Plant-Medicine Pioneer
For many Utahns, healing from nature is a radical concept, while no one blinks as they swallow down a handful of prescribed pills to help them make it through the day. But with 44% of adult Utahns experiencing anxiety and/or depression, of which 35% are not receiving the treatment and counseling necessary for healing and recovery, the need to look beyond the pharmacy shelves is increasing.
“The art of healing comes from nature, not from the physician. Therefore the physician must start from nature, with an open mind.”
Paracelsus, German Renaissance Physician, 1493-1541
The Utah Bee is committed to exploring and reporting on plant medicines and their benefits, as we believe there are many pathways towards consistent, quality mental health. In this series, we will be exploring one woman’s personal journey as she discovers plant medicines beyond cannabis that work for her as she navigates mental blockages and works through lifelong traumas.
We are grateful to Mindi, a 50+-year-old lifelong Utahn from pioneer-stock, for her willingness to share her experiences within the psychedelic / entheogen experience. As we follow her forays into various plant-based medicines for mental health healing, we must recommend readers do their own research and discuss alternative medications and therapeutic options with their family physician, as everyone has different healthcare needs and requirements.
Mindi
I’ve been loading up my wagon and plan to head west this Friday night down my own personal Oregon trail by participating in my first ayahuasca session. Like my ancestors before me who crossed the plains centuries ago, I am heading out on a quest for something better. I just wish my calico bonnet/apron combo made me feel a little more Mae West and a little less Little House on the Prairie. It’s a tricky look to pull off tbh.
In the interest of full disclosure, you should know that I am no stranger to using a plant as a form of medicine or coping technique. I am a huge proponent of marijuana and have used it in various forms over the past 15 years for anything from treating depression to blazing one up because it’s Friday night. However, I’ve been called up to the BIG LEAGUES by The Utah Bee. I’m equal parts thrilled and completely terrified by the journey in front of me. My mission is to heal my trauma through plant medicine — ayahuasca, mushrooms, etc.
Fun fact— did you know that psychedelics are not addictive when used as a therapeutic intervention? True story! So hopefully, you can stop clutching your pearls and keep reading; you’ll be FINE.
A little intel on me: I was born and raised in the LDS church and married my high school sweetheart at age 21. We had four daughters together and were married for 27 years before our divorce. In 2017 I decided to leave my life with him and start a new one with my now-husband, Colt. Colt was also married at the time. It was a complete dumpster fire and the final act in my marriage that had barely survived a plethora of ugly public scandals. I had long been the poster girl for terrible life choices and reckless and risky behavior. My ex-husband and I were skilled experts in the art of denial and ignored trauma. My life had played out like a telenovela over the past 15 years, and my family and friends had front row seats to my depressing one-woman-train-wreck show. They watched as I slept my way through my hometown and then tried to eat or spend the rest of my feelings.
My life-long Scarlett O’Hara motto was “I’ll think about that tomorrow.”. The problem was that I wasn’t prepared to handle the grief, shame, and anguish that completely wrecked me when tomorrow arrived. After several failed suicide attempts and a deep descent into actual crazy, I agreed to go to a new trauma-based therapist in March of 2020. The fantastic and talented therapist, Ally Keenan, saved my life by diagnosing me with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). She began teaching me techniques and DBT skills to build back the relationships I had lost with my girls, family, and friends. It has by far been the single most challenging thing I have ever done. But it’s also the very most rewarding. I feel great and will continue therapy, but recently felt like I had hit a plateau— I wanted to keep progressing in a significant way and knew that I was ready to try something new. Enter stage right PLANT MEDICINE.
A few months ago, I discovered The Divine Assembly (TDA). TDA is a community that believes in the religious use of psilocybin to connect people and cultivate health and healing. I was immediately intrigued and started reading their articles, listening to their podcasts, and researching any aspect of plant medicine that I could get my hands on. I found credible sources that explained how it could heal trauma and access parts of my brain that hadn’t been previously available. I read story after story about powerful personal insights gained and mental health being triaged and treated in a loving, kind, and natural way. I saw the benefits, and KNEW plant medicine was for me.
Now I guarantee that many of you wonder why I decided to leap straight into this hallucinogenic arena—why not yoga or biking or meditation? The instant I read this process described as “five years of therapy in one night,” I was sold. As a semi-lazy person, another personal motto has been “why walk when you can ride?” I have been putting in the work to get better, but the process has been long and lengthy. I have worked hard on my pre-requisites, and it is now time for me to level up. I am ready to heal my trauma in triple time radically, and plant medicine is the accelerator as well as my vehicle. I am more than prepared to gas up my car and haul ASS down the road to full recovery.
I invite you to follow along with me as I navigate new medicine experiences throughout the year. I will be discovering and documenting what works for me and what doesn’t, what plant medicine feels like, and how my body interacts with it. I hope to add some new-fangled tips and tricks to my arsenal and share insight into the process. If nothing else? Come for the saucy tidbits from my academy-award-winning role as the best leading actress in my own personal drama/tragedy/comedy. Perhaps you might like hearing about my short-lived career as a madame, pimping my husband’s feet, and the process of selling semi-scandalous content to gay males with a foot fetish? What about the time I went to a mental health facility in Provo for intensive DBT training, but WHOOPS, it was a backwoods gen-pop prison with girls throwing cups of pee on each other? Yeah, good times! I’ve got STORIES like the kind you seriously can’t make up.
Albert Einstein said, “The person who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The person who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever seen before.”
Soooo……step inside my scarred psyche and share this unique pioneer trek of my own here in the Beehive State. I come from a long line of strong, brave pioneer stock. So, I guess you could say that I was born to do this.
GIDDY UP and WESTWARD HO!
Follow Mindi on Instagram @plantmedicinepioneer and Facebook: Plant Medicine Pioneer to see more of her trek.