Microdosing for mental health.

[houghchrst]

Well at 58 I’ve finally gotten sick of my medical community, the endless parade of medications, and being miserable anyway. So I have been looking at a more holistic approach. I have begun microdosing psilocybin. It is a sub perceptual dose, you don’t even notice you’ve taken it but it works in the background. I just finished my third session. I do 4 days on and 3 days off. You need those off days so you don’t become tolerant. I found a mentor and a wonderful group of amazing like minded people. Mostly you hear about heroic doses. The one and done kind. I’m not there yet. I need to find an experienced sitter first. I am microdosing to help with withdrawals from current meds so I can get off of them and to help with quitting smoking. Maybe then I can do a heroic dose once in a great while. The mind work that I get from my mentor is actually the biggest part. That’s what allows things to work on the state of mind. Flipping it to see how much our ego beats us up, and the dosing helps change the neuro plasticity of your brain and it rewires itself to produce more feel good chemicals, changes how we look at things, how we react to things. Quite frankly I’m only about four months in with the mind work and about a month and a half into dosing. I feel amazing.

[flatcap]

I have been following your story for some time now, and it's good to hear things are clicking into place for you. I totally understand you misgivings about modern medicine where mental health is concerned. Only rarely do they know what the drugs are actually doing, and god only knows the full extent of the side effects.

I admit being skeptical when it comes to things like microdosing psilocybin, but I also admit I have more than once wondered what it might be like to take it again. I used it several times when I was young. I sometimes think it might be helpful for my depression, which is classified as major and recurrent. It is worse than bad when it hits hard, and the constant low-level depression that is always there has long since become tiresome. It wears you down over time.

I wish I had a social support network like yours, but I have virtually none beyond the confines of this forum. I have Asperger's which for all of my fife has severely limited my ability to make social contacts or maintain any kind of relationships. I don't expect psilocybin would help with that, but I do remember how free from anxiety it made me feel. Looking back on it, it was an overall positive experience where my mental health was concerned. It also lasted well beyond the intoxication phase. I would feel better, if not entirely free from my depression for a long time after using psilocybin. I had similar experiences with LSD. I was always sad when I could not find it and still am. Now, being much older and living in near total isolation, I couldn't figure a way to find psychedelics if my life depended on it.

You are lucky to have found a path toward wellness. The fact that walking that road includes taking psilocybin seems amazing to me. I take it heroic dosing means taking enough of it to get high? I don't know how much that would be anymore, but I do recall never worrying about getting too much into my system as one time. I think you would probably have to ingest a lot of it for it to hurt you, certainly more than I ever took at once. I don't think it would scare me to take it now, if only I could find it.

The only thing remotely like psilocybin I use now is cannabis, but only very occasionally. It is legal where I live, but it costs a lot, so I can't really afford it. When I can, I vape it; I haven't smoked marijuana for many years. I have to admit I do miss the ritual, though. Maybe it's better that I can't afford it. Maybe I just want to believe it helps. Maybe it's only in my mind. Maybe that's the point. I don't really know.

I do know one thing, though: If I could find psilocybin or LSD, I would take it in a heartbeat at this point. My experience with my mental health community hasn't been all bad, far from it, in fact, but things could be better, that's for sure. Cycling through the different meds they have given me over the years certainly hasn't cured me. I kind of doubt psychedelics would, but sometimes you get to the point you will do or try just about anything to make it go away. I am just tired of living on the edge all the time. It's like walking a tightrope. The pit, the hell that depression is, it's almost like it beckons. It pulls on you like gravity.

I hope you will keep us posted and let us know how you are doing. I, for one, almost feel invested in it. I am certainly looking forward to hearing more from you about your journey, and above all, I wish you the very best. You deserve it.

[houghchrst]

Flatcap, how incredibly sweet to hear from you. Honey I know what it is like to live in a constant state of flight or fight. It's exhausting, mentally, and emotionally painful. I have been treated for literally decades with at least thirty different meds trying to get my med resistant depression and anxiety at bay. I have learned a lot over the last year and a half. Religion is a lie but spirituality is not. Doctors actually know very little and are afraid to step outside the box and know even less about the meds that big pharma doles out. The Government is crumbling and now we have other countries trying to warn our citizens. I am learning to step back from that. My fear, regret, and bad feelings about the past are gone. I no longer look at the future with fear. The big thing that still plagues me is a bit of anger and resentment. I am angry that I had to spend so much time miserable and in pain because quite frankly our government relies on that. Had psilocybin been legal I wouldn't have spent so much time being miserable. My doctors never told me that there are supplements out there that can help with things like pain and inflammation. It's all a hot mess.

I will tell you that the biggest part of this process is the mind work. I did a couple months of mind work before I even started dosing. It's a ridiculously easy thing. For me it worked immediately. I can help get you started on that at least. If you private message me I can give you some tools. IT's never too late. We deserve to be happy. That's why creator put us here and Jesus came to tell us how to have Heaven on Earth. Not how to get into Heaven. Not a big woo woo religious nut. Actually I despise religion but Creator and his Son bring me much joy.

I am willing to show anyone that is interested how to get started. You say THC is legal, here too but we do have like three places in Michigan that were granted rights to sell psilocybin, what state are you in? The meditation, mantra, videos, journaling and so much more are free. Those are mainstays.

[flatcap]

Hi, houghchrst. Sorry for the late reply.

I am in Washington state. I don't think we have legal psilocybin here, not yet anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if there is some movement in that direction, but I haven't heard of anything.

I am interested in the mind work you're doing. I spent quite a long time in unconventional therapy, and it helped me a lot. I would still be doing it if my counselor hadn't passed away. Some people cannot be replaced, and she was definitely one of them.

I am sending you a PM about the mind work. I'm not sure I am up to the spiritual part of it, but I'm still interested. I appreciate your willingness to point me in the right direction.