Where would I start if I want to try psilocybin as a treatment?
It’ll be difficult finding an ‘official’ treatment, as research was blocked for the longest time and has just started up again. However there are various legal ways.
There are groups and tribes that provide treatment or rituals. For example ayahuasca rituals are available in Latin America, and I remember reading about a treatment in Mexico.
Alternatively you could do it yourself, you could visit a place where it is legal like in the Netherlands, where you have smart shops. For the love of all that is holy don’t take it in a hotel room or in the middle of the city, or at a party.
You can’t buy them off the street because there is no profit in it. It’s sort of like an anti drug because you won’t feel like taking more, and it’ll likely take you off other drugs.
Your best bet might be to DIY. You can order spores online, which afaik is legal in most places, but look it up to be sure in your jurisdiction. There are plenty of websites describing how to grow them. It’s a slightly involved process but it’s doable and a batch will last you forever.
I can’t overstate enough that you have to respect it. Look up online how to use it properly. Don’t take it if you have schizophrenia or suspect you might have it.
Consider what dose you’d like to take, you can start small. You’ll need a trip sitter you trust, like a good friend, and you’ll need to be in a place where you feel safe and won’t be bothered by people. The best setting is typically nature. Eat healthy before. Not too late in the day. You’ll need rest the next day.
What will be troubling is that it tries to yank you out of your normal way of wanting to experience things. Your initial reaction will be to fight it, but it’ll just keep yanking until you let go. That can be quite uncomfortable if you’re being stubborn. It’s important to remember that this is a natural part of the process and nothing to worry about, and in fact desirable and what makes it effective. All you have to do is let go and accept it. Essentially it’ll force you to listen to your feelings and exist in the moment.
So as you can see it is rather involved. However, if you have chronic depression or feel really stuck I can personally recommend it. It’s impossible to describe but perhaps you can compare it to going on a walk with a good friend and having a really insightful talk.
Alternatively I can recommend meditation. In my experience it is more powerful and accessible. Even though it is simple, it requires practice. If you don’t know where to start you can find lots of material including apps, books, websites, videos, and even a series on Netflix. Maybe a good start might be watching a movie such as Baraka or Samsara.
Unless you live in a state/country where there are clinical trials/treatment options, youre basically left with 3 options. 1. Foraging, psilocybin shrooms are everywhere (unsafe unless you’re very confident in your findings) 2. Order online (still unsafe but less chance of accidental poisoning, also runs the risk of law enforcement) or 3. That guy from highschool still probably knows someone that can hook you up.
Mushrooms are 100% legal in Jamaica. They were never illegal (as weed is). So the government actually has special business licenses for people who sell them, to promote tourism.
Huh, interesting. I wonder if there are mushroom retreats/‘resorts’ (for lack of a better term, what I’m thinking would be pretty small). If it was 100% legal this seems like a no brainer, and a good opportunity for psychedelic therapists to practice (similar, in some ways, to people going to Mexico for medical procedures, but addressing a different access problem).
I’ll need to look it up myself - I have a hard time trusting social media posts that say mushrooms are no-strings legal (I see a lot of folks saying this about Canada, which is just straight-up false - if you’re part of a clinical trial or your doctor filled out a LOT of paperwork, sure, but despite being open those mushroom dispensaries and clear web services are still 100% illegal). But if true, I’d be curious to see how that’s taken advantage of from a business and therapeutic point of view.
Edit: Does appear to be a thing. Wish I had a better source, but this is published on the Jamaica Information Service, which appears to be a government operated thing (look at the sidebar under Corporate for more details): https://jis.gov.jm/protocols-in-place-for-magic-mushrooms/
25mg is pretty small, even for a micro dose.
25mg of psilocybin, not 25mg dried mushrooms. This isn’t an insignificant dose, roughly equivalent to 2.5g of dried mushrooms.
Thanks, was hoping to find this in the comments. That’s actually much lower than I expected, always thought you had to go on a 5g journey. I personally don’t even get visual hallucinations on 2.5g
Oh damn. That’s getting to the point of tripping right? I’ve been microdosing 500mg of dried mushrooms for a little bit now and have felt some mood stabilization from it but this has me wondering if I should go for a heavy dose and see how it goes.
25mg of mushroom would be.
But 25mg of pure psilocybin is more than a microdose.
Makes sense as long as it works, a lot of people are not prepared to trip balls anyway, even as part of a treatment. Ketamine (for the same purpose, which is increasingly a thing) has the same issue.
Never done drugs but depression is fucking horrible and debilitating. If the price to pay for putting depression on hiatus for a year or two is tripping balls, sign me the fuck up right now. I swear the first second I am retired (and thus can’t get fired for drugs) I am investigating one of these types of treatments. But my understanding is micro dosing is generally the treatment? Idk.
Fun fact, a lot of employers don’t test for mushrooms. If it’s a 5 panel test, they don’t test for it at all.
I agree and have literally done that exact thing for that exact purpose… but not everyone does.
My point was just that having a drug that doesn’t require tripping balls in a tightly controlled setting is a good idea. Not everyone is up for it (personality, circumstances) and any trip has risks, you need monitoring which takes trained manpower etc. - it’s worth it while we have no other treatment, but it isn’t very practical for a bunch of reasons.
Microdosing would be dependent on the chemical.
Definitely worked for me
Yeah, I am going to call bullshit on this one. I tried shrooms once and it seemed like it helped, but then my depression came back a little over a year and a half later.
