You can't be more of a light weight than me on this issue.
About 4 years ago I was leaving/being fired from my job. It was a 3 month process, and the CEO (~4,000 person company) got involved. It had been years since I worked directly with the CEO, and I'm NOT exec material (think of me an Igor to the MIS VP (and after working with the VP for about 10 years, considered him a friend, and then was I no longer capable of being in the same room with him without becoming VERY animated and aggressive(kill the fucker mode)) who reported to the CEO), so not the area I played in.
So to get the CEO (and the head of HR) to travel to my building for a meeting was a big deal. They came to me, I didn't go to them. Of course, I was locked out of the building at that point and needed an escort. They didn't want me making too many waves on the way out, but they didn't want to give me much of anything either. They wanted to give me a couple of months of salary to be quiet, I wanted a year's worth. I refused to sign non-competes, but drew it out, for fun and possible profit, while negotiating possible outcomes.
I had been doing DMT as meeting prep for about a month at that point. The empathy level boost was amazing, and I could dance through the meetings pretty well. I'd take an almost peak hit in the car, wait for the initial wave to pass, and then head into the building. By the time the meeting started, 5 minutes later, I was capable of good interaction. I was enjoying myself, and and lot more stable with it. Yes, I was MORE stable while tripping on DMT in a high stress end of career business meeting than otherwise.
Yeah, I know, benzo thread. I used to steal valium 10s from my mother. I'd eat 4 at a time when I was 13. I blacked out on them when I was 14 when I ate about 8.
My wife and son (yes, both of them) told me I was doing too much DMT, too often, and I should NOT be doing it before business meetings. They told me to go to my doctor and get something else for the FINAL big meeting 1 day later. I was thinking he'd give me something for stage fright.
I went to the doc (knew him for 20+ years), told him I was going into a high stress meeting that I was freaking out over (and yes I was, a bit, I was going from 25 years of corporate dronehood to being on my own, and I'm NOT the entrepreneur type). I also told him about my DMT usage. I tell him EVERYTHING.
He suggested some xanax and gave me a prescription for 30 x 0.5. I took one the night before as a tester. It made me tired and stupid. So when I went to the meeting the next day, I did the DMT anyway. Good meeting.
So for the next 4 years I've been carrying the xanax bottle around, "in case". I've eaten a few of them so far. The refill auth expired 3 years ago. I wonder when they go bad.
We are closing on a house today! YES! f'ing 3 months of hell. There was NO way I was getting any sleep last night. So I chewed a (yes, just 1, no alcohol, that would make me too stupid) xanax, let it sit in my cheeks for a bit, and was asleep in about 20 minutes
On the other hand, I am the guy who forgot to breathe at a Pink Floyd concert for about 3 minutes (how long is "The Wall"? I didn't breathe during most of it, (whippets and codeine and wine and LSD don't mix that well), (I wonder just how much drain bramage happened) so I'm a bit more wary than most on mixing downers.