars.
Society has changed with tectonic shifts in technology and social organization before, and it will again. Fear and uncertainty are proportional responses to Silicon Valley’s latest variation of the silicon chip’s possibilities.
Eliminating AI from the equation, our social order still seems to be lingering in an unwell place in the beginning of 2024. The frantic search for happiness, meaning and a balance in 2024 is, in one way, everyone’s individual journey influenced by factors such as place and the overall condition of our planet.
We are all connected biological entities, blindly searching for deep connection with somebody, or something. In these ultra-technology driven surroundings, can we find real purpose or meaning?
Are there any answers to the existential questions which sit heavy in our souls? Questions which have been asked for thousands of years since Socrates and Plato provoked ancient Greek society.
Even without the use of the Google machine or AI, the very smart ancient Greek fellow Aristotle pondered if people have free will and the mystery of death.
Artificial intelligence and continuous wars in Ukraine and the Palestine area are rightfully the biggest concerns. Nonetheless, I think the biggest emerging force with the potential for fundamental change is the legalization of certain formerly taboo drugs that might have the potential to bring the real change we need to survive on Earth; a deep change in consciousness or awareness.
In Portland, Oregon, it is fully legal to consume Psilocybin mushrooms, which have serotine mimicking molecules, in the presence of a certified counsellor or therapist and in a state-allowed setting.
There is some scattered scientific evidence that MDMA, peyote, mescaline, ibogaine, LSD, DMT and ayahuasca provide curative and/or therapeutic results in a controlled setting, which could be immeasurably helpful with medical professionals for treatment of alcoholism, PTSD, deep, incurable depression and suicide ideation that could be treated with success.
As a mental-health client who has processed serious drugs and alcohol misuse and lives with acute anxiety, I have transformed my life with pharmacologic intervention and years of behavioural therapy. I strongly advocate for more liberal and divergent ideas when applying health care to a large section of society who are sick and not getting better.
2024 can be the year we rethink our old ideas and apply brave new thinking to disease, planetary destruction and continuous wars.
Bring on a new awareness with a foundation of empathy, love and nontraditional thinking toward fixing old sores in our collective consciousness.
Robert Skender is a qathet region freelance writer and health commentator.
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