Could Psilocybin cure mental health issues?

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NC

I watched a couple of really interning films this weekend. One was 'Fantastic Fungi" and another was 'Magic medicine'. Both were talking about the effects that Psilocybin can have on curing mental health.

(For anyone that does'nt know what Psilocybin is - its the active ingredient in magic mushrooms)

There was an interesting study in the U.K with macrodosing ( large quantities) and I think one is Canada has just started.

I have seen quite a few sites on macro dosing - very small doses ( not enough to get high) and people have been saying that its massively improved their lives.

Psilocybin is actually illegal in this country and thats why its been so hard to even get permission to have these trials/studies.

I am just wondering if people have heard of this or what their views on it were

Thank you

Nine perfect strangers is based on massive psychedelic doses. Microdosing is below threshold. You can absolutely take a threshold dose for a trip and not lose control while still be aware of what goes on around you. The difficulty is knowing what the dose is. Especially as it is far harder to access the legal LSD analogues properly made in professional labs in some EU countries which will have the dosage printed on the tab.

LSD and mushrooms are considered to be non addictive and ot to cause compulsive use.

I swear by microdosing. Has changed my life. And to be honest the amounts I take, don't have any psychedelic effects whatsoever since it is a very small dosage.

I spent a long time researching and found an online seller and also found a Dutch website that sells the home kits.

Namechanged 

It was a Russell Brand video which piqued my interest about this a few months ago. I'll post a link below for anyone who doesn't have time to watch the full length documentaries right now.

@McScreamysGhostPants thanks for posting a follow up! I was using the map thing to see if there was any near me as I fancied giving it a try (adhd and the resulting low level depression) but I'd just missed the season. Are they the same ones that grow in the wild here? I thought they were much thinner and had a kinda "nipple" on the top of them (looked at about 1000 pictures so I didn't poison myself ).

I'd love to find a study or something to do it "safely" but nothing near me, and I have very little hope of it ever becoming an actual treatment. I have experience of just how hard and stressful it is with doctors and adhd medication which is basically microdosing amphetamine / speed. Mushrooms seem more natural than speed to me, but maybe that's just in my head.

Microdosing is definitely becoming quite mainstream in the US though, with some places decriminalising, so it'll be interesting to see if we start to make similar moves here.

@theusuall

I don't collect from the wild. I cultivate all my own shrooms so I know 100% they are safe and produced in a clean environment under strict recipes and ratios etc. I control as much as I can to try and get consistent results. It's become a hobby tbh.

As far as I know the only ones in the wild here in the U.K are very weak and I've heard people saying that you would need 100 to be considered a hallucinating dose so at least ten for a micro. Every 3 days that's a lot of foraging etc.

I watched the Fantastic Fungi programme and have just finished reading Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake - the whole subject of mind altering fungi is fascinating and could help so many people.

During a discussion with some university friends (all much younger than me!) many of them use mushrooms and a few, who have been diagnosed with ADHD, say they definitely help them feel calmer.

In the programme, I thought the way it helped terminally ill patients feel calm and less scared of what's to come was very emotional. I hope further research brings the benefits to people here soon.

Ignore me! Wrong thread!

I read a book recently (fiction) called She Never Left by C.M.Harris, and it revolves around the psychedelic effects of mushrooms and is an interesting novel. I felt it gave some insight into how it must feel to use magic mushrooms, both medicinally and recreationally.

As someone who has had anxiety and depression, I think this research is really interesting.

I recently listened to an episode of a podcast, ‘This is Actually Happening’ where a man who had chronic depression, having found conventional treatments ineffective, talked about his experience with Ayahuasca, a plant based hallucinogen which produces an intense psychedelic effect. I found it fascinating:

www.stitcher.com/show/this-is-actually-happening/episode/158-what-if-you-entered-the-void-76501164

Entangled Life was a wonderful book. I also read an article written by a man whose unborn daughter had died. He started microdosing and took a one off larger dose to help accommodate the loss. Not sure if that’s the best way to describe the loss. It was a very moving piece. www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jul/13/walter-white-microdosing-magic-mushrooms-grief

I think I must have taken the wrong mushrooms. I thought I was the Virgin Mary and saw faces coming out the walls.

Interested in microdosing though as I’m desperate to get off my meds and found that taking MDMA in my early 20’s helped massively with myH probs (weirdly). Thanks for sharing your info McScreamysGhostPants

I'm keen to try microdosing for mental health reasons (depression, PTSD). There was a good documentary, I think it was on BBC, where one group had psilocybin and experienced short term benefits.

I guess the main thing that would concern me, would be the negative effects on driving ability or parenting and decision making. But the principle of it sounds good. There’s an image in the Entangled Life book of brain activity usually and brain activity with psilocybin. The number of connections in the brain with psilocybin is much more and more varied. So I can see how it would help get out of patterns of thinking. And the documentary on depression was interesting because it seemed like it took people to the root cause of the depression. Like a life time of counselling in one go. Which I guess is also why it’s so intense and would be best done with supervision and people you trust.

I recommend reading lost connections as there's a few interesting studies referenced on this

I’m in the US. I think trials started recently looking into mushrooms and PTSD. There are also some retreats in gorgeous parts of the world where you can microdose under supervision.
I’m in nursing college, and it’s been mentioned in a couple of classes in relation to various mental health conditions. So it’s not mainstream, but I think it’s slowly being researched.

There's a medical academic called Professor Nutt (yes, really) who led some experiments in this subject at Imperial college. he's very interesting on the subject.

[quote McScreamysGhostPants]@theusuall

I don't collect from the wild. I cultivate all my own shrooms so I know 100% they are safe and produced in a clean environment under strict recipes and ratios etc. I control as much as I can to try and get consistent results. It's become a hobby tbh.

As far as I know the only ones in the wild here in the U.K are very weak and I've heard people saying that you would need 100 to be considered a hallucinating dose so at least ten for a micro. Every 3 days that's a lot of foraging etc. [/quote]
That's not true! You'd be totally, utterly off your face on 100 mushrooms! Please, no one who's unfamiliar with them take 100!

I spend many an autumn day up Hay Bluff as a teenager picking muchrooms (it was legal then).

It was a long time ago now and my memory is hazy but I think about 25 or 30 was plenty for a trip.

Hi

@newnamenewyear

I did say in my post that it was second hand information, but I'm glad you have clarified just in case I ever find myself in that situation 😂. That would definitely be a heroic dose 😲🍄

The impact of this on intractable MH conditions has really caught my attention.

I have a recurrent transient, but, sometimes disabling tic from what a psychiatrist said is PTSD, a hangover from one of our kids being chronically and seriously ill.

I've had counselling but it made no difference - I just couldn't talk about it because I couldn't remember the half of it, and, TBH, I like it that way. My preference is to think "he's fine, hurrah for the NHS, hurrah for everything", rather than revisit fucking awful times. I was a terrible patient, polite but totally avoidant.

Even mindfulness, no thanks - if my brain isn't busy then memories creep in and I'm stuck with flashbacks and no sleep. "Mindfulness is proven to be very effective, just try it with me" She doesn't have time in a consultation to talk people through mindfulness, so I could see she was going above and beyond and obediently shut my eyes and imagined walking up that sodding path by that sodding loch. "look at me, Doc, I've got a right sweat on, my HR is up and I'm ticcing so hard I look like I'm a zoom glitch"

I'd much prefer to not have to process ANY of it, thank you - but also, I can't deny that I have symptoms which fit a diagnosis that I just don't want.

Mindfulness makes me anxious. I just wasted resources at counselling. Medication did help but made me fat(ter) (health impacting levels of fatness), and seeing as how I pretend I don't have PTSD then I'm not particularly motivated to comply with meds took away my capacity to have a carry on and a bloody good laugh, both of which are definitely therapeutic! Exercise helps the most of anything I've tried, I'm very disciplined with that til I feel better and then I stop because I don't have a problem, right?

If I'm stressed, tired, or unwell then some sounds can set it all off again, sometimes it's not too bad, sometimes it interferes with driving and I can't talk, usually lasts between a week and a month and spontaneously settles.

I do accept that I'm resistant to that diagnosis because I'm actively trying to minimise what happened when my son was younger.

My care has been excellent, I really can't fault the system I've been in - I just, to quote the kids, "can't even".

The psych had an interesting point that mothers of seriously ill children will cope, for years if they have to, and if the child recovers and we don't need to cope any more then the trauma manifests itself because that's what trauma does, cue MH crisis. If the outcome isn't as happy as my son's was then the crisis gets mistaken for grief and a diagnosis is missed or delayed. She also said that you can't avoid the trauma, that it'll pop up until it is processed, and I see her point.

So, my curiosity is piqued. And, I am rather partial to a pizza ai funghi...

I'm also VERY conformist. Haven't even smoked a cigarette. Went to Amsterdam in my 20s and failed to buy weed. Well, I did, but I didn't know how to roll a cigarette so left the cafe feeling Very Uncool Indeed.

So, how illegal is growing mushrooms and how ill advised is dabbling in stuff you don't know about without medical supervision?

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I can't seem to find or access any PMs