By Melissa Guida-Richards — 2021
My parents successfully passed me off as a dark-skinned Italian for 19 years of my life.
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CLEAR ALL
A recent study found that even a single positive psychedelic experience may ease mental health symptoms associated with racial trauma experienced by Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC).
In addition to the tragic losses of life and health and jobs, we are grieving the losses of weddings, sports and the ability to buy eggs or get a haircut.
At the individual level, the psychological effects of trauma can be acute or long term, depending on a person’s experience and access to care. But at the community level, a complex and collective experience of trauma can lead to irreparable harm that lasts for generations.
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While individuals of all racial-ethnic minority groups are at risk of experiencing racial discrimination and racial trauma, Black Americans are especially at risk, as anti-Black racism is individual, systemic, and historical.
If you have an African American body, welcome. I wrote this blog post—and the body practice at the end—especially for you. (Everyone else, welcome as well—but please skip the body practice.)
In each generation we have to experience the haunting ritual of a Black family grieving in public over the loss of a loved one at the hands of the police.
Williams is the co-lead author of a recent retrospective study that found those who tried doses of psilocybin (more commonly known as magic mushrooms), LSD, or MDMA (the pure substance found in Ecstasy or Molly) reported a decrease in trauma symptoms, depression and anxiety after 30 days.
“If one of us cannot breathe, none of us can breathe,” writes Buddhist scholar Jan Willis in this poignant essay.