Tripping into Treatment: Comparing Initial and Current Motivations for Psychedelic Use
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs February 5, 2025 Daniel J. Kruger, Jeff Albrecht, Jacob S. Aday et al. 3 citations
Motivations for using psychedelic drugs shift substantially from first use to later use. Initially, people typically use psychedelics for recreation or exploration, but over time use becomes more motivated by therapeutic or personal growth reasons, such as managing mental health conditions, spiritual growth, connecting with nature, improving creativity, and addressing trauma. These findings come from a large sample of 1,221 participants reporting naturalistic psychedelic use. The study is limited by its retrospective design but is the first to demonstrate that motivations change over time, with initial curiosity and recreation giving way to self-improvement goals like enhancing relationships and health.