However, even despite doing all kinds of terrible and great things to my body and my brain through ignorance growing up, I still don't know how much I condone facilitating these kinds of therapies over non-chemical alternatives.
Well, you should not take (at least not high doses) when your young. You have no idea what you are getting into. It seems we have both experienced what certain drugs can do to a undeveloped mind.
It is something else when you are an adult. I know people who would rather spend a little money on a "heroic dose" of psilocybin, instead of spending a lot of time and money with a psychiatrist or psychologist.
For me it was an amazing experience. It changed me in many ways, all of them good. Made me more humble, less cocksure, much more
caring to everything.
Either way I do not know if I recommend it, because it was also extremely unpleasant during the start of the trip, and people react very
differently to these kinds of drugs. Psychedelics is also just one of many ways to achieve these goals. Since I am lazy, it was natural for
me to do it, instead of spending years to learn yoga or meditation at very high levels. You must go deep to compete with a high dose of psychedelics.