These athletes suffered life-changing injuries. Then, they turned to psychedelics
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Small clinical trials have shown that one or two doses of psilocybin can make dramatic and long-lasting changes in people suffering from treatment-resistant major depressive disorder, though scientists are still exploring the how and the why behind the connection between psychedelics and improved mental health.
Daniel Carcillo wanted two things in life: to play hockey and to be a father.
The Canadian started ice skating aged three and got his start in professional ice hockey as soon as he graduated high school.
By 20 he’d broken into the NHL and over the next decade would play for the Philadelphia Flyers, New York Rangers and Los Angeles Kings.
By 30, he was a two-time Stanley Cup winner with the Chicago Blackhawks and, in 2015, had retired from the sport, poised to enjoy retirement with his wife and three children, he says.
By age 31, he was suicidal.
After seven diagnosed concussions, Carcillo tells CNN that he was suffering from “dementia-like” symptoms, along with depression, anxiety and headaches, so much so that even a day out with his kids felt torturous.
“If they want to go outside on a very sunny day, and I can’t find my dark glasses to block the sun out … I would try to go outside and tough it … that would trigger a headache, and that would trigger head pressure,” Carcillo tells CNN Sport.
