Can magic mushrooms be used to combat depression? I can't say categorically yes or no. From experience I would have to say that, no, they do not have that effect with me. This may be because when I take mushrooms now I am putting them into an old body that can't really metabolize them efficiently anymore. But, really, they never really had an anti-depressive effect in my case. Most of my mushroom trips went like this: Stage one--coming up, usually euphoric but there could be apprehension as well if I was worried that the potency of the dose was more than I had estimated it would be.
Stage 2: I would become aware that things were pulsing, wavering, "breathing". and there would be patterns appearing on the pavement, on walls, on peoples faces, etc.. This might be fun to watch, entertaining, and even enlightening, depending on what you could infer about the nature of perception, reality, etc..
Stage three: Then I would become aware that I felt stuffed, uncomfortable, full of something that was not being easily digested. I would then start resisting the trip.I would become disgruntled, anxious. When a wave of phenomena--CEVs or OEVs,all the rest of the shenanigans mushrooms can play--would come rolling in, I would get up and start pacing the floor.I would start remembering past failures, times when I disappointed friends, lost jobs for stupid reasons, hurt my parents, betrayed partners, etc.
Sometimes, when I didn't strain the mushroom tea thoroughly enough, I would start to feel nauseous.I would pace back and forth asking myself,"Why would anybody deliberately put themselves in this position? You fucking dummy,you can't be content to make a mess of things for your friends and family, you have to go and eat shit that can't get past your stomach.
Sometimes the nausea would go away, sometimes, I would puke. Then the trip would start to wind down. This is always the best pat for me. My mind gets quieter.I can lie down and close my eyes and calmly observe what is happening. I can meditate. If it weren't for this part of a trip, I would never have taken mushrooms after the first time.
As it is, I use mushrooms very rarely. It takes a long time to forget the negative third stage of the experience. If I take them twice a year, it is a lot.
-------------------- My father used to say: I don't care what else you do in life, just don't be an asshole. People, forgive me when I forget what my daddy said. Cut back the proliferating list of people whose opinions can hurt you. Unless they have done or want to do you some good, their views are just not worth tracking. Saul Bellow “People are just cannibals unless they leave each other alone.” Doris Lessing Those whom the gods would save, they dower with compassion. Mr. P. Silocybin
Edited by champinhom (08/17/15 11:21 AM)
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Thank you for sharing.
That sounds a lot like the kind of experiences I used to have. I'd find myself embedded in rumination over all sorts of regrets, wondering why I took the mushrooms in the first place. Sometimes that experience can be therapeutic, helping me to untangle and make peace with some of the loose ends in my life that I'm not proud of. The effect never lasts, though. Perhaps for a few days or weeks, I can retain whatever resolutions emerged, but in the end they all fade off and I arrive right back where I started.
Perhaps if they were combined with a more structured psychotherapeutic technique, mushrooms would be more useful instruments in that regard. As we have seen, though, the "psychedelic revolution" of the 1960s did not produce an entire generation of liberated, enlightened people free of psychological torments. That generation grew up to be just like the rest of us: sometimes happy, sometimes depressed, facing the same problems and the same emotional challenges as everybody else.
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