Has anyone tried psilocybin for depression?

[Felodese]

Does anyone have any experience with psilocybin as a medical therapy (not recreational use)?
Did it help?
How long did the effect last?

 

[TheLastGreySky]

I use it for medical reasons, microdosing has really drastically improved my mood compared to anything else I've tried personally.

 

[zeecen]

I've used it before for depression. Microdosed every other day for 3 weeks and had lasting relief for several months afterward. Everyone is affected differently though.

 

[Felodese]

How does microdosing make you feel? Is the depression gone or just less severe? Any side effects?

I've read about medical trials where they've given people a "normal" dose as a one time treatment. Basically you'd be high af while surrounded by medical and psychiatric staff who make sure you don't go crazy or hurt yourself.
Anyone who's tried that?

 

[thealteredmind]

I tried 3 different macrodoses for healing (1g to 2g)

no results, just had a "good time" but my mind refused to do any healing ("healing haha what is that bro who cares") then had bad trips which made no sense (just pure terror, no chance of analysis or any way to working with it).

then tried several minidoses (0.1g to 0.4g), 50% they barely do anything, the other 50% is just a "good time" for a couple hs but that's it. tried doing "the work" with it but it makes no difference, it just feels like a drug and that's all.

finally did microdosing (0.02g) everyday for a couple weeks. this provided a 15% relief from depression. BUT... it was inconsistent, sometimes it just stopped working. and it didn't touch my insomnia, in fact, the days I slept bad the microdoses didn't do anything. I had to cancel it because my insomnia got SO BAD (not due to microdosing) that I ended up on psychs and... well... the rest is history (bad history)

 

[J&L383]

How does microdosing make you feel? Is the depression gone or just less severe? Any side effects?

I've read about medical trials where they've given people a "normal" dose as a one time treatment. Basically you'd be high af while surrounded by medical and psychiatric staff who make sure you don't go crazy or hurt yourself.
Anyone who's tried that?

Looking into it, legal now in Oregon. But . With no guarantee of results, of course.

 

[lita-lassi]

I tried 3 different macrodoses for healing (1g to 2g)

no results, just had a "good time" but my mind refused to do any healing ("healing haha what is that bro who cares") then had bad trips which made no sense (just pure terror, no chance of analysis or any way to working with it).

then tried several minidoses (0.1g to 0.4g), 50% they barely do anything, the other 50% is just a "good time" for a couple hs but that's it. tried doing "the work" with it but it makes no difference, it just feels like a drug and that's all.

finally did microdosing (0.02g) everyday for a couple weeks. this provided a 15% relief from depression. BUT... it was inconsistent, sometimes it just stopped working. and it didn't touch my insomnia, in fact, the days I slept bad the microdoses didn't do anything. I had to cancel it because my insomnia got SO BAD (not due to microdosing) that I ended up on psychs and... well... the rest is history (bad history)

larger doses to help with actual healing generally work best if done with specialists who help guide you mentally to processing and feeling better. people generally don't know on their own/are unable to focus on the "right" thoughts as opposed to just feeling the high or freaking out. microdosing usually needs to have breaks like every other day or weekends off otherwise the brain stops registering the small amount of psilocybin as strongly due to tolerance. im sorry your chosen methods with them didnt work out for you; bad trips are terrifying

 

[oneeyed]

If you're currently taking snri meds, psilocybin won't work. The snri's will block the mechanism that make you trip and as such micro dosing won't have a benefit. Also keep in mind that it's easy to build a tolerance to psilocybin which is why when you micro dose, there's usually a schedule to follow to help minimize that.

 

[Felodese]

larger doses to help with actual healing generally work best if done with specialists who help guide you mentally to processing and feeling better. people generally don't know on their own/are unable to focus on the "right" thoughts as opposed to just feeling the high or freaking out. microdosing usually needs to have breaks like every other day or weekends off otherwise the brain stops registering the small amount of psilocybin as strongly due to tolerance. im sorry your chosen methods with them didnt work out for you; bad trips are terrifying

Have you tried taking a lager dose with a helper present?

 

[lita-lassi]

Have you tried taking a lager dose with a helper present?

a professional no. being babysat by friends or people that think theyre "soul healers" or "spirit guides" isnt the same as an accredited mental health professional of some kind that has experience with this specific therapy

 

[thealteredmind]

larger doses to help with actual healing generally work best if done with specialists who help guide you mentally to processing and feeling better. people generally don't know on their own/are unable to focus on the "right" thoughts as opposed to just feeling the high or freaking out. microdosing usually needs to have breaks like every other day or weekends off otherwise the brain stops registering the small amount of psilocybin as strongly due to tolerance. im sorry your chosen methods with them didnt work out for you; bad trips are terrifying

I disagree. if the depression has a "rational" or "talkable" reason, then yes a specialist could work. mushrooms are like 100 therapy sessions in one.
if the depression has a chemical or genetic or "brain working like shit" cause, then specialist or not it doesn't matter. It might or might not work.

in my bad trip there was nothing to process, it wasn't "bad thoughts", it was just hell. you can't escape hell.

microdosing has different protocols, you can take it for 30 days without breaks in some of them. I know how the tolerance thing works.

 

[lita-lassi]

I disagree. if the depression has a "rational" or "talkable" reason, then yes a specialist could work. mushrooms are like 100 therapy sessions in one.
if the depression has a chemical or genetic or "brain working like shit" cause, then specialist or not it doesn't matter. It might or might not work.

in my bad trip there was nothing to process, it wasn't "bad thoughts", it was just hell. you can't escape hell.

microdosing has different protocols, you can take it for 30 days without breaks in some of them. I know how the tolerance thing works.

well yeah its not going to work for everyone, psychedelics are a big gamble. everything influences them intensely and not many people are able to treat them like legit therapy, most use for escapism under some guise of "epiphany" ie the intense feelings without actual progress. its very case by case and id always recommend someone interested in using psilocybin as a depression treatment try a clinical setting with a professional first over just winging it alone or with other users - ive definitely heard way more horror stories from those that were given psychedelics irresponsibly by friends and just left on their own to deal with the consequences than people who had a life changing breakthrough and a great time

 

[thealteredmind]

well yeah its not going to work for everyone, psychedelics are a big gamble. everything influences them intensely and not many people are able to treat them like legit therapy, most use for escapism under some guise of "epiphany" ie the intense feelings without actual progress. its very case by case and id always recommend someone interested in using psilocybin as a depression treatment try a clinical setting with a professional first over just winging it alone or with other users - ive definitely heard way more horror stories from those that were given psychedelics irresponsibly by friends and just left on their own to deal with the consequences than people who had a life changing breakthrough and a great time

yeah sadly its not for everyone.

 

[StillBreathing]

I have tried a recreational (one time) dose of psilocybin mushrooms while suffering from depression. It didn't really do much for my mental health but it changed me a lot about how I view the world and myself. It also let me deal with some heavy stuff from the past (ego was completely removed for a few hours).

It is not something I am considering doing again in the near future, but I think I needed it at the time. It definitely changed me as a person. I did it alone, but I wouldn't recommend it. I had to call my friend who was an experienced user during the comedown to calm myself.