Anecdotally, I didn’t get severe anxiety and panic attacks until immediately after trying mushrooms. I didn’t even have a bad trip, but the next day something was off and I never truly recovered from that.
Thank you for posting this. While not everyone's experience is the same, after hearing all the hype I was inching closer to trying this... but this confirms that it's not a magic bullet and there are dangers. I don't have any specific mental issues right now, so there's also probably no reason to try it. The only thing I wish for, at 45 yo, is to have a faster to adapt mind like I had when I was younger.
I've did a bunch of recreational drugs growing up, but mushrooms were the only one that I swore off forever. It just didn't sit well with me and would lead to a ton of anxiety both during and after taking them.
I think it's too easy for people to get caught up in the idea that these are miracle cures and forget that, just like with any drug, the effects will be different for different people. I'd love for it to be available for people who are seeing benefits, but I don't think there's any shame in people saying, "that doesn't work for me"
Yes, the one time I've tried mushrooms it was a very unpleasant experience. For weeks I was left feeling like I had done some permanent damage to my mental health. I eventually got past that feeling and there might be a point I try them again, but not without professional guidance. Psilocybin is powerful and not a remotely recreational thing (for me at least.)
The first time I tried them, it was like I peaked behind the “curtain” in the Wizard of Oz, and knew even in that moment I’d never be able to unsee or forget it. It was the equivalent of being a child and realizing Santa didn’t actually exist.
Life as I had known it, the things that then animated me, were “shown” to be a pantomime - a joke. It was tremendously sad, and - for better or worse - I’ve never been the same since.
Maybe it was a coming of age experience - something I would have more painfully experienced later anyway. But it cost something significant. It changed me. Still, some 25 years later, I don’t know if it was for the better.
Ditto. They contributed to long-term trashing the psyche of a relative and we have a really strong history of such issues, stuff like schizophrenia that they can trigger. It’s an under appreciated risk.
In general, even with genetically inherited disorders your chances of developing most conditions drop from 54% to less than 18% in low stress environments.
Epigenetics are weird, but if you are past 35 without symptoms than you should be fine without medication (know several people that weren't as lucky.)
“18% chance you go from depressed to schizophrenic” (in reality this risk is going to vary across a distribution of risk) is still not favorable odds the way I see it.
I have a buddy that ended up in a ward, and still phones from time to time.
The 3rd generation medications keep his cycles under control fairly well. Note, prior to being processed by our medical system. These same a--hole sycophantic dealers would target vulnerable people with BS treatments all the time.
Talk with your doctor, get out for a walk every morning, and try out cognitive behavioral therapy when you are ready. =3
I have a family member who has never been alright due to moderate psychedelic and heavy marijuana use in college. Maybe some people are fine, sure, and maybe this is even a rare outcome, but the denialism bothers me when I personally know that they can, at some unknown rate, turn someone schizophrenic and ruin his life. I wish we could get him treatment but he's not high-grade enough to be involuntarily committed but paranoid schizophrenics who hate and distrust their family don't respond well to "hey we should get you treatment."
I have a friend from college who smoked too much marijuana during lockdown back in India. Thankfully the insanity cleared up after a few weeks to a month clean of it, but not all are so lucky.
The denialism and propaganda campaigns bother me. As pro-legalization as I am, I personally have never and will never use drugs. They are dangerous and unnecessary, and I resent those who would influence others' decisions to do something high-risk and potentially very damaging because they want to get high.
I will up front say that while I advocate taking mushrooms to depressed people, and said so elsewhere, I would not recommend them to _young people_.
But I think you might be missing the forest for the trees: unlike mushrooms, there is a _ton_ of research on pot specifically that illustrates that heavy use in the young is extremely detrimental to their mental health, especially young men. The studies on psilocybin/psilocin do not show this.
That said, Michael Pollan has a quote in one of his books that foes along these lines: coming to psychedelics in old age, when you are set in your ways and everything is locked in, helps you break out and reconsider things, but young people don't have those things, so the value is mostly absent.
While I respect your opinion, I disagree mostly by observing the people I've known for decades.
Folks with maladaptive coping strategies tend not to age well, and it is unrelated to the specific pharmacological recreational preferences they have chosen.
Some people refuse help, and will despise folks for trying. =3
> I have a friend from college who smoked too much marijuana during lockdown back in India. Thankfully the insanity cleared up after a few weeks to a month clean of it, but not all are so lucky.
I would love to meet one of these people that lose their minds in such a short time on drugs. I know they exist but I just want to see the reality of it.
Many people with psychiatric challenges (both acute or chronic disorders) will often seek self-medication options. Marijuana is indeed a mild hallucinogen, but you are correct in that many hard drugs can trigger a psychotic episode. Often illegal dealers lace the stuff with addictive compounds that cause severe problems during withdrawal.
Having a family member with active untreated disorders can tilt the odds out of ones favor, but those with intellectual gifts also tend to be more resilient to such situations.
>The denialism and propaganda campaigns bother me
Understandable, after a few years people see the same excuses, exploitive scams, and rhetoric. The Sackler family ruined a lot of lives to capture that money, and I guess a few psychopaths saw a business opportunity.
Exactly. This is why I hate it when psychonauts push the "there are no bad trips" angle. It's a lie, and psychedelics can have a long lasting negative impact on the brain in some cases.
I'd guess it falls in the category of "don't do that", along with things like using dd to overwrite your failing hard drive with a copy of your shiny new blank drive. You shouldn't take psychedelics therapeutically unless you're set up to have a good experience, I assume.
(I've heard that expectation of your experience actually influences your experience a lot, so it could even be self-fulfilling!)
