@IndustryStandard asked me something about Microdosing in the mixpub thread and I thought given how much someone else changed my life when I first found this out, my reply could highjack the thread so here’s my reply.
(hover for original post from IndustryStandard )
I’ve had a positive impact in my life for a year now with microdosing. A long time ago I’d had medium to large doses of mushrooms when they were still legal in the UK, at camping / small house gatherings etc it was just seen as a good laugh but the purpose of beginning a microdosing journey is to permanently resolve and fix things in your life that are holding you back, create new habits, get rid of bad habits or stop cycles of self harm through substances and alcohol etc.
The only Microdosing experience I’ve had is with Psilocybin, however the LSD route supposedly works similarly to what I’ll describe yet has an additional slight stimulant effect so supposed to be better for some people (especially ADHD). Beware LSD is something that is difficult to microdose, just cutting squares and saying “that’ll do” ain’t gonna be accurate and there’s supposedly some weird way to get it out into liquid and measure it. I’ve never tried.
The healing discoveries are why Psilocybin magic mushroom has become legal in America, recently Australia as well as other countries. They are realising big pharma didn’t want this to be legal because mushrooms aren’t as profitable if you can get them out of the ground. I see it as a natural alternative to SSRIs that you can pick up and put down for periods of time without negative side effects.
Here’s the list of reported benefits or reasons people would start Microdosing:
- enhance cognitive processes and abilities
- increase energy levels
- improve emotional balance and mood
- reduced anxiety
- help treat depression
- treat addiction and reduce alcohol / substance misuse
- help reduce pain
- help improve migraine and cluster headaches
- help reduce symptoms of attention deficit disorder
- enhance self-care
- enhance senses
- improve cardiovascular endurance
- increase sleep quality
- reduce sensitivity to trauma
People sometimes get a funny stomach from taking mushrooms in any dose size so I have had it with ginger capsules or raw ginger swallowed just beforehand and felt fine.
If you remember the scene on the TV series Ted Lasso where he’s with Coach Beard in Amsterdam and they’re sitting drinking the ‘cups of tea’ this was magic mushroom tea. They talked about this topic, and while they were meant to be macrodosing larger amounts, the points he raised works with microdosing too - just takes a couple of weeks to really begin to work instead of after one 4 hour trip.
Coach Beard: My man, Kenneth the bus driver, hooked me up a couple of weeks ago.
Ted: Wait, so you travel with it? I thought they had plenty of that stuff here.
Coach Beard: Well, I just don’t like my medicine to be taxed.
Ted: You know, I’ve always been more of a beer man or, uh, Sour Patch Kids.
Coach Beard: Sour Patch Kids don’t form literal new neural pathways in your brain. Picture a sheet of fresh, white snow covering all the footsteps of all the paths that you’ve trod before, forcing you… Nay, encouraging you… to begin anew.
Coach Beard: Most people put it in peanut butter and jelly or yogurt.
Ted: Uh-huh. And which one we doing?
Coach Beard: Neither. We’re doing tea.
Ted: Oh, come on, man. Are you kidding me? That’s like hiding poop inside a smoothie of barf.
Our habits since we were young have created “ski lines” or paths through our brain’s nework that become of least resistance or more ‘downhill’. So it’s why we get up and do the same thing each day “skiing down the easy path” in our brain.
For most people, trying to do something new (the gym, regular long outdoor walks etc) is like trying to escape those deep ridges where your skis are stuck in and your brain makes it feel like its impossible to start a new direction (habit) off until a month of forcing it daily makes that new neural pathway a new, strong positive option to slide down again. Microdosing gives you a coating of that fresh new snow to go in any direction you like, much easier and instead of a fight your brain simply welcomes the change when you try it for yourself.
Before microdosing, for a few years now I’ve often struggled with doing what I know should be doing - and what I’m obviously capable of. When I get to starting it, sometimes I feel like my brain hits a brick wall of nope I’ll firmly put myself into something else I feel like doing instead. For no logical reason whatsoever. I said no to a lot of things that would move me (and my family) forward because of habit and rigid thinking. A slave to my own impulses - retreating to safety.
On occasion I’d go into a mental dip (like a mini depression that’ll last 1 or 2 days) and then find my way out of it. I had a couple of “lower T trauma” events around 2015 and 2016 and had alot of the energy and drive that I had disappeared. Prior to this I’d started a small business from scratch and grew it to £240k turnover in a few years and after the events my drive for it all went - so I sold it. But I was good at that business and I didn’t understand yet what had happened.
These dips were quite rare for my early years in business 2009 on but would happen more frequently after those life events and typically they happen much faster when I spend too much time indoors and on my computer and spend no time in nature.
Its never been that bad compared with lengthy episodes some people have real battles with, but the cumulative cost of this happening over years has cost me a lot of missed opportunities, missed chances to grow, accidentally going awol forgetting to check in with friends / associates for a little too long etc.
People with ADHD and mild to moderate autistic traits often struggle with what I’ve written above with or without the traumatic events (I found out I have inattentive ADHD without the hyperactivity element). Many have found out they had these events around birth before their memory is formed and its caused all the shit they’re in in their 30s, 40s, 50s and so on.
Bringing people together over Music has helped me to a good degree since 2019 but that doesn’t always fill in all the gaps between this happening.
Meanwhile, Microdosing 50mg of psylicibin (mushroom) every 3 or 4 days has for me:
- Cured the “off days” - they don’t happen anymore. I have a generally positive outlook, consistently.
- I say to say yes to way more things I’d talk often myself out of, and I’m reaping the rewards of this. It seems ridiculous to me that I had behaved the other way for so long.
- I’m a better partner and father - I’m more in tune with them than stuck going in one rigid direction most of the time
- I’m more in tune with my body. Food, fitness. I’ve shaken off some minor bad habits but others’ experiences have been profound in this area.
- Unintended consequences. - I drink far less alcohol - more importantly I want to drink far less alcohol. Its never been an issue for me but I’ve lost people to alcoholism and I can see others who are going that way from time to time. I’m far more in tune with when other people are talking bullshit out of their own insecurities or to make a gain for themselves unetheically. I can read body language clearly. I can predict / foresee things happening better. I can sense manipulative people, red flags, and know when to nope someone off within 20 seconds of meeting them and will move away instead of get involved. I’m better at attracting the right kind of people for me into my life when I used to trust people to easily.
Microdosing for me has been 50mg 2-3 times a week, the most you should have is 1 day on, 2 days off or the benefits will diminish. Some say they take 200mg or 300mg because then they can feel something but they’re missing the point. You shouldn’t be high or in an altered state when microdosing and you are wasting your mushroom much faster doing this.
Some people like microdosing in the morning, some like doing it after work. Doing it right before bed may interrupt sleep hence after work being the latest option as the processing of it lasts around 4 hours.
Many people notice the benefits within a week or two, and continue to do this for around 3 months, then stop doing it for a little while. You don’t need to do it forever. A few months later, they may notice they ‘could do with some more adjustments’ and start it again. I often have 2 or 3 months off.
Drinking alcohol is a depressant working in a specific way on the central nervous system and it disconnects / kills the magic with this. If you have a great week and cap it off with alcohol, you kind of know you’ve stopped the magic from working as you can feel it go. So if drinking is remaining in your social life its better to drink and then have big gaps for weeks/months for the microdosing to actually work.
A lot of alcoholics quit alcohol through microdosing and many start with 1 bigger dose then a microdosing regime for months after - combining this postivie with life changes.
When you are Microdosing the point is you should not be able to see any visuals, you won’t be giggling. If you feel butterflies in your stomach that was not a microdose, step the dose down next time.
With the right dose you’ll be able to do everyday tasks, handle your family life, go to work, talk to your boss, think clearly. The biggest benefits are in the days that follow if you stay sober and eat fairly well. I get a benefit on the day still but the next days are much better!
The first time microdosed I it I did 100mg (in a country where it was legal, of course) and I was seeing slight crawls on the table / wall surface as if there was a hint of water moving so I realised I was on a strong batch and went down to 50mg.
Here’s a chart of how you can dose mushrooms - everything above level 4 is a proper Macrodose.
If you want I’ll post about larger trips / ayahuasca and what they can really do as well but this is enough for now. The point in posting this is to hopefully help someone else one day because I’d heard about this on and off for years before I gave it a try. So I hope if any of this would help you, that you start to learn about it, find your people around you to do this with.
Loads of people are doing it but they won’t tell anyone. There are even companies that will post you microdoses in chocolate online which is somehow legal in places it wouldn’t be because its a food category or something. This is not me before anyone asks me to sort them - but this is a global messageboard I’m sure around where you live you can find them yourself.
It’s not hard to start, once you seek you will find.
If anyone has questions about this or wants to post their own experience or other healing journey then feel free to.
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