Is it actually safe to use psychedelics for addiction recovery, or is it just playing with fire?
In this episode of the Human Journeys Podcast, researcher and addiction specialist Anne Rossignol joins Max De Rosnay, Partnerships at Pink Elephant, to explore psychedelics in recovery and the critical role of firsthand experience in psychedelic science. After three years of clean, abstinence-based sobriety, Anne’s own experiences with ayahuasca for addiction and microdosing for recovery completely transformed her understanding of mental health and long-term healing.
Today, she works as a consultant on the ground-breaking Psilopioid clinical trial at Imperial College London, looking at how psilocybin for opioid relapse prevention can bridge the gap between traditional alternative addiction treatment and institutional data. Anne’s role is to keep the science grounded in the real-world mechanics of dependency, ensuring clinical trials are designed around the actual realities of recovery, not just laboratory theories. This is an incredibly honest conversation about harm reduction, the dangers of spiritual bypassing in recovery, and what the psychedelics and 12 steps movements might be getting wrong about spirituality.
In this conversation:
> “My mission was to be successful — and I got lost”
> Revenge as a life mission: Gaining and losing everything
> Hitting rock bottom: The moment change became unavoidable
> Entering rehab and learning what humility actually feels like
> What it’s really like to be an addict from the inside
> How psychedelics entered Anne’s recovery story
> Microdosing: The first step and what she experienced
> The first ceremony and facing a large dose
> Max and Anne on the real meaning of self-love
> Integration: How Anne approached her next ceremonies
> How Ayahuasca surfaced years of denial and anorexia
> The taboo of psychedelics in traditional recovery meetings
> What the 12-Steps might be getting wrong about spirituality
