I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this... but I am just libertarian enough to maybe not care.
Nothing has improved my mental well being as quickly as hallucinogens did. I'm sure I would have gotten where I was going with time, introspection and maybe a few years on the couch but drugs like shrooms got the ball rolling with their first application. It was a hard night realizing that I was a petty, aggressive, jealous, judgemental person who was deeply unhappy with my life. The drugs didn't tell me how to act so as not to live in this deeply unhappy state but they showed me my house was in disorder and helped me start rearranging the furniture. Steve, the most likely outcome of people taking mushrooms is that they will realize that we are all much more alike than we are different. They might realize that we are all part of an interconnected web of life and that by caring for others we care for ourselves and that by caring for our selves and the impact of our actions we care for others. Or they might just watch Def Comedy Jam from the 80's all night and laugh until their stomachs hurt for the next three days. There aren't a ton of downsides. There are a few but that's true for most things.
Same, but I would caution that it hastens the onset of mental illness. Some of my friends and I partook in several rounds of experimentation with a wide variety of substances at the onset of our twenties, and one of us simply lost his game of Russian Roulette. His personality changed almost measurably with each dosing (in hindsight... fucking REGRET). We found out later that his absentee father had a history of mental health problems, and had apparently managed to encode such into my friend's DNA quite well. So be careful out there, kids. Identify when people are at risk, whenever possible, and use responsibly, i.e. with a sober sitter.
I'm in my 40's and grew up during the War on Drugs. I've done plenty of drugs and known many people who did plenty of drugs. I've been well positioned to compare what I've been told to what I've experienced. I'm extremely skeptical of most cautionary drug tales. Admittedly, it isn't always good to consume things that cause psychotic states on top of existing psychotic condition. There is very little evidence (no real scientific evidence) that hallucinogenic drugs increase the chance of developing mental illness. Scientific evidence seems to indicate that psycadellic drug users have an incidence of mental illness that is the same as everyone else. No link found between psychedelics and psychosis-Nature. Here are two excerpts from the papers that the Nature summarizing . Most people start experimenting with drugs right around the same age that they also start manifesting serious mental illness. coincidence an look an awful lot like causation. Maybe we'll find out that these studies got something seriously wrong or maybe we won't. There is a growing body of research that shows hallucinogenic drugs can alleviate the effects of depression and PTSD. Society has spent the the last four decades spreading misinformation on these substances. The potential dangers and benefits of their use warrant through unbiased scientific research. I am not sure if they can cause or worsen mental illness in the long term or if they have long lasting benefits for most users but my own experience is that they can be beneficial and are for the most part harmless. I've known people who abused them to their detriment but I think that as a class of substances that can be abused they aren't all that different from many other things. As far as having a sitter when you trip, I always hear how necessary it is but don't care for it at all. During a trip of "self realization" I find it interrupts my thoughts and interferes with getting work done. During a just having fun trip I find sitters a fussy annoyance. I've known people that require a sitter for their own safety and sanity. User experiences will differ but you'll probably be fine anyway you go if aren't a wing nut at the start of it. Going into a trip with a positive open mindset will do more to promote a positive experience than anything else you can do including having a sitter.We failed to find any associations between lifetime use of psychedelics and past year serious psychological distress, receiving or needing mental health treatment, depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts or behavior in the past year. Rather, lifetime use of psychedelics was associated with decreased inpatient psychiatric treatment.
Consistent with hypotheses, lifetime classic psychedelic use was associated with a 19% reduced likelihood of past month psychological distress, a 14% reduced likelihood of past year suicidal thinking, a 29% reduced likelihood of past year suicidal planning, and a 36% reduced likelihood of past year suicide attempt. […] By contrast, lifetime illicit use of all other substances was by and large associated with an increased likelihood of psychological distress and suicidality at or above the trend level.
I generally agree with all of this. When I said "hasten the onset of mental problems", I didn't mean that it creates issues from scratch. Anecdotal, but when I used to attend a regional burn (like burning man, but smaller), the drug-seasoned community were some of the nicest people that I've ever met. After grad school is doneskies, I might get back to psilocybin myself someday. Just checked, the spores are only illegal in a few states. Hmmmmmm...
I am also a devotee of the magic mushroom trip. Mushrooms take all the boxes in my brain out of storage, sort through them, throw away the crap, dust in the corners, and then repacks the boxes and stacks them nicely again. Magic mushrooms, for me, are a spring cleaning for brain grunge. LSD: Not so much. Don't like the high on LSD. Too "edgy". I like the more smooth, "organic" roll of mushrooms, for my brain-cleaning. Mushrooms reconnect you to the entire connected world, and plug you back in to the stuff that connects us all together on this little blue marble.
Accounts like yours make me maddeningly curious to try mushrooms. I took a small dose of truffles in Amsterdam, and while laughing for 20 minutes at a hamburger was quite therapeutic, it only made me want to try actual mushrooms more. They're apparently quite common in Ireland at the right time of year, but unfortunately look very similar to ones that just give you the shits, or cause liver failure.
I feel at loss asking you how it felt, because it sounds like an experience no words can describe.
It's kind of a bummer to realize that you are an unhappy asshole who makes the world a worse place to be. It was also comforting to come to the realization that I was one way but could become another. I probably took four trips in my first year or two of drug exploration that gave me insight and edged my perspective toward a happier way of living. I tripped a lot more than that. Most those trips were interesting but not profound. Interacting with friends and lovers often deepens your understanding and strength of your relations. I only take a significant dose about once a year now a days, usually with my wife. I will occasionally pop a single cap or stem for a little perspective change, it's fun, does not impair my ability to be social or functional.
For what it's worth, it's an experience I've had multiple times, without mind-expanding drugs. If I take them... I wonder where I'd be going. Also had, multiple times, my mental barriers falling in a way that seems similar to alcohol disinhibition, without a single drop. I wonder if it means I'm too sensitive to this kind of thing to take LSD and such.It's kind of a bummer to realize that you are an unhappy asshole who makes the world a worse place to be. It was also comforting to come to the realization that I was one way but could become another.
Which drugs? Weed: Meh. Mushrooms: AMAZING, and life-transforming. LSD: Educational. Fun. MDMA: Was fun for a while. Cocaine: BUZZZZZZ....meh. Ketamine: FUN. Whisky: Love it. Cigarettes: Have never smoked. Cigars: In a verrrry specific set of very unusual circumstances, they can be wonderful. Coffee: Never a drop... until I moved to the Balkans in my 30's. Now: Pretty much every day, for social reasons. (I like the boutique coffee community. Don't need caffeine to function. Just like coffee as a social thing.) Umm.... I think that's probably all the biggies I have done.