Comment on Mental health
KuroiKaze@lemmy.world 1 week ago
For anyone who’s struggling, I just want you to know that I basically permanently cured my depression, the semi-powerful mushroom trip. During the trip essentially took a side step left in my brain that didn’t fix my problems but fixed the way that I perceived them and how I tackle them. It has since been about 4 years since that trip and the effect s on my attitude and personality have been long lasting. I will say as a word of caution that my attachment to traditional capitalism and some other more normal things in life has definitely waned but I still make my payments and stuff without incident but I just care less. This shit should not be illegal especially compared to alcohol and cigarettes.
Yeah. Psychedelics aren’t the work, but they may very well change how the work goes.
But try reading about your issues and how to resolve them first. Acid pointed a mirror at my face and told me how I was fucking up, but understanding psychological concepts told me how to do better.
Recommending an unsupervised mushroom trip to cure depression to random people is just reckless.
Except nobody said unsupervised. I was supervised by a sober friend and a couple other trippers but I was pretty much in control the whole time.
People get drunk all the time and they’re way more likely to be victimized or hurt.
Thats like the more people killed by cows than sharks thing.
There are more cows and people near cows than sharks and people near them.
As a “socially” acceptable and legal drug, more people use alcohol than shrooms so of course the incident rate is higher.
Are we so pacified that an adult can’t just eat some mushrooms? We can’t even let kids out to play all day or some fictional fuck will snatch them up!
The only things tripping people need to worry about is the same things we’d normally worry about. Stay inside if it’s your first time. If you’re so scared of life that you can’t fathom taking a great life affirming substance, maybe do therapy first.
I love that people are dumb enough to downvote common sense.
Even experienced trippers shouldn’t go it alone if they’re not in a good headspace.
Even in a good headspace it’s risky (physically and mentally) to go on a trip alone.
I’ve only done solo trips. It depends on how you react. I think movies present psychedelics as more “effective” than they are. In my experience, even at relatively heroic doses, I don’t really lose my connection to reality. I get nice visuals, I get some profound feeling thoughts, and spend most of the time just curled up on the couch watching TV.
The pink elephants/elaborate real looking hallucinations aren’t really a thing I think. It’s more pattern based - things turn into swirls and moving color. You don’t see things that aren’t “there” necessarily, more that things are more dynamic.
I usually solo trip as well.
I’ve never had a bad trip, but I know folks who have.
I just took some time years ago to come up with a rough plan to deal with bad trips before one became an issue.
A couple of comedies and my old standbys of Baraka and Samsara for comfort if needed.
A few different music playlists with different vibes to tweak my headspace in whatever direction I wanna go.
And a designated safe space that I’ve never needed to use.
You sound like you don’t know that you’re talking about. Even at my limits of connection to reality I know not to run into the street. If I’m going to get melted by myself I’m staying inside anyway. And if you’re still sure it’s so risky, then accept that risk and move on. When Jason Vorhees slashes you up because you wanted to get a closer look at a flower you won’t have time to regret your “mistake”
I guess not everybody is as smart as you. Congratulations or something.
For me my bad trip basically gave me ptsd ten years ago. I was prone to getting panic attacks though.
Sorry to hear that, regular shrooms user myself. It’s often been said it all depends on (mind)set and setting. Do you reckon your bad trip could’ve been prevented in any way? Was there an experienced user present that could’ve calmed you down? OR do you reckon you were just prone to panic attacks and the shrooms would’ve magnified that no matter what?
i had a bad trip (on ecstasy) and i think i was just not expecting the effect to be so strong. i took half a pill, and the first hour was intense but the second one knocked me off my feet and made me cry uncontrollably.
still worth it though.
I don’t know if in the case of all psychedelics this is true. I’ve often heard, and I think I agree, that having a good or bad trip is relatively independant of dose, rather it is based on set and setting. I’ve even heard it said that with for instance LSD it can be easier to have a somewhat higher dose, because with that you’ll have no control, and you’ll often be beyond even trying to control what’s happening in your head. While with a low dose you might be very aware, and precisely for this reason more susceptible to paranoia and fear, which could still spiral into massive proportions. You might want to control what’s happening in your head, and you’ll find that you’re unable to, which is conflicting. With ecstasy I certainly agree, I tend to think most people that use ecstasy use too high of a dose for their own good. I go by the (max bodyweight in kg)x1,5mg total for 1 evening, and only do it once every 3 months or so.
I elaborate in another comment. But I think psychedelics are not good for a certain percentage of the population, myself included. Of course set and setting affects the odds of a bad trip, they were in my case as well.
Would it upset you too much to explain how this went down?
It could help people that are worried about something similar.
I just got so many panic attacks during my trip. Of course, I didn’t understand what they were but thought I had lost my mind for good instead. Time stopped, I couldn’t think straight, couldn’t calm myself down, at times I couldn’t parse other people’s speech and everything was just damn scary the whole time. And felt like an eternity.
After the trip, I was afraid of anything I deemed “not normal” for months. I got scared by my vision going black when blinking, the occasinal weird joke someone would make, bird noises in the winter, awkward social situations, anything you could imagine being “not normal”. Now after ten years, I occasionally get that when something peculiar happens, but it’s not a constant thing as it used to be. Maybe once a day I get “half triggered” by something but usually I can calm myself down.
I think the whole bad trip was caused by me being generally prone to getting panic attacks (which I hadn’t even realized yet), and bad set and setting. Dark outside, with friends that I didn’t fully trust.
Sounds like what you needed was someone you trust, that’s sober, that would tell you: 'listen, you are currently under the influence of this drug, that effect will pass and you’ll go back to normal, nothing terrible has happened, you are just having a panic attack that’s being magnified by the drugs, but really, nothing bad has happened, none of this will last, the drugs will lose their effect soon, and there is nothing to worry about except for your panic attack right now, that must be very uncomfortable. so let’s try to calm down, let’s focus on breathing together for a bit so we can stop your panic reaction.
I’ve regretted having a sitter present when I introduced LSD to some friends. One of them got a message on his phone, that got him very confused, and although we managed to calm him down eventually, he experienced some severe panic, that I feel I could’ve handled a lot better when I was sober, but unfortunately I was also under the influence. I myself having taken psychedelics monthly for over a decade now, I tend to underestimate the psychological risks for new users, that’s what I took from that experience, and I won’t let it happen again. Psychedelics always need proper set and setting, and new users should have an experienced, familair tripsitter present, always. My friend didn’t have lasting negative effects from the experience but your story proofs that it’s definitely risky and measures should be taken to always take them with precaution.
I’m so sorry that this happened to you.
If you will please entertain my question?
When you say “I didn’t understand what they were” what did you think you were taking?
I’m grateful that you can recognize that your reactions were not necessarily due to what you took but external factors.
I personally believe this PTSD could be permanently fixed by trying again in a safe place with people you trust. I am happy to answer any questions you may have publicly or privately, or just talk. I’m not a qualified expert, I’ve just taken a fucking shit ton of mushrooms over the years.
I usually have a strong trip about once a year. It’s definitely not for everyone though. For me, it ablates habitual mental patterns and understandings. Almost everything turns symbolic that is thrust from the subconscious whether I’m ready for it or not. It’s something that everyone should have access to if you’re willing to open up to yourself.
Well said and that’s the key. Taking mushrooms won’t make you be true to yourself. You have to already be there, at least halfway and meet in the middle.
sadly my friend, within your comment is the reason why it’s illegal - if people universally cared less about money, there wouldn’t be enough people to steal labour from :(
well, it started with the fact they had to arrest the hippies for something, god forbid people care enough about the lives of brown foreigners strongly enough to protest their country killing them. looks bad to arrest those wanting peace so, arrest them for having a drug that makes them more compassionate!
I don’t know, man, it’s always annoying whenever these subjects come up, and the capitalist goblin pulling levers behind a curtain is invoked.
It is the very people themselves who are scared shitless of anything that actually works this powerfully.
It’s either complex evil above or cowardly, lazy ignorance horizontally around you. Which is Occam’s Razor?
“We foresee that this substance might liberate the population’s minds and threaten us robber barons!” sounds too tidy a narrative, and it is attractive, as it puts blame squarely on the shoulders of The Other. It is, however, as flat and simple and false as “both parties are the same”.
Do you know why capitalism is so powerful? Because it gives us what we want. And we suck. There’s no hidden pure angel inside of us waiting to be freed fully formed if they just leave us alone, there’s a lot of inner work to be done, and we suck at it, we don’t wanna do it. We are also a myopic species.
It’s the truth. Former domestic policy chief for the Nixon White House, John Ehrlichman, spoke out about it years after the fact:
“You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities,” Ehrlichman said. “We could arrest their leaders. raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”
Psychedelics were criminalized in the US to target anti-war protesters. This is in the open and on the record, but they’re still classified as a Schedule I drug: no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Neither of those things are true. It’s completely fucked up.
i’m genuinely only slightly exaggerating. read up what documents “supported” banned of LSD in the US. amongst many claims there are such marvels as “no medicinal properties”
i don’t without capitalism we’d suck a little bit less tbf, the whole machine rewards cruelty and preying on those less fortunate
MutilationWave@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Ingesting this substance can lead to deep thinking about the morality of our economic, political, and social systems, as you noted. That is exactly why they are illegal.
They help massively with my depression too, although I feel I need to take them 2-4 times each year to keep the effect. If anyone is considering taking them for their mental health, the most important things to do are take them in a place you feel safe, with people you trust. I recommend stopping all mental health medication for three days before you take them. If you cannot handle going without medication for three days you probably shouldn’t take mushrooms.
Saleh@feddit.org 1 week ago
Note that mushrooms or other drugs acting on the serotonin system like LSD, DMT or MDMA must absolutely not be taken while also taking SSRIs or MAOs. It risks inducing a Serotonine Syndrom, which can easily be fatal.
MutilationWave@lemmy.world 1 week ago
This is important to note although I think it’s extremely rare with LSD, DMT, or Psilocybin. More common with MDMA.
So yeah just another reason to quit taking your mental health medication three days before. I do not recommend taking them if you are on an SSRI or MAOI, just as this person pointed out.
KuroiKaze@lemmy.world 5 days ago
I would say take 2 grams roughly
MutilationWave@lemmy.world 5 days ago
3 or 3.5 grams dried is what I think the initial dose should be. Just enough to start deep thinking and maybe get out of hey that tree has a face! Mode.
KuroiKaze@lemmy.world 3 days ago
That’s a pretty strong first dose for most people, I’d test with something more reserved first