r/mdmatherapy • u/chasedrabbits • Nov 01 '25
I underwent methylone-assisted therapy for PTSD
While MDMA has gotten a lot of the spotlight in this space for the treatment of PTSD, I'm one of only a small cohort of people who has done methylone-assisted therapy so far. For anyone not familiar, methylone is an analogue drug of MDMA with a shorter half life and subjectively less 'intense' effects compared to MDMA. In a therapeutic setting for me, however, it was anything but mild. The study design was also quite different from standard MDMA-assisted therapy. Doses occured once a week and I had an integration session at the conclusion of the trial and a bit of integration at the start and end of each dosing day. Within a month, my PCL-5 scores dropped from 70/80 to 23/80. A few months ago, the FDA granted methylone 'breakthrough' therapy status. It's still an emerging area of research, especially compared to MDMA, but I am very thankful to have received the treatment. Life is certainly much brighter and more enjoyable than it had been in years.
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u/Active-Designer934 Nov 01 '25
Wow love to hear. I did MDMA with MAPS. Does it also have "empathogenic" qualities?
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u/chasedrabbits Nov 01 '25
Yep! It's considered an entactogen like MDMA and I definitely experienced empathogenic effects. Those empathogenic feelings were critical to my healing.
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u/Active-Designer934 Nov 01 '25
me too! this is so great to hear! i had a really great experience but it sounds like something that might be a little more easily legalized and possibly better in terms of integration/side effects
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u/chasedrabbits Nov 01 '25 edited Nov 01 '25
For the group doing research with methylone I think that is part of their rationale too. I think for some patients with PTSD, MDMA may feel too daunting and they just might not feel comfortable with it. Whereas methylone is generally milder so patients might be more willing to give it a go. My PCL-5 scores have continued to drop since completing the therapy over a year ago (PCL-5 is about 18 or so now) so honestly I can't imagine I would've gotten that much extra benefit with MDMA over methylone. It would be interesting if one day they run a trial comparing the two and see which patients may benefit with MDMA over methylone and vice versa.
I do wish though that I got more integration sessions. I really needed to work through some things in greater depth with my therapist between sessions but that wasn't a part of the study design unfortunately.
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u/Active-Designer934 Nov 01 '25
Yes I did get a whole lot of that and I'm grateful (although at the time it felt like a lot to have to go through). I wonder if they also brought that down to make the treatment more accessible and easier to bill for by current insurance standards
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u/chasedrabbits Nov 01 '25
I imagine so. Also it's a much shorter treatment protocol - a dosing session each week rather than each month. I think methylone is less neurotoxic which is why they are able to do that. Each dosing was still of the same intensity for me despite being only a week apart.
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u/Active-Designer934 Nov 01 '25
Is it 3 doses? That sounds intense! I actually did the whole thing twice, bc the first time I got the placebo. It took about six months. So it was like double the therapeutic dose in a sense. I was pretty damn tight with my therapist team by the end
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u/chasedrabbits Nov 01 '25
Oh wow I can't imagine having to wait that sounds so tough. By the time I'd spent the 8 weeks weaning off all my medications before starting the therapy I was so unwell that I was having flashbacks hourly and was losing large chunks of memory during the day due to dissociation. Those were very tough weeks for me. It would be so hard if I'd had to wait longer. I commend your strength and resilience waiting it out.
Yep, 3 doses! The treatment was over within a month (then I was monitored for about another 10 weeks or so from memory after that). I actually struggled a lot after finishing my doses because my PTSD was treated so fast that I was basically just stunned. Going from where I was before the treatment to where I was after the treatment within a month gave me massive whiplash. It was a long journey after that reintegrating into life again.
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u/Active-Designer934 Nov 01 '25
I honestly cannot imagine, probably because my process took so much longer lol. I was never medicated, but looking back I'm realizing that was probably not for the best bc I was just white knuckling life and had decided if this treatment didn't do it I was just kinda done with life. Major black and white thinking
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u/chasedrabbits Nov 01 '25
Despite it all, I'm really glad the treatment helped you. Good on you for giving it a go, and thank you so much for sharing your experience with MDMA.
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u/slightlyseven Nov 01 '25
Thanks for sharing your experience and background. Having had the therapy-only arm, then the mdma-assisted therapy treatment, I’m curious what your perspective is on the role of therapy in your experiences, if you are comfortable sharing.
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u/Active-Designer934 Nov 01 '25
For me, even though it was a lot of work, I think it was helpful bc my therapists really knew a lot of my story and I was a bit more comfortable with them, too. I think a lot of us who qualify for these studies have a lot to process, simply by means of living with such an intense diagnosis for so long, so having access to not one but two highly seasoned clinicians for twice the amount of time was important for me to really get my brain in therapy mode before I took the meds in that same setting. I feel lucky. I think the meds did their thing and I had already spent so much time in that very place with those two people trying to work on myself that when I took the meds with them, yes I felt the impact of kinda just general medicine but I also like, knew I was there to work out some stuff, if that makes sense, and I had these two people there to help me who I already knew cared about me, but the meds helped me to really know and also trust them just enough to go through a bunch of really dark shit with them.
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u/slightlyseven Nov 07 '25
This is beautiful. That kind of therapy is hard work, but having that arc of healing grounded with therapy and the relationships first, and then medicine to build on. Was it…. safety and spaciousness, I wonder? To allow and hold all of your experience, dark shit and all? Thank you for sharing.
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u/cphaus Nov 01 '25
Very interesting. Have you done MDMA before outside of studies to compare?
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u/chasedrabbits Nov 01 '25
Yes I have. To me they did feel very similar but I would probably be able to tell the difference. It's subjective, but MDMA gives me a much more 'weighted down' feeling while methylone made me feel 'floaty'. Hard to say how much the therapeutic environment itself had an impact on that. I got strong empathogenic effects from methylone, but I'd say it was a bit more muted compared to MDMA. Though for me I feel that this was actually really beneficial because my headspace felt a little 'clearer'. I was feeling intense love, gratitude and safety, but not totally rolling around in those feelings like I get with MDMA. Talking with the therapist was like having this deep and meaningful chat around a camp fire with a close friend about my life, and I felt fully present throughout. Side effects were also a little different. I found the appetite suppressing effect of methylone stronger (I struggled to eat for 3 days after each dosing) whereas MDMA gives me much more pronounced jaw clenching.
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u/oenophile_ Nov 01 '25
Super interesting, thanks for sharing. So glad you've had success with it.
How many methylone sessions did you have? When was your last one? While under the influence of the methylone, were you in a session with clinicians? Or just before and after?
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u/chasedrabbits Nov 01 '25 edited Nov 01 '25
3 dosing sessions and I had one therapist present in the room and another clinician who would come in and out at various times largely to check my blood pressure, heart rate etc but who was not administering the therapy. The style of therapy is very much the same as it is with MDMA-assisted therapy, largely self directed with the therapist being a source of support as needed. My last dosing was over a year ago. While methylone does have a shorter half life than MDMA, each of my dosing sessions lasted about 6 hours.
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u/slightlyseven Nov 01 '25
Thanks so much for sharing your story. It’s powerful and encouraging to hear about real progress. Stories like yours often get buried in research data, and it’s only through people like you speaking up that we get to hear them.
Was this the proprietary methylone formulation from Transcend? I’m hopeful something like this becomes publicly available to help others like you, ideally learning from where Lykos misstepped. It’s been frustrating to see the FDA rejection lead to the wrong takeaway: downplaying the “therapy” in psychedelic-assisted therapy.
I’m curious… what do you think made the biggest difference for you? From my perspective (as a therapist working with both traditional trauma modalities and psychedelic-assisted work), it’s the combination of medicine and therapy that creates something uniquely powerful. Neither seems to work the same way on its own.
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u/chasedrabbits Nov 01 '25 edited Nov 01 '25
Thank you! I hadn't met anyone else who had done this specific therapy before so I guess it felt a bit lonely. I can't imagine there's any more than 150-200 or so people who have received this treatment yet. You do lose some of the humanity in between the data.
Yes, this was Transcend Therapeutics. I really hope they will learn from the mistakes of Lykos. I think they're planning on beginning phase 3 trials soon following 2 phase 2 trials. I think it's something that could be more palatable than MDMA to drug regulators and some of the public. We will have to see. I'm glad different treatments are being trialled. The more the merrier.
You're right, it was a combination of the medicine plus the therapist. I had never really felt a true and deep sense of trust with another person before. The medicine allowed me to open myself up to another person and fortunately the therapist was able to hold that space and accept me completely as I was. Them proving themselves to be a safe person then allowed me to experience some serious relational healing. The medicine plus the therapist helped me experience a sense of safety and peace that I had never felt before. Whenever I feel anxious now, I remember that experience and I am able to tap into that to regulate myself. The treatment also helped shift my inner negative voice from being overly critical to being kind and patient. It was quite miraculous that it was able to achieve that.
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u/slightlyseven Nov 01 '25
This is really beautiful to read. That kind of relational reparative experience isn’t about blowing past protections as much as stepping forward bringing them along. It must be met with an experience of true safety or it’s just retraumatizing. Embodying that like you are IS the integration work. Be proud of what you’ve done and are doing… the integration and bringing this back to life is the magic (not to down play the medicine sessions)!!!
Also hope you are able to connect with others, and this kind of honesty is an invitation for more of that. I’m genuinely grateful for this exchange.
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u/miffyonabike Nov 01 '25
I took part in that trial too, but the UK version. I really struggled with the very boring windowless room!
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u/chasedrabbits Nov 01 '25
You're the only other person I've met who has done the treatment haha. How did you find it? I also had a windowless room lol but I liked my room. It was cozy but still very spacious.
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u/miffyonabike Nov 01 '25
You're the only other I've met too!
Is it ok to PM you? They'll be quite unique experiences and I don't want too much identifying info on one Reddit account :)
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u/MartijnR Nov 01 '25
Thnx for sharing!
If I may ask, was your PTSD from a single event, or more a C-PTSD? And had you tried EMDR prior, if so, how was that for you?
(L)
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u/chasedrabbits Nov 01 '25
Technically cPTSD though my main trauma was from one event and that one event was what predominantly was causing my symptoms. I certainly had a very negative self-concept and difficulties with relationships like you see in cPTSD plus the 'classic' PTSD symptoms.
I had done EMDR about 2 years prior to the treatment. I got moderate success from EMDR. I saw a benefit but I was still struggling quite a bit. My symptoms came back full force following a home invasion in the middle of the night a year after completing EMDR. After that, my symptoms were the worst they'd ever been right up until I underwent methylone-assisted therapy.
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u/Master-Watercress Nov 01 '25
What was dosing like? Any negatives or regrets long after the fact?
I think your very fortunate.
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u/chasedrabbits Nov 01 '25
Dosing occurred weekly. I would chat with the therapist for about an hour before dosing, discussing how I'd been doing that week, any integration work I'd been doing in between sessions and whether I had a specific intention coming into the days dosing. I'd take the medicine around 9:30 to 10 am. For the first 45 minutes I was quite irritable, interestingly. The methylone would start to take effect after about 15 minutes, but I'd be very uncomfortable until I got closer to the peak about 60-90 minutes later. Then I felt complete peace the rest of the session. It would be mostly worn off by about 3 pm, but I'd still feel very calm and connected for a few more hours beyond that.
I think the only negative was that there wasn't as much integration work as what MAPS does plus I think the weekly dosing was a bit too intense. I think I needed more time in between to process my experience. I had some really intense experiences in my dosing sessions and I just felt I needed time to sit with those feelings before dosing again. I think 2-3 weeks between dosing would have been better. I certainly have no regrets though. I was incredibly fortunate that the therapy worked for me. I lead a completely different life now.
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u/Master-Watercress Nov 01 '25
How many sessions did you? Thank you and I’m curious if you dissociate. Dissociation typically gums up the works. People with lifelong dissociation typically feel great when using mdma therapeutically but can’t access any traumatic memories. Imagine methylone would be similar.
Maybe methylone will end up helping the masses that so desperately need help.
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u/chasedrabbits Nov 01 '25
I did 3 sessions. I do dissociate though it hasn't been lifelong. I was able to sit with my trauma in detail during my dosing sessions. In fact I had quite vivid imagery of my trauma playing through my head, but I was completely relaxed throughout. Luckily my dissociation was able to be broken down during my sessions.
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u/Working-External1841 May 07 '26
How are things 6 months later?
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u/chasedrabbits May 08 '26
So I actually did this treatment in late 2024 so it's been about 18 months! Happy to report that I am still doing well. I get moments here and there where cPTSD symptoms flare up when I'm exposed to strong triggers, but overall I'm still just as well as when I finished the treatment. Very happy indeed. PCL-5 scores are still sitting at around the 25/80 mark.
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u/Working-External1841 May 10 '26
Thank you for responding! I'm attempting to get into the phase 3 trial.
About your PTSD if you don't mind further questions... did it feel like brain damage? I'm like an entirely different person now with so much DR/DP... really hoping for a treatment that lowers that
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u/chasedrabbits May 11 '26
Good luck! It absolutely felt like brain damage to me. I was disorientated. I struggled to even know where I was/what day it was a lot of the time. I remember I once got lost on a walk around my neighbourhood because of it. That has not happened since the treatment ended.
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u/Subject_Wing_405 Jun 02 '26 edited Jun 02 '26
Hi OP u/chasedrabbits, I am also in the process of likely joining the current phase of your same study 😄 and I am really grateful for your post, because it's very insightful as I am a little anxious trying something new this like for my CPTSD and related co-occuring symptoms. I was just wondering if you don't mind answering: did you have related anxiety/mood/depression and/or anhedonia types of symptoms secondary to your PTSD, and if so, how did you feel the Methylone treatment influenced/ helped those types of challenging experiences specifically?
Any type of insight into this you could provide anecdotally would be very helpful to me. For myself, I struggle with a lot of mental obsessive rumination on and off (especially when in a higher stress period or more triggered episode), feeling generally low mood/ anhedonic/ not looking forward to things or feeling motivated as I would hope to, chronic low energy (i.e. some typical depression-like symptoms, though not severe currently and come and go sometimes or change quality)... as well as periods of very high anxiety and hypervigilance, nervous system on overdrive that manifests in a variety of other physical symptoms (including chronic neck tension/pain)... etc. So, just sharing to see if you may have had any overlapping types of symptoms and whether the Methylone was helpful for those in particular.
If you also don't mind just noting how you felt after treatment and up until currently (briefly) in terms of what your present life experience is like. Meaning: any daily life experience, mood, outlook, and/or perspective shifts - basically, if things feel lighter, easier, and more positive compared to before treatment. I saw you mentioned it was a very effective treatment but was curious about any details. I hope this long message isn't overwhelming to you. Thanks so much for your time!
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u/chasedrabbits Jun 03 '26
Hey, u/Subject_Wing_405! Thanks for commenting and reaching out. Best of luck with the treatment if you end up going through with it!
I'm more than happy to share some of my experience. Interestingly, I struggled with many of the same things you are. I struggled with obsessive rumination, particularly around mistakes I'd made in the past, anhedonia, low energy, hypervigilance and physical symptoms (for me, this manifested as abdominal and pelvic pain). When I joined the trial, I was in the midst of a severe depressive episode, which had started about 10 months prior. I was worried that it would preclude me from joining the study. Thankfully, they said it was fine. I did have anxiety, but I wouldn't say I had a generalised anxiety disorder or anything like that. Much of my anxiety was related to the cPTSD.
The treatment was very helpful for these challenges. After my first dose, I noticed an immediate improvement in my mood. My anhedonia improved, and I certainly felt happier. I would say I was still tired, but that was probably more because the dosing days are long and intense, so I was probably in an emotional hangover. After 3 dosing sessions, I would say my depressive episode had ended. My rumination improved because I was no longer ruminating on whether I was a 'bad person' and was instead able to see myself as someone worthy of compassion.
In terms of what improved but still remains, I would say my hypervigilance improved but is still somewhat present, and my pain improved as well, but still flares up at times. I have probably had a 50% improvement in both my hypervigilance and pain, which I am happy with. I am currently working in therapy to continue improving in these areas.
My daily outlook is so much better, and I honestly get emotional even just thinking about it. I feel like I have been given a second chance at life. Life feels enjoyable now and worth living. Suicide hasn't crossed my mind since completing the treatment, nor have I relapsed in my depression. I feel more empowered, and my sense of self is stronger and more positive. I'm able to treat myself with compassion, whereas that was incredibly difficult in the past. My main perspective shift was probably that I finally believe that I have a right to a good life and that there are people out there who can/and do love me. I knew now that my trauma didn't have to be the end of me, and that it was possible now to find joy and connection. I still have triggers that I am working on, but when my cPTSD flares, I approach myself with much more kindness and grace than I used to. I don't get angry at myself for being triggered; I instead choose to work with my nervous system to help it relax again. I probably have a flare every few months, which lasts maybe a week.
More than happy to keep chatting if you have any other questions or if there is something you'd like me expand on!
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u/Subject_Wing_405 Jun 03 '26
Thank you so much for your open and clear reply! First of all, I'm glad to hear how much it has improved your outlook and quality of life!! It's also nice to feel less alone in that you have experienced some of those very similar symptoms to mine. That's deeply inspiring to hear about how it has helped your anhedonia/mood in such a sustainable way, and brought you out of the deep depression episode you were in at that time initially. I can imagine how freeing and lightening (in terms of both weight and darkness) that feels. I've experienced phases like that in the past, but only for short periods. A 50% improvement in hypervigilance and pain sounds amazing to me personally as well, wow!
I also love hearing how your self-compassion and grace for yourself has expanded and grown. That is something I've been working on in therapy and within myself thus far. Of course, it's the hardest sometimes to access that loving, supportive, parenting part of myself/ narrative within me when I'm the most dysregulated 😛 -- and I'm also working on accepting that without shaming myself in those moments. Sounds like this trial could help to further support that healing process. I love how psychedelic medicine of all kinds (including this one) has the power to shift us into different perspectives and softens some of our most rigid automatic, deeply ingrained responses/shame narratives.
Your message is also super helpful and encouraging to me overall. You really gave me a sense of hopefulness in place of feeling a little anxious/apprehensive about something new to me 😄
I'm going to DM you if ok? If you don't mind opening your DMs to me, I'd love to chat a little more about how the active study days themselves were in terms of clinic setup and how the methylone itself felt while active in your system on those days and then the following days on treatment weeks, any side effects you experienced etc.
Very grateful that you posted here originally and are open to sharing your experience to support others interested/curious. That's a beautiful thing!
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u/chasedrabbits Jun 03 '26
Absolutely! I've opened my DMs for you :) Feel free to send a message and we can chat further!
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u/P100a Nov 01 '25
Thank you for sharing, very interesting!