How psilocybin, the psychedelic in mushrooms, may rewire the brain to ease depression, anxiety and more
How psilocybin, the psychedelic in mushrooms, may rewire the brain to ease depression, anxiety and more | CNN
Anecdotal, but it seriously saved me from my old habits of thought, helped me learn to meditate and feel present, showed me what it’s like to be okay for a little while.
I usually do shrooms at least once or twice a year, whenever I feel like I'm stuck in a shitty thought pattern and can't seem to get out of it. Although I did some like 2 weeks ago after over 2 years of not doing any because I was scared I was going to have a difficult experience. (Surprise, I did and I've never suffered so much in my life before. Still worth it.)
It's super weird how for at least a week after, no matter what kind of experience I get, my thought process is so much more... flexible I guess? Really don't know how to describe it but it is such a blessing.
I did some like 2 weeks ago after over 2 years of not doing any because I was scared I was going to have a difficult experience. (Surprise, I did and I've never suffered so much in my life before. Still worth it.)
I haven't done shrooms in almost two years for those same reasons despite really missing the experience. This is making me think I need to take the plunge and use it as an opportunity for introspection, however tough that may be.
Increases brain plasticity so it makes sense to change how flexible your thought processes are.
Apparently a bad trip is better for depression etc than a good one, and my first bad trip I agree was the worst experience, but it actually helped me shift perspective and feel there really was a ‘worse’.
There's no "may" about it.
The FDA has labeled psilocin a breakthrough drug twice because it's extremely effective in clinical trials at treating depression and anxiety while being non-toxic and non-addictive.
It would be widely adopted already if it didn't have that one nasty side effect where it reveals how the artificial control structures implemented and enforced through a state monopoly on violence are based more upon maximizing profits and serving personal pet interests than actually attempting to build and maintain a robust and coherent society.
Idk, they're illogically banned in a lot of countries.
Pretty cool psilocin is scientifically validated and being decriminalized in the US. Good to see.
I will take relatively late over never.
The FDA needs to be given rescheduling authority instead of the DEA. As it is, the FDA can only submit recommendations and then everyone waits around to see if the cops in the DEA agree or not.
Completely agree, another example of idiotic bureaucracy getting in the way of helping people
"Sounds like less work and a lower budget. Nope, definitely needs to be illegal."
It's been sixteen years since I've done shrooms.
In present day, I don't feel like I've got a safe environment to do them.
I've only ever had great experiences with them, but I would not attest that any of them in any way had an effect on how my brain functions at it relates to things like anxiety and depression. It's always just been...fun.
I mean, who doesn't love it when you're naked in a hotel room with your wife and suddenly you're underwater and she's turned into a delicious, sensuous sea anemone? But therapeutic? Yeah, never felt anything like that.
I've heard of the microdosing thing the kids are doing these days, but it's too foreign of a concept for me to experiment with.
I'd like to propose the theory that being naked with your partner in a hotel room, on shrooms, might not be exactly the environment / setting most conductive to personal growth and introspection.
As you said, it's fun, so you might have just marveled at the experience. The medical setting is a controlled environment, with clear goals, setup, protocol and licensed professionals on site. Also, the integration step after the experience is crucial for therapeutic success.
High-fiving your partner after having what can potentially be amazing shroom sex doesn't count as integration / therapy. Mind you, I don't mean to be offensive in any way, what you described is amazing and fun, but probably not therapy. It's okay to do every so often though.
Also, very experienced people can attain therapeutic effects tripping on their own, but that's generally not recommended at all. Shrooms have incredible potential, but it's not a cure-all medicine that mystically solves all mental issues simply by tripping - you still have to put in the work.
I'd like to dispel the notion that shrooms replace therapy - they assist it greatly.
I perceived something like an ease of anxiety, it happened when I was already older, like over 40, and was experiencing a lot of stress at work and private life. It wasn't even my intention, to do shrooms for this reason. I just felt like it and made myself a cozy Friday evening, with shrooms. For a moment i had it all laid out, something like a mind map, with all my problems pointing to the stress agent. I felt a sense of ease, because i was never able to focus on one problem before and now i was focused not only on one, but all at the same time. It was also like i had taken a few steps back and was observing from a distance, which helped to see things clearer.
It is so difficult to explain, because i felt a complete absence of emotion towards the problems, but at the same time i was as emotional as i haven't been for a long time. It was like being able to filter all things you are sensing and abstracting emotions from things that actually don't deserve emotion, but rather cold minded rational thinking, to be able to deal with it.
It was by far not the all around healing and problem solving experience, but it changed the way i face things in life from the ground up. It's a state of mind that always helps me to connect with myself.
What i like about the experiences while on shrooms, is that you don't forget the experience and still reflect about the whole ordeal even days later.
To me, it always feels like a natural way of unintended self therapy. Unintended, because i never plan to think about something specific, when consuming and i don't have any expectations beforehand.
Also, not every experience is the same or goes as deep as the last one. Sometimes it's all just about laughing at some good comedy, enjoying a new album or taking a walk and enjoy nature.
In terms of micro dosing, it's basically just taking a virtually unnoticeable amount and going about your day. Like how they have those chocolate bars now, just eating like a half a square, and then doing your thing and seeing how it impacts your mood. Like doing a full dose, start small and gauge the effects.
It can also have lasting effects that produce anxiety. I'm an advocate for their use but my last trip was my last drug ever. I can't do them without having major panic attacks.
You almost certainly overdosed when you did it. You might be more sensitive than most people and need less.
Nah. I've tripped hundreds of times and that time was just 1.5g of some particularly strong ones. Had a very very bad experience that literally left me with PTSD. I'm def more sensitive than most people to them but I've done as much as 20g without the effects the last trip gave me. It's all about where you're at in your head at the time and I made a poor decision which has a lifelong effect. I'll never ever touch shrooms or even weed again. Ever. Last time I smoked weed after that trip (daily smoke for 20 years) I almost went to the hospital before my wife settled me down. I thought I was having a heart attack but of course it was just a panic attack.
Shrooms are very powerful and have the ability to cause complete paradigm shifts in us permanently.
I've been microdosing for a while to treat my PTSD. It's helped me more than I can relate. Since moving to the Netherlands it's also become so much easier. You just go to the smart shop and get a microdosing kit. I dosed for the first time in a couple of months yesterday and now I remember just how big the impact is.
For folks in the US, psilocybin is legal for medical use (under medical supervision) in Oregon. They are also decriminalized in Colorado. Ketamine is also legal in Washington for medical treatments. Last I checked in people in WA were also trying to legalize it.
Ketamine has also been super helpful as a PTSD treatment. I would recommend both, but I'd recommend really understanding what you're getting in to first. I don't think they really prepped me well for the ketamine treatments.
If someone wanted to go through this treatment, is there any recourse for doing it in a controlled and sanctioned environment yet? Preferably under the watchful eye of certified psychologists? Psychedelics scare the hell out of me because my brain, unchained, scares the hell out of me.
For psilocybin I haven't seen much, but I have seen a lot regarding Ketamine which has had very optimistic research as well.
if you're in the US, your best bet is at Johns Hopkins. Contact them and ask.
They're legal in Oregon and Colorado. Oregon has medical treatment programs. I don't know about Colorado. Washington had ketamine treatments, which operate in a similar way and include a medical professional to administer and monitor you.
Oregon has clinics, but they cost a lot even if you live nearby. I'd be surprised if insurance covered it.
Otherwise, you have to know somebody who knows somebody.
It is almost certainly bullshit but if you haven't read Scared Mushroom and the Cross go ahead.
So many serotonergic psychedelics have been in vitro and in vivo proven to be neutriogenic. We could develop drugs that do that physical benefits without any psychological "side effects" but oops, DRUG WAR! All of those chemicals are forever forbidden and if you make anything that even looks structurally the same as any of those big no no drugs, well those are just the same. Idk what indiananol rungs are but straight to jail. Take your Prozac. Oh that didn't work? Take your wellbutrin. Oh that didn't work? Take your zoloft. That didn't work? Well we have enough random ssris that we don't fully understand that well just keep giving you different ones until you're numb enough to shut the fuck up and go to work.
That really is all it boils down to for most of the world. Even to people who think they care about you, they don't really want to know "how's it going" unless the answer is "good'n'you?"
Just stop being so sad it's all in your head Just get up and go to work/school/that thing, I don't know why that's so hard Other people have it worse
Sit down, do what you're told and be a good little drone and maybe after 50 years you might be allowed to sit in a small room where no one visits you until you die.
Psychedelics also foster creativity and imagination, which trauma inhibits. The greater the trauma (say, from climate change, genocide, mass shootings, etc), the less one's ability to imagine a better world, and thus the less one's ability to create it.
This is why the Republican strategy seems to just be "random terror and cruelty" and why the revolutionary period of the 60's and 70's were the direct result of the creation of LSD.