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Psychedelic Mushrooms Hit the Market in Oregon

nytimes.com

191–200 of 317 posts

Re: Psychedelic Mushrooms Hit the Market in Oregon

#191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too am fairly drug-averse. And after 40 years of avoiding all drugs but caffeine and alcohol, I dipped my toe into psilocybin and found not only was it profoundly therapeutic in terms of self-acceptence, self-love, and anxiety-reduction, I found after 3 or 4 uses, I had no further interest in it whatsoever. Is my experience universal? Of course not, but an anecdote to consider alongside yours.

Same here. Did it once and it saved my life. Point is it was only legally accessible to rich people. I.e. I had to fly to amsterdam pay for pre and post psychotherapy and multi day care. This is so wildly different to recreational use.

Interestingly, mushrooms are actually illegal in the Netherlands, but thanks to a fun loophole the truffles are completely fine :D (for those not in the know, truffles usually have a lower % of psilocybin per gram so you have to eat more to get the same effects but the end result is about the same!)

Re: Psychedelic Mushrooms Hit the Market in Oregon

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can fairly easily have a very difficult experience with pot too. I have way worse and stronger experiences with pot than with mushrooms/LSD. Cannabis is quite a powerful drug for many. A lot more powerful than most "hard drugs" like stimulants, empatogens, opioids or sedatives, which don't "mind fuck" at all unless you do them days on end or ridiculous dosages.

Comparing high dose THC to light-moderate dose shrooms/acid isn't a totally straight comparison. No one is getting ego-death and dimensional transcendence from ripping dabs of THC concentrate all night. Just lots of paranoia and distress.

'ego-death and dimensional transcendence' and 'lots of paranoia and distress' just sound like different framings of what could be remarkably similar psychic states.

Re: Psychedelic Mushrooms Hit the Market in Oregon

#193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally, I'm sure many people have no issues :-) Here's a recent Guardian article: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/apr/17/i-stopped-sl... From the article: > Horowitz experienced a prolonged antidepressant withdrawal in 2015 that caused intense panic attacks and, he says, even left him contemplating suicide. This personal experience has led the training psychiatrist to become an advocate for reforming antide…

Also from your article: > psychiatrist and former RANZCP president, Prof Malcolm Hopwood, says most people who taper off a standard antidepressant dose will be able to do so without major withdrawal symptoms ... "There’s a _small_ group who really experience significant withdrawal symptoms that they really find very difficult to manage" Discontinuation symptoms are a real risk, but people who could really benefit fro…

That guy's job is pushing psychiatric medicine and techniques on society though, right?

Re: Psychedelic Mushrooms Hit the Market in Oregon

#194
post #140

One issue is that SSRI treatment has to be stopped before starting psychedelic therapy (interactions). This means tapering off until you're not being treated anymore, which takes weeks if not months, can be difficult and put the patient in a less than ideal state of mind, possibly even worse than when they started off. And this is a very bad state of mind to be in when starting psychedelics. I wonder how people usual…

Maybe psychedelics will end up being indicated as a first line of defense, before SSRIs are prescribed.

My own success with battling depression had so much to do with controlling the adhd that we've talked about tapering off the SSRI's. I wouldn't be surprised if they become dramatically less prescribed over time.

Mindfulness, communication, learning how to rest and better time management techniques have more than likely done more for my mental health than the SSRIs. I'd love to taper off with them one day but we'll see.

Which pharmaceutical is going to back this clinical trial though??

Re: Psychedelic Mushrooms Hit the Market in Oregon

#195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe psychedelics will end up being indicated as a first line of defense, before SSRIs are prescribed.

My own success with battling depression had so much to do with controlling the adhd that we've talked about tapering off the SSRI's. I wouldn't be surprised if they become dramatically less prescribed over time. Mindfulness, communication, learning how to rest and better time management techniques have more than likely done more for my mental health than the SSRIs. I'd love to taper off with them one day but we'll se…

> Mindfulness, communication, learning how to rest and better time management techniques

Doubtful that these things will cure depression though

Re: Psychedelic Mushrooms Hit the Market in Oregon

#196
post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personal anecdatum, different SSRIs affect people differently. Some that others here have praised didn't help, or had bad side effects. What I am on now (Lexapro) was life changing in a good way, with only minor sexual side effects that more or less went away. As such, studies that day "SSRIs have this effect on people" or "have these side effects" are fundamentally flawed. Despite belonging to a common class, there…

Ok, so the middle-brow infotainment psych blogger's essay is valid, but meta-analyses are 'fundamentally flawed' because 'different SSRIs affect people differently'? This news will probably come as a huge surprise to the psychiatric epidemiologists who carried out the peer-reviewed research that Alexander mangles! They probably thought all SSRIs were exactly the same!

“psychiatric epidemiologist“

I was with you up to this. What even is a “psychiatric epidemiologist” I had to look it up,

“It is a subfield of the more general epidemiology. It has roots in sociological studies of the early 20th century. However, while sociological exposures are still widely studied in psychiatric epidemiology, the field has since expanded to the study of a wide area of environmental risk factors, such as major life events,“

Yeah, I don’t know, I’d sort of go with an experienced clinician when it comes to advice about pills. Sociology/epidemiology is cool, but there’s a lot to say for the importance of “practice” in medicine.

Re: Psychedelic Mushrooms Hit the Market in Oregon

#197

I'm a fairly drug-averse person. I have no qualms about other people using them, but it took us over 30 years to really understand the implications of legalized opioids. And that was after a lengthy and expensive FDA process. So respect to all of the early adopters who have nothing to lose and are willing to put their own sanity at risk. I just don't understand people who in one breath curse the Sackler family but th…

We've had thousands of years experience with psilocybin. We've already synthesized more potent psychedelics for 75ish years. I'd argue that the safety is well understood, but of course effective dosage in clinical trial are not. However, there's plenty of information from psychonauts out there on how to consume shrooms safely.

But neither of these chemicals are magic. A lot of people are looking for magic pills. A lot of companies want to sell you magic pills. Take a couple pills and your problems go away; that's just not achievable anytime soon. We have to get better as a Western society of supporting people on their various, multifaceted journeys through life.

Re: Psychedelic Mushrooms Hit the Market in Oregon

#198
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We do have some understanding of the safety profile of psilocybin, even if its Schedule I status makes it hard to research. At the very least, it doesn’t have physical dependency like opioids. However, the lack of significant safety research does make it hard to determine the incidence of development of disorders like HPPD but, unlike opioids, I can’t imagine someone wanting to continue taking psilocybin after develo…

They said the same thing about weed - that you don’t have any physical dependency. A quick search on Reddit would show you countless people who say they’re physically unable to function without weed anymore. Withdrawal symptoms include insomnia, depression, brain fog, lack of appetite, lack of energy, shaking, etc. This is especially true of people who started using it when they were young and people who use high THC…

Those are MENTAL withdrawal symptoms, not PHYSICAL ones. Basically the worst the happens is "Man, I really wish I had some weed right now", not hallucinations or the shakes or seizures, as can occur with alcohol or opiods. That's what people mean by physical dependency.

Re: Psychedelic Mushrooms Hit the Market in Oregon

#199

3000$ for treatment is way higher for most people to afford. I hope it will go down in the future.

Wild considering a dose of magic mushrooms is $10-20.

Seems like it's in line with the standard US medical system inflation then. Here there are at least some additional things like the facility and the 'facilitator' that's supposed to help the trip achieve the medical goals, they're not just tossing you some dried mushrooms in a baggy and wishing you a good time.
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