How a U.S. Navy veteran found healing in psychedelics

Why it matters: What began as a last resort for Oneschuk changed the course of her life, helping her rebuild and turning her into an advocate for medicinal psychedelic treatment.

• The Wakefield native now works on the ballot measure campaign to legalize certain psychedelics.

Oneschuk came from a military family. She was about to be commissioned into the Navy when her brother was killed.

• Andrew, then 18, was one of two roommates shot by Devon Arthurs. They were all part of an online neo-Nazi group.
• Oneschuk made it through training and was sent to Spain before being discharged in 2022, but she was in survival mode.
• "I had a lot of great opportunities in the Navy. All those things can't overshadow the darkness I was wrestling with," she told Axios.

Zoom in: She looked into psychedelics after reading about their therapeutic properties. She connected with The HOPE Project, which helps female veterans and military wives with "psychedelic healing journeys."

• The group offered her a scholarship to attend the retreat.

How it worked: Psychedelics don't heal you overnight, Oneschuk said. But the sessions opened her mind to the deep-seated anger and helplessness she had held onto for more than five years.

• The first session with psychedelics revealed the anger she felt about her brother, the bullying she experienced in the military and other parts of her life.
• The second session was "gentler, thankfully," she said. It opened her eyes to the value she brought to the people in her life.

• "When you're in that depression or that depressive state, people can say everything and laud you until the cows come home and try and make you feel good, but nothing lands," she said. "It was the first time that I was able to receive all of that."

Over the next year, Oneschuk learned to rebuild her life. She returned to Jamaica a year-and-a-half later as she started feeling like herself again.

• She also attends therapy regularly.
• Now a grassroots campaign director for the ballot measure campaign, she answers questions from would-be voters about her experience.
• "I don't go out preaching this or really speaking about it," she said. "If people ask questions, I'm happy to engage in a discussion, but I never try to convince someone because these beliefs are really firmly held."

Subscribe to Axios Boston for the latest news and analysis.