Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Magic Mushrooms Can Help Smokers Kick the Habit

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 299 posts

Re: Magic Mushrooms Can Help Smokers Kick the Habit

#221

Post by mistermann »

carapace wrote: post #196
anon192831 wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just hitting the vacuum tube. If one just trips for the sake of tripping, then there is not much to be gained except for several hours of happy serotonin hits in the brain. However, what we know about psychs is that there is a huge release of BDNF (brain derived neurotrophic factor) and a shutdown of the DMN. The BDNF enables a ton of new neural connections to be built. It's like you have about 6-8 hours of…

> So it makes sense to prepare for several weeks to receive therapy and to outline goals and memories to revisit to process them during this heightened period. Then when the drug wears off, you're still left with the new neural connectivity and perspectives and the other benefits that were derived from the session. The you're describing sounds great . All I'm saying is, a sweat lodge (for example) can take the place…

I'm curious what you base this opinion on. Are you just describing your personal experience, or are you saying this applies to everyone?

Re: Magic Mushrooms Can Help Smokers Kick the Habit

#222

Post by newnewpdro »

AllegedAlec wrote: post #70
ojhughes wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you not go and pick them where you are? I thought liberty caps were pretty widespread over Europe

Just delete this comment. If you're not an expert on mushrooms, picking mushrooms is basically playing Russian roulette. Telling people to do so is wildly irresponsible.

No need to go overboard here.

It's perfectly safe to pick any mushroom. You can take them home, take a spore print, dry them, and carefully identify them with the help of the internet at your leisure.

All that's important is that you know not to eat them until you've done so.

And when you do think you've identified them, and want to eat them, first eat a small amount just to play it safe.

Picking mushrooms is not playing Russian roulette. It's completely harmless, no mushroom kills you on contact, you're being ridiculous.

It's actually a quite fun hobby to forage and collect mushrooms when in season, take them home and try classify them. Even if you just throw them all away afterwards. In the process you've dispersed their spores too.

Re: Magic Mushrooms Can Help Smokers Kick the Habit

#223

Post by TremendousJudge »

koolba wrote: post #181
yboris wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no legal justification for criminalizing the use of any substance. We can put people in jail for armed robbery, why should a non-violent drug user be put in jail?

It’s deterrent. All else being equal people will do less of an act if there’s a consequence. Why does it even have to be armed? Why not jail petty theft that furthers a drug habit?

I thought that Freedom was the most important tenet of the USA? If something doesn't harm anyone, should it be deterred just because it has associated behaviors that do? Should going to the shooting range be illegal because it makes people better marksmen therefore increasing fatalities in mass shootings?

Re: Magic Mushrooms Can Help Smokers Kick the Habit

#224

Post by mistermann »

Noos wrote: post #187

This is the same fundamental dishonesty that pushed for marijuana legalization: the idea that there are "medicinal uses" and the drug should be legalized based on those, pushed by advocates of casual use. Medical use as a trojan horse for recreational/casual. I don't really think using a seriously psychoactive substance for smoking is good at all; it is something that can be done by other means which involve much les…

Where did you get this idea that there is no medicinal use?

Re: Magic Mushrooms Can Help Smokers Kick the Habit

#225

Post by AnthonBerg »

carapace wrote: post #219
AnthonBerg wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In MAPS’ completed Phase 2 trials with 107 participants, 61% no longer qualified for PTSD after three sessions of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy two months following treatment. At the 12-month follow-up, 68% no longer had PTSD. All participants had chronic, treatment-resistant PTSD, and had suffered from PTSD for an average of 17.8 years. https://maps.org/research/mdma/ptsd/phase3 Drugs used in therapy can resolve decad…

I'm not an anti-drug puritan. (That would be so so hypocritical.) I think the criminalization of e.g. MDMA and the others is deeply foolish and has done a lot of harm. (To make an understatement. Frankly, I think you should be able to get clean liquid acid or MDMA at the local pharmacy. Why not? "Who the fuck are you to tell me what to do with my brain chemistry if I'm not hurting anyone?", eh?) I don't want to take…

Agreed!

(I want to note that I was replying to this specifically: “ I'm just against using them in therapy. It's irresponsible.” It was a rather crystallized statement, but we clearly see nuances here :) I take it that we both fully agree that drugs must not overshadow therapy, and that there are great temptations for shortcuts.)

Re: Magic Mushrooms Can Help Smokers Kick the Habit

#226

Post by mistermann »

imperio59 wrote: post #173

This is like saying "I had a problem with a small chimney fire so I poured ten gallons of gasoline on it and now I don't have a chimney or a fire problem anymore because everything burned down" Seriously no. This is not science. Hallucinogenic drugs also make people psychotic on occasion. Please don't take them, you'll be better off. Take the word of someone who's worked with recovering acid addicts. This shit ruins…

> This is like saying "I had a problem with a small chimney fire so I poured ten gallons of gasoline on it and now I don't have a chimney or a fire problem anymore because everything burned down"

In what way is it like that?

Re: Magic Mushrooms Can Help Smokers Kick the Habit

#227

Post by easymodex »

acollins1331 wrote: post #4
potatofarmer45 wrote: post #3

If the active ingredient really temporarily "rewires" the brain such that multiple "rewires" can help break dependency, it should be tested with video game addiction. I know many people I grew up with who have a WoW addiction that is highly detrimental to their lives.

I just started playing WoW classic. People always ask me how I like it, seeing as I never played WoW before. I would describe it as not very fun, but incredibly addicting. I'd continue to elaborate but I have to go do some leatherworking...

Oh god I fell into the trap as well. I hardly played games in the past few years and strictly single player ones which aren't infinite time sinks. Then WoW classic came and I just wanted to chill out a bit and experience some nostalgia. Now I'm hooked again, doing about 3 hours a day while also juggling work, family life etc.

BTW, the fun starts when they introduce PvP honor and battlegrounds. Other than that it's a true grindfest.

As for the OP topic, shrooms are great, got me out of depression during my late teens. No preparation or anything, just took some with friends and embraced it with positive curiousity.

Re: Magic Mushrooms Can Help Smokers Kick the Habit

#228

Post by halleonard »

carapace wrote: post #164

Set and setting. The drug just rattles your cage. I quoted Leary on 'set and setting' the other day on an LSD history thread and mentioned Leonard Orr used to get great results with nothing more exotic than oxygen, so rather than repeat that ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21264919 ) I'll say this: If you have a modality of therapy that works, it will work without the drug (which, at best, serves as an amplifi…

> (I'm great friends with Mushroom, and a little 'shroom tea can be great fun. But cramming 'im into a wee lil pill and then claiming "quit smoking" magic is in it... That's bad science and lousy magick.)

Fortunately that's not what they're finding for these classes of drugs. See the incredible stats coming out around MDMA + PTSD + therapy.

Re: Magic Mushrooms Can Help Smokers Kick the Habit

#229

Post by avodonosov »

RandomTisk wrote: post #147
avodonosov wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should ease up on mushrooms. To come up with such an interpretation... I mean literally, guillotine heals headache 100%, but that's not a sufficient reason to practice it. The same with psychedelic mushrooms, even if they work against smoking, it's not necceserily a sufficient reason to use them.

I have a challenge for you: Without google or other external sources, what do YOU think are the top 2 or 3 downsides of using them? Do you even know?

I know cases of very tragic results of psychedelic use. So if you think to enlight me on childish bullshit like "the war on drugs is a conspiracy against us, in reality, drugs are very good for people" - if I was some 25 years younger I could consider that, but not today.

If you believe there are no downsides, FYI, around a century ago heroin was marketed as a "no downsides" cough suppressant. With time (very soon) the downsides became apparent. This may happen to the psychedelic you now consider safe.

The idea to alter one's mind with substances to have more pleasant / interesting / euphoric / hallucinogenic experience is vicious in principle, even if there were no other downsides.

Re: Magic Mushrooms Can Help Smokers Kick the Habit

#230

Post by techntoke »

hello_newman wrote: post #220
09bjb wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1: similar experience and same book recommendation. I've had one high-dose psychedelic session in each of the last three years and while the experiences themselves were sometimes difficult, the positive changes are hard to overstate. They seem mild at first, but the unshakable sense of self-worth, of purpose, and of belonging in the universe have become such strong foundations for all the positivity that I build abo…

As someone who is interested in taking a guided trip to help with some personal problems of mine, how do you go about finding these people who perform guided therapy sessions w/ MDMA/LSD/DMT etc?

Search craigslist for a Shaman. /s

I'd prob try looking for a counselor/therapist that has tried psychedelics and has helped others. You can probably search for them by looking for healing centers or retreats, specifically in the PNW.

Post reply on HN