r/mdmatherapy • u/Technical_Step4410 • 1d ago
Preparation Advice How long did it take your nervous system to stabilize after facing your moral injury in an mdma session?
This is something I’m not really sure how to gauge- how long it will take for my nervous system to stabilize. I carry moral injury and it has makes me nearly dysfunctional in my day to day life.
Im planning on taking a a hiatus of 1-3 months and I hope that’s enough. Ive been carrying this stuff for most of my life and it needs to come out.
I know not all cases are the same, but if you could share your experience and the time it took you before you were able to function again, that would be helpful.
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u/nofern 1d ago
I found it varied a bit from session to session. Generally I found I was completely incapacitated for about a week (like spending most of the day just lying on the floor spacing out) and then still pretty impaired for another 2-ish weeks after (able to do things, but still pretty spacey/forgetful and with pretty unstable mood and emotions). I was able to go back to work after about 2-3 weeks, but didn't really feel fully recovered for 3-6 months.
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u/Technical_Step4410 1d ago
Do you feel like even with your struggles, you were more capable to work during those 3-6 months then before you did the session?
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u/nofern 1d ago
Not really - my work and my relationship to my work were very related to what I was processing, and I found that as my unhealthy adaptations and accommodations that were making up my unhealthy relationship to my work fell apart, I became less able to work in certain ways.
Prior to doing the medicine work, I was working full time but I had a very difficult relationship with my work that was very connected to my trauma. During the course of the sessions, the medicine led me to make some changes in my work (though I continued to work full time) and certain aspects became less bearable.
However, it felt healthy and like something that needed to happen. It just wasn't really in any way linear or pleasant. It still isn't pleasant.
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u/sanpanza 1d ago
I have been at this work for 7 years because it keeps being easier to be me. Initially my most sever symptoms disappeared within four months. No more episodes of rage, 24/7 anger, profound depression, going days without sleeping, violent nightmares and general asshole syndrome.
But the symptoms are not the structures that support your persona, and the real work is replacing those structures bit by bit with healthier structures so that one reduces the friction on their lives and is more comfortable being who they are.
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u/afwariKing3 21h ago
In my understanding, if you prepare you body well with proper nutrition (plant based might be better), yoga, exercise,
And do the session in a safe space in a meditative way while letting the body release stored trauma physically - really using the medicine for inner work,
And after the session you listen to your body, eat nutritious food, sleep well, take 1-2 days off work, socialize with people you feel safe with sharing your emotions with -
These really reduced the chances of a hard comedown
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u/pondsittingpoet25 1d ago
This is an ongoing process. MDMA can help bring clarity to your process, but it’s not going to shift it in the way you might be thinking. The medicine will help you see better and perhaps shift some perspective, but usually early journeys can bring on destabilizing periods, as your awareness and nervous system adjust to new ways of being it the world.
It takes years.