Having a ‘bad trip’? There’s an app for that.

Magic mushrooms changed her life.

After taking them in Amsterdam, Lena Russell felt in tune with herself and the world. So much so that she decided to move from England to the United States to pursue a career in psychedelic assisted health care.

But in the days after the trip, she also felt curious about what had happened to her and the ways she had changed. And she felt lonely.

Now she’s helping other people who are dealing with those same feelings as a volunteer for Fireside Project, a new free psychedelic peer support service that launched a support line in April. Fireside is currently sponsored financially by the SocialGood fund, a non-profits incubator, and is in the process of becoming a non-profit. In August, it launched an app that it claims is the “world’s first” of its kind.

With warm, inviting colors and a simple interface, the app is designed to make Fireside’s peer support service as approachable as possible.
Credit: fireside project

Peer support is the practice of making trained civilian volunteers — not a medical or mental health expert — available to listen and talk to people in times of mental or physical need. Often a resource for people struggling with addiction or other mental health issues, peer support is a sub-category of “harm reduction,” the principle that people are going to engage in risky behavior. And that rather than stigmatize and punish this behavior, the best way to help is by reducing the potential for harm.

Why offer peer support for psychedelics users? Psychedelic drugs, including LSD, psilocybin (the active compound in magic mushrooms), ayahuasca, and related drugs like MDMA and ketamine, are undergoing a boom as scientific researchers, as well as the pharmaceutical and wellness industries, explore their potential as mental health treatments. At the same time, the public is increasingly using psychedelics — likely as a “therapeutic mechanism,” the lead researcher from a University of Cincinnati study told Scientific American— without the safety net of a research or therapy setting.

“There’s a reframing going on where psychedelics aren’t seen necessarily as drugs that are going to get you fucked up, they’re going to help you get well,” said Madison Margolin, co-founder and editor Double Blind Magazine, which covers psychedelics.

That “reframing” also applies to what some say is the outdated concept of the mind-bending “bad trip” of popular culture that proliferated as a result of the war on drugs. Instead, using these drugs can result in many different experiences, some of which may be emotionally intense. Working through challenging moments during or after a trip — with a therapist, friend, or even peer support service like Fireside — is important to reap the mental health benefits.

“A big part of what we’re about is destigmatizing the use of psychedelics, helping to mitigate the risks, and increase the potential of what these chemicals and plants have for us as teachers and supporters of our healing,” Hanifa Nayo Washington, a Fireside Project co-founder, said.

In Lena Russell’s case, the ability to provide support and context for people is what drew her to Fireside.

“I would have benefited from a service like that after my experience with psychedelics for the first time,” Russell said. “Definitely, I could have used some support, and grounding, and some help with understanding what happened, and feeling that I wasn’t alone. I wanted to give something back to the psychedelic community that I hadn’t had.”

There’s an app for that

How to design an app for people who could be “actively tripping,” as Nayo Washington put it? Or for people who want to discuss sensitive topics? Making the app inviting and easy to use were top priorities.

“The app is really centered around these two big buttons, call and text, in order to make it soothing, as well as attractive,” Nayo Washington said. “The colors that are part of the scheme are lots of oranges. So the design came to us: It has to be two big buttons, it has to be simple.”

When someone presses the “bright, glowing orange icon,” as Nayo Washington described it, they’ll reach Fireside’s “connector,” who is like an operator. The connector will assess the caller’s needs, and direct them to a volunteer, or to a supervisor with more experience with psychiatric support. The app is not intended to replace emergency services, and a recording tells callers to contact 911 in case of emergency.

Fireside makes it clear that it’s not — and is not a replacement for — a doctor or therapist. Some peer support lines are official services of medical and mental health clinics. That’s not Fireside. Instead, it’s a supplement for mental and physical health care that people can reach out to in moments of need.

Those moments might not look like what you’d expect. Johns Hopkins Medicine surveyed 2,000 people who “said they had had a past negative experience” after taking psilocybin. “Most” of those same people “reported the experience to be ‘meaningful’ or ‘worthwhile,'” and half described it as still “one of the top most valuable experiences in their life.”

In short, a challenging experience can be an incredibly important one. And not all psychedelics users have access to a therapist.

“I don’t think therapy is the only way to get support,” said Brian Pilecki, a therapist and researcher at Portland Psychotherapy, who also provides psychedelic integration services and is not involved in the Fireside Project.

Sitting Fireside

Fireside describes its volunteers as “people who get it. We’ve been there ourselves.”

Although applications are closed for now, the only requirements to be a volunteer are to be older than 18, have an internet connection, and have empathy for callers. Training involves strategies to assess risk and exercises on how to talk to people and actively listen. Volunteers also participate in weekly community “circles” to share experiences and learn from other volunteers.

“We really focus on removing ego, on reflective, heart based listening, as well as scanning and understanding for potential harm,” Nayo Washington said. “We support people, anybody having any kind of experience with psychedelics. That also includes during an experience and then after that experience as well.”

“It feels fantastic to know that I’ve helped someone feel a little bit less lonely…”

Fireside found that callers more frequently reach out to process past psychedelic experiences than look for support in the moment. Of the around 550 peer support sessions Fireside says it has conducted, about one third of callers make contact during a trip, while most of the remaining two thirds are looking for help with what the psychedelic community calls “integration.”

Integration is “the practice of making sense of an experience, and taking benefit from an experience which can include processing anything that was confusing or challenging,” according to Pilecki.

Without knowing the word for it, integration is what Lena Russell was looking for after her first psychedelic experience. Now, she, and volunteers like her, provide empathy and a language for what’s happening to Fireside callers.

“I have experienced talking to several people who kind of just felt a little bit lonely, a little bit lost, and a little bit anxious after having taken psychedelics,” Russell said. “It feels fantastic to know that I’ve helped someone feel a little bit less lonely and more supported, and there are people out there who do care.”

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People on psychedelics are using the line, too. Russell said she spoke with someone who was tripping who called in just because they wanted to share what they were going through with another person. “They just wanted to talk to someone, so someone could experience it with them. Because it was beautiful” Russell said. Pilecki had a client who reached out to Fireside near the end of his trip because he just needed to talk.

“He found that they were very open and didn’t push an agenda, which was kind of what he needed at that time,” Pilecki said. “It wound up allowing him to have to have a better experience overall because he had that as a backup option.”

One user reported that they pulled up the home screen during a trip, but never needed to call because the app’s existence was like a security blanket.

“I believe that just knowing if you have the app downloaded or the number in your phone, it gives you this sense of control on your trip,” said Nicolai Lassen, Fireside’s chief technology officer. “Just knowing that there’s somebody on the other end, if this goes wrong, I’m still in control because you can call these people, and just get the help that you need. I think that the cascade effect of just knowing that we’re out there is very great.”

The net

Researchers across the globe are investigating the benefits psychedelics and other drugs (like MDMA and ketamine) can have for treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, anxiety, and more.

Eventually, Fireside hopes to use anonymized data and anecdotal information to better understand the role peer support can play in fostering positive psychedelic experiences. (Volunteers make call notes, and Fireside asks users to submit feedback forms, but the app collects no personal information about callers.)

For example, according to post-call surveys, 167 Fireside users reported that they experienced a reduction in “stress” and “psychological distress.” Additionally, 41 users in panicked situations that made them consider calling 911 were able to emotionally “de-escalate” with Fireside, instead.

“We want to use our research to show that harm reduction saves lives, and is important to the movement,” Nayo Washington said.

Research from an organization like Fireside could help researchers understand these drugs outside of medical or research settings. But Fireside said that research is secondary to psychedelic peer support.

“That comes before anything else,” Nayo Washington said.

Fireside recognizes that psychedelics use — with both its benefits and risks — is happening. More infrastructure is needed to support people who may be left out by medical researchers or clinics (which might require insurance), or by the for-profit psychedelics industry.

And, for some, that support doesn’t have to be a scientist in a lab coat, or a therapist with an expensive degree. It can be a calming voice, an appreciation of a beautiful moment, or compassion for something that happened 25 years ago.

“We want to be the net,” Nayo Washington said. “We want to be the thing that everybody knows, at the very least, you will not fall, you will not be alone.”