Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions

by Johann Hari

circumstances. When you see a person under the influence of psychedelics, you see why we need an ego. Their ego is switched off—and they are literally defenseless; you wouldn’t leave them alone to walk down the street. Our egos protect us. They guard us. They are necessary. But when they grow too big, they cut us off from the possibility of connection. Taking them down, then, isn’t something to be done casually. To people who feel safe only behind walls, dismantling their walls won’t feel like a jail break; it will feel like an invasion. I wasn’t ready, in that natural landscape, on that day, to let down the ego walls that I felt I needed. That’s why none of the people I spoke with thought it was a good idea for depressed or anxious people to just go and get some psychedelics and take these drugs, unprepared and unsupported. They’re powerful. Bill Richards told me it’s like downhill skiing: doing it without guidance is foolish. What they think people might want to do is fight to change the current laws so these drugs can be administered medically, in the right circumstances, to people who could benefit. The goal in the long term isn’t, Bill told me, to annihilate the ego, but to return us to a healthy relationship with our egos. For that, people have to feel secure enough to let down their deepest walls for a time, in a safe space, with people they trust.