Veteran faces childhood trauma on psychedelic journey

Michael Giardina, a Navy veteran, sat cross-legged on a cushion in Mexico and drank tea made with ground psychedelic mushrooms. His goal was to find peace and freedom from the deep-seated trauma that has plagued him since childhood. The retreat, organized by the nonprofit Heroic Hearts Project, aims to ease the pain of veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder using psychedelics like psilocybin.

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I went somewhere very dark right away... I was terrified

Giardina's journey into psychedelics was not solely driven by combat-related trauma. He revealed to 60 Minutes correspondent Anderson Cooper that much of his pain stemmed from childhood. His father, a military veteran and undercover police officer, was emotionally abusive. "He'd kind of explode and yell and scream," Giardina recalled. "He had seen a lot of stuff, and I don't think he knew how to deal with it." As a teenager, Giardina turned to drugs to cope, eventually losing friends to overdoses. He joined the Navy at 20, finding a sense of belonging and pride in his service, quickly rising through the ranks. "Wearing the uniform made me feel really proud about myself," he told Cooper.

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But I kept coming back to... 'what a beautiful experience I'm having... I'm finally able to deal with these things.'

However, the transition back to civilian life proved brutal. Giardina felt lost, like he was "living in a bubble" during his military service. The trauma resurfaced intensely in 2009 when his father died by suicide, and Giardina found his body. This event caused him to emotionally shut down. In October 2023, just months before the retreat, his younger sister also died by suicide, leading Giardina to consider taking his own life.

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We realized that a lot of the trauma that they had experienced occurred long before they ever got to the military. In some cases, that trauma, the experience, may have led them to join the military

During the psychedelic ceremony, Giardina described his experience as an "exorcism." He felt his body tremble as the psilocybin took effect, sending him to a "dark place." A staff member from Heroic Hearts sat with him, offering reassurance. Giardina credits this intervention with allowing him to "let go" of what he had been holding back. "I just needed someone to say, 'It's OK,'" he told Cooper. "It helped." He believes it allowed him to release years of accumulated trauma. The Department of Veterans Affairs is now exploring psychedelics in 20 clinical trials for mental health disorders, recognizing their potential to help veterans confront trauma from both military service and childhood.

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He'd kind of explode and yell and scream