I think everyone should experience a drug induced mania/paranoia episode at least once in their life. Gives you a lot more empathy for people going through something whether it's drugs and/or mental illness.
I absolutely agree. As a therapist with personal experience, I think it would be cool af and an overall good idea if university degree courses for becoming a therapist included an elective- but highly encouraged- course which focuses on simulating different symptoms
As a slightly masochistic psychonaut it's crazy how I see someone with almost any mental illness/symptom and I don't even question it, like I get it. I've been there. And I'm really glad I could come back, people are stuck there. It's crazy that therapists and psychologists are spending years trying to understand something that can simply be experienced in a day. Even decades of study won't give you the level of understanding that a single experience would.
At an agency meeting once, we played "never have I ever" and one of them was "nhie gone a week without showering;" I was the only one who had, and I got some seriously judgmental looks
A better example is doctors who deal with the amputations or the paralyzed should have their legs or arms bound for a day to experience the struggle.
When it's a fair comparison it also sounds like a damn good idea.
The surgeon might try harder to save that leg, the physical therapist (? Is that the right doctor) might better understand the small everyday issues their patients deal with.