Psychedelic mushrooms have been around for a very long time and some species go back as much as a billion years. Since the dawn of civilization, people have been using magic mushrooms for all sorts of reasons. In recent years, these mushrooms have experienced a revival, but why?
It has to do with the realization that the main component of these mushrooms, psilocybin, has some seriously amazing benefits for mental health issues like depression. But how does psilocybin treat depression? After all, it seems like a strange thing for magic mushrooms to have anything to do with depression or mental health in general.
Besides, aren’t magic mushrooms dangerous? Not really. Keep reading and learn more about the unique and unexpected benefits that magic mushrooms have for treating depression and other mental health issues.
Click here – Kitchen Remodeling: Here Are 6 Inexpensive Ways To Make Your Kitchen Look Modern
Understanding The Truth Behind Magic Mushrooms
For a long time, magic mushrooms have had a bad reputation. They have often fallen in with various hard drugs known to be dangerous and even fatal in some cases. For example, in a conversation about hard drugs like cocaine or heroin, magic mushrooms might also get brought up.
However, it is important to understand that magic mushrooms are not anything like these hard drugs. These dangerous drugs are mixed with all sorts of harmful ingredients like battery acid and chemicals designed to clean drain pipes. Magic mushrooms, on the other hand, are completely natural.
They grow straight from the ground and nothing is added to them. These mushrooms mostly come from the Psilocybe genus. This genus is full of different mushroom species that all contain a very unique chemical known as psilocybin.
This is the chemical that makes these mushrooms psychedelic. Without it, these mushrooms would be more or less the same as the normal mushrooms you put on your pizza. Because magic mushrooms are natural and are not mixed with any dangerous chemicals, they are much safer than most other drugs on the market.
What You Need To Know
Many people even compare these mushrooms to marijuana since they are both products of nature and have various health benefits. The thing about magic mushrooms is that using them is not anything new. People in the 1960s and 1970s were using them all the time as they were the new craze at the time.
People loved magic mushrooms because they opened their minds in a way that nothing else could. Keep in mind that you won’t magically hallucinate an entirely new world when taking magic mushrooms. These mushrooms are actually surprisingly tame, especially when compared to LSD.
LSD is a synthetic drug that is around 100 times stronger than magic mushrooms. For that reason, you can have intense hallucinations when tripping on LSD. In contrast, you might only have some mild hallucinations or no hallucinations at all when you take magic mushrooms.
Simply because magic mushrooms are so much weaker than LSD, they are also much safer and less likely to cause adverse side effects. But what exactly is the connection between the psilocybin in magic mushrooms and depression? Before we explore this aspect, let’s first take a look at what depression is well as its traditional treatments.
Click here – How to Choose the Right Hairstyle for Medium Length Hair
What You Need To Know About Depression
Depression is one of the most common mental illnesses in the world. Rates of depression have only continued to rise in recent years. The problem is that scientists are still not sure what exactly causes this condition.
One of the leading theories was that depression was due to low levels of serotonin in the brain. Serotonin is one of several “feel-good” hormones that the brain creates on its own along with dopamine and oxytocin. Serotonin is very important because of its mood-boosting properties.
In theory, if the brain was not able to produce enough serotonin for whatever reason, the result might be that the affected person may feel depressed. However, this theory has recently been shown to be not entirely accurate. As a result, scientists are still in the dark as to what causes depression.
More likely than not, it has a genetic component. People who have depressed siblings, parents, or grandparents are more likely to have depression themselves. Whatever the cause of this problem, it has been notoriously difficult to treat.
This is because depression is such a stubborn and persistent problem. Major depressive disorder is a condition that lasts for a minimum of 6 months, but it usually lasts for many years, if not a person’s entire lifetime. It is characterized by feelings of misery, numbness, constant sadness, and pointlessness.
The Details
A depressed person may feel so disillusioned with their life that they may stay in bed all day because they see no point in getting up. Depression may also cause changes in sleep patterns, sexual drive, and appetite. In severe cases, suicidal tendencies or thoughts may be involved.
Traditional treatments for depression involve medication. There are many types of anti-depressants on the market but the problem is that many of them don’t work for many people. A person might have to go through a dozen or even two dozen different medications before they find one that helps their depression even slightly.
Some medications might not do anything for a depressed person while other medications might cause horrible side effects such as mood swings or suicidal tendencies. Another problem with these medications is that they take a long time to work. In some cases, a person might need to take a medication for several weeks to see if it works.
After all that time, the medication might not do anything or it might only improve the person’s depression very slightly. Whatever the case, treating symptoms of depression this way obviously isn’t very effective. There are also some cases of treatment-resistant depression.
As the name suggests, this is when a person with depression does not respond to any anti-depressants. This, of course, is a very serious problem. Fortunately, magic mushrooms can help all this, but how?
How can magic mushrooms, of all things, help a person’s clinical depression?
Can Psilocybin Treat Depression?
It might seem strange to think that magic mushrooms can help improve the symptoms of depression. After all, when you think of magic mushrooms, you likely think of a person hallucinating or mesmerized by colors and patterns that aren’t there. The truth is that magic mushrooms do make people feel good and they have a long history of being used recreationally.
However, they also have a long history of being used medicinally. Many ancient tribes thousands of years ago would use these mushrooms not only in religious ceremonies but also in folk medicine. Thousands of years later, science has found that the psilocybin in mushrooms may indeed have very strong medicinal properties.
Psilocybin therapy has even become popular in recent years. It involves not only the consumption of magic mushrooms but also talk therapy. It seems that the combination of these two treatments can provide very effective results.
The main thing you should know is that magic mushrooms can instantly treat the symptoms of clinical depression. Scientific studies have shown that as soon as a person with depression takes magic mushrooms, the mushrooms will have an immediate effect on that person’s depressive symptoms. But the benefits don’t stop there.
It seems that psilocybin is a very long-lasting substance. As a result, when a depressed person tries this treatment, they will continue to benefit from the treatment several months afterward even if that person doesn’t take any more mushrooms from that point. While magic mushrooms cannot cure depression, they have been shown to drastically reduce the intensity of depressive symptoms.
What To Know
Unfortunately, it is not yet clear why psilocybin seems to have such impressive results in treating depression. It is also not well understood how the results last so long. Whatever the case, psilocybin has already shown itself to arguably be much more effective than traditional treatments for depression.
Instead of waiting weeks to see if a pill works, a person with depression can instead try magic mushrooms and experience immediate results. As mentioned before, pairing this therapy with talk therapy can provide especially effective results, and those results will last a long time.
You should also know that magic mushrooms are great for more than just treating depression. Similar scientific studies have shown that psilocybin seems to be good for treating other problems as well. For example, it has promise for treating OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder).
This is an anxiety disorder that can make it difficult for a person to lead a normal life. This is because OCD forces a person to fixate on certain obsessions and compulsions. The psilocybin in magic mushrooms seems to reduce the symptoms of this condition.
But the benefits don’t stop there. It also seems that psilocybin may even be able to treat cluster headaches. Cluster headaches are famous for being one of the most painful headaches of all.
They are also hard to get rid of or treat with traditional means. But with the simple administration of magic mushrooms, people with cluster headaches experience significant relief. But in regard to treating depression, what is the correct way to take psilocybin?
How can you do it safely? How can you know that you’re consuming the right dose?
How To Take Psilocybin For Depression
Taking psilocybin for depression isn’t as hard as you think. However, you will need to keep a few things in mind. For one, you don’t want to take too much psilocybin at once.
Doing this may increase your chances of having a bad trip or side effects. While the side effects of magic mushrooms aren’t harmful, they can be unpleasant and may include nausea, dizziness, fatigue, and so on. Instead, the best thing to do is to take only very small doses of magic mushrooms to start.
This is known as microdosing. Microdosing won’t produce very strong or intense hallucinogenic effects, however, these small doses will still be enough to improve your mental health. Once you get used to microdosing, you can slowly increase your dosage, if necessary.
However, many people find that small doses are enough to get the results they’re looking for. But how can you make sure that your doses are small enough? These days, there are certain products you can buy that make consuming psilocybin in the right doses very easy.
Microdosing Psilocybin
For example, a psilocybin chocolate bar, shroom chocolate, is one of the simplest ways to do this. Such a chocolate bar already has a certain dosage of psilocybin in the entire bar. The bar, of course, will also have some dosing information as well as the recommended serving size.
That way, it will be easy to measure out how much you should eat to get the desired effect. These chocolate bars are infused with the fruiting bodies of psychedelic mushrooms. That way, you can consume these mushrooms directly without having to taste them.
Instead, all you will taste is the delicious flavor of the chocolate. So, you can focus on that great flavor while you benefit from the psychedelic benefits that psilocybin can offer to your mental health.
All About Psilocybin And Depression
Can psilocybin treat depression? According to recent scientific research, it certainly can. Psilocybin comes from magic mushrooms and has been shown to be a great alternative treatment for mental health concerns like depression and OCD.
Microdosing psilocybin along with talk therapy seems to produce the best results for depression. To learn more, check out the other content on our site.
