A single dose of psilocybin, the active ingredient of magic mushrooms, can lift the anxiety and depression experienced by people with advanced cancer for six months or even longer, two new studies show… The volunteers had “profoundly meaningful and spiritual experiences” which made most of them rethink life and death, ended their despair and brought about lasting improvement in the quality of their lives. Magic mushroom chemical psilocybin could be key to treating depression - studies | Depression | The Guardian
After I finished reading this article, something clicked for me. Not just the direct impact this could have on those who face depression, cancer, severe mental health crises, or diseases like Bipolarism. It wasn’t the benefits this could hold for the medical field or the human race in general. I recognized all those things during my reading, not after.
When I finished reading the article the thing that clicked for me was all of the years that this research could have taken place but didn’t because of the “war on drugs.” A war on the minorities, scientists, and humans of the Americas. A war started by Nixon and propagated during the Reagan era. I thought about how this knowledge that will likely lead to a treatment for one of the most widespread diseases in the United States, depression, has been suppressed for almost half a century. I was sickened, infuriated, and revolted.
It was here I remembered that we are entering Reagan era 2.0 on the 20th of January 2017. I think I need some Psilocybin.
I’ve said this several times before on BB and it’s always worth repeating: a single dose of psilocybin not only obliterated my depression but also kept it in remission for four months. One dose. That degree of efficacy is unheard of in the pharmaceutical industry.
To be clear: I’m pro-med. I take several myself. But I’d rather not have to. I’m lucky in that my mood disorder doesn’t include mania so psilocybin pretty much covers my mood valency, no lithium required.
@Snowlark would you be willing to talk more about your process of medicating with Psilocybin? The reason I ask this is because one part of the article that stood out to me was that the Psilocybin was administered within a controlled environment with the support of a mental health specialist.
The results of the studies were very similar, with around 80% of the patients attributing moderately or greatly improved wellbeing or life satisfaction to a single high dose of the drug, given with psychotherapy support.
I imagine that in the end this evens out to basic hallucinogen safety: having a trip sitter, being in a safe space, etc. @Snowlark, do you have any advice specifically on the way you go about procuring and taking Psilocybin safely?
Pretty sure the mods wouldn’t like that. My oblique advice is ‘Find the others’, as Leary once said.
As for using hallucinogens as medication: @frauenfelder posted a story a couple years ago about people in California microdosing on LSD, which helped with both mood and creative productivity. I don’t know that psilocybin could be used that same way. The whole point of medication is to treat whatever maladies it’s indicated for. By this principle, the regimen described above–a single dose every four months–is sufficient. And I’d much rather take a medication every four months rather than every day.
Not everyone agrees with me on this but I feel a sitter is mandatory, even for the experienced. If you’re taking a substance as treatment for a clinical indication, then you have to view that substance as a medication, which means considering all potential risks. In this light, psilocybin’s hallucinogenic effects are no longer relevant to clincial outcome, so they must necessarily be considered side effects. Major side effects. Unsupervised administration of such a substance would be considered both irresponsible and unethical in a clinical setting.
I seem to recall that spores can be purchased legally, and only run afoul of the law if you start cultivating. You’d want to double check rules and regs in your area.
