Nice Paper Travel Guide: Shrooms
Right now it makes sense to explore things that boost happiness, mental clarity and any ritual that makes you feel calm. Some are turning to CBD, others to alcohol and, if Google Trends mean anything, an increasing number of people are searching “will microdosing shrooms cure my depression?”
Anecdotally, shrooms sound a lot like a cure-all with reports of it managing anxiety while boosting creativity and cognition. Both Quora and Reddit have a litany of threads explaining how to microdose with anecdotes on personal experiences. As one Reddit summarized their trip, “TL;DR: Shrooms = A+.”
Currently, the FDA has “magic mushrooms” scheduled as a Schedule 1 drug. This means it has no therapeutic potential and has a high potential for abuse while cocaine, meth and oxycodone are listed as Schedule 2 drugs (I.e. more therapeutic, less dangerous). Despite this, the FDA has given psilocybin drugs “Breakthrough Therapy” designation twice in a single year, both for exploring how they may help with depression. While this doesn’t mean shrooms will be legal anytime soon, it does mean that the government is taking them seriously when it comes to treating mental illness. Here’s what we know about shrooms and things to look out for before taking it.
What are shrooms?
You know they’re mushrooms but what makes them magic mushrooms is the hallucinogenic substance some varieties make called psilocybin. Much like cannabis, shrooms have been used for thousands of years and it wasn’t until the war on drugs that it was truly demonized.
Psilocybin, like LSD, works by activating serotonin. From what we know, it’s mostly located in the prefrontal cortex meaning it’s going to impact your mood, cognition and perception. Just like with LSD, the quantity you consume, your past experiences and how you manifest your trip (expectations are everything here) will change how psilocybin impacts you.
How long does a psilocybin or shroom high last?
Between 4 and 6 hours and if you’re chewing on shrooms you can expect to feel it within 30 minutes but pending your digestion it might take longer so if you are trying shrooms, don’t over do it.
What research exists around shrooms? Are there clinical studies?
Right now, most researchers are evaluating psilocybin in relation to treatment resistant depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, end of life care and migraines. John Hopkins is exploring how shrooms helped stop people from smoking cigarettes. The most promising research is around anxiety and depression which is why the FDA has fast tracked two psilocybin drugs as “breakthrough therapies” for depression.
Is microdosing shrooms going to cure my depression?
Until we get the full research on how psilocybin helps (or doesn’t help) with depression there isn’t enough information to make the conclusion that microdosing will cure depression. There are no randomized double blind placebo trials on microdosing. One of the only data points we have outside of anecdotal reports is from the University of Toronto. They ran a survey with over 1300 respondents on their personal experiences with psychedelics and microdosing. What they found was microdosers reported better mood, creativity, improved focus and better relationships.
While microdosing data is thin, what we do know is that at both NYU and Johns Hopkins reported findings that that a single dose of psilocybin significantly helped cancer patients with the anxiety and depression that is common after learning about a life-threatening illness. Furthermore, there was a halo effect for months after the study concluded in a follow up. Per NYU’s study “psilocybin produced immediate, substantial, and sustained improvements in anxiety and depression and led to decreases in cancer-related demoralization and hopelessness, improved spiritual well being, and increased quality of life.”
At Johns Hopkins they found versus a placebo that “high-dose psilocybin produced large decreases in clinician- and self-rated measures of depressed mood and anxiety, along with increases in quality of life, life meaning, and optimism, and decreases in death anxiety” the study states. The study went on to note that at the 6-month follow-up, the changes were sustained with 80% of participants showing clinically significant decreases in depression and anxiety. The reason appeared to be attributed to their attitude on how they approach life, themselves, their mood and relationships.
All of this to say we don’t have any replicable studies on microdosing, so we don’t know.
What's the right dose of psilocybin? Can I overdose on shrooms?
Much like with any perception-altering substance, the amount and intentions you have will impact your trip.
0.1 - 0.4 gram dried: uplifting and happy nice feeling
.5-1 gram dried: Trippy visuals with friends
1-2 grams: beginning to trip
2-3+ grams: deep trip and not for beginners or without a professional
There haven’t been any reported deaths from eating too many shrooms but if you don’t do it with an expert, a therapist or within a clinical setting you run the risk of doing emotional damage. It’s important to note that LSD is about 100 times stronger than psilocybin.
Are shrooms safe?
If you have a family history of schizophrenia or early onset mental illness, shrooms are not for you. You have an increased risk of adverse psychiatric reactions to psilocybin.
Also, it’s important to note that unless you are out with an expert forager (and even then, there’s still risk) you could easily die from picking the wrong mushroom. There are plenty of poisonous mushrooms so even if it “looks exactly like the picture” you could die from eating the wrong shroom so don’t do it. Lastly, as with any substance that alters perception (alcohol included) you run the risk of accidentally hurting yourself.
Are shrooms addictive?
No. Currently, shrooms are being used in the treatment against addiction.
“Psilocybin is not considered to be addictive nor does it cause compulsive use. One reason is that the intense experience, which can be physically and mentally challenging, may cause people using psilocybin to limit their frequency of use.
Another reason is that the human body quickly builds tolerance to psilocybin, such that people require much higher doses after only a few days of repeated use, making it extremely difficult to have any effect after more than four days of repeated usage.
And because of the similar brain receptors involved in their effects, cross-tolerance occurs with LSD and psilocybin, which means that if someone takes LSD one day, the effects of taking psilocybin the next day will be diminished.”
How do I stop a bad shroom trip?
We’re going to give the same advice we gave on our LSD post; start low, set intentions, try to do it with a professional, use resources like TripSit and know it’ll all be over in a few hours. If you’re looking for shrooms to treat your depression that’s when we would advise trying to get into a study. A complete guide to every study happening on psilocybin and depression is here.
Will magic mushrooms become legal soon?
No. The DEA and federal government have proven themselves to be really archaic and not exactly science oriented and despite the research there isn’t a realistic timeline of when psilocybin will be (if ever) approved by the FDA. Despite all the research, it’s going to be a long road for shrooms. What is more likely to happen is seeing state-by-state decriminalization (like Denver, Colorado, and Oregon are exploring) of shrooms followed by medical legalization; very similar to how cannabis was legalized.
Unlike cannabis, don’t get your hopes up that we’ll have shroom cafes and chic brands. It’s much more likely that shrooms will be legalized for therapy and medical purposes, very unlikely for recreational purposes due to stigma. While some experts argue that it is dangerous due to isolated cases of people jumping off balconies (in our research we found one case), more people in Wisconsin died from drunkenly falling than drunk driving. One could argue any substance that alters perceptions has risks and we would need more research before using this as the example to not legalize it more widely.
Where do I buy shrooms?
Unless you're registered in a clinical study, you don’t. Shrooms, regardless of the FDA’s designation, are still very much so illegal.