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solarshroomster
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Navigating mental health issues & drug use from a mystical angle 2
#28234673 - 03/18/23 07:35 AM (10 months, 6 days ago) |
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I know there's a forum for mental health issues, but I don't want to post there, since I want this topic to be considered from a Mystical & Spiritual angle.
A few months back, I was labeled as suffering from severe anxiety & OCD. That's my main issue. It's f'ing a pain in the butt. I always had it my entire life, but it was very mild and only started getting noticeably disabling when I turned 28. I'm now 30; it's not disabling as of the last two months, because of successful therapy and low dose medication, but it's humbled me.
My heart goes out there to people who are truly struggling from anxiety, depression, psychosis, etc.
How do you guys balance mental health issues with drug use? Do you find there's a good time to smoke weed or take shrooms for mystical purposes when you have known mental health issues? If you really like weed and shrooms, and rare usage is just an inevitability, do you have any recommendations?
-------------------- Chopin in Eternal Sonata: "I believe that I am somehow being tested. That I am on this journey to come to some realization. And in order to do so, I think I’m supposed to live my life to the fullest, even if it is in this muddled world of dream and reality."
Edited by solarshroomster (03/18/23 08:14 AM)
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Buster_Brown
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Re: Navigating mental health issues & drug use from a mystical angle [Re: solarshroomster] 2
#28234792 - 03/18/23 09:53 AM (10 months, 5 days ago) |
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My 2 cents
OCD can be a resistance built up from exposure. So like a callous it's a completely natural reaction. You've been trained to expect the worst.
IMO drugs are unnecessary in the mystical experience, they're more of a product of habitual recourses to variety or as an anesthetic.
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Kickle
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Re: Navigating mental health issues & drug use from a mystical angle [Re: solarshroomster] 4
#28234796 - 03/18/23 10:01 AM (10 months, 5 days ago) |
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I occasionally have a beer/glass of wine. Maybe once a month or less. Habit mostly. I used to have a drink with dinner every night. When I stopped to look at the cost to benefit ratio it turned out to be a pretty fruitless expense. So I stopped. But the misses still gets a 6-pack now and then so it can reengage the habit.
Coffee is daily. I'd like to switch to decaf but it's not a biggie. The misses gets more out of the caffeine than I do, so it's only reasonable to compromise for her well-being. And if I don't want the caffeine I can just not drink a cup.
Other than that most my drug days are behind me TBH. I have plenty to trip on as is. This whole life thing is pretty trippy, ya know? I think it can be useful for a perspective shift, but I've really found that just listening to others can do that too. Blows my mind to think each of us is sort of experiencing our own reality, and just by really listening I can see the world through entirely new eyes. Amazing.
Reading is like that too. Wild stuff IMO and as good as any drug in the right mindset IME. The right text can have tremendous beauty, tremendous transformation, tremendous understanding. It's trippy.
This is a strange stance on a drug forum, I know. But it's an honest one. I like hanging out here because some of the trips y'all are on are amazing. Really unique people tend to come to the Shroomery
-------------------- Why shouldn't the truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense. -- Mark Twain
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FishOilTheKid
Ascended



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Re: Navigating mental health issues & drug use from a mystical angle [Re: Kickle] 2
#28234832 - 03/18/23 10:27 AM (10 months, 5 days ago) |
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Quote:
How do you guys balance mental health issues with drug use?
I went to rehab, got involved in the recovery community, and see a psychiatrist. I currently live at an Oxford house where we have random UAs. I really had a problem with Cannabis, then Meth. I have a year and 2 months clean from those two drugs after smoking weed since I was 19, and using meth for 4-5 years. I still use mushrooms, but never at the doses that contributed to my original spiritual emergency that landed me in the psych ward with lasting audible and tactile hallucinations. I now abstain from all drugs except light mushroom trips under a g. The small doses of mushrooms, I've found, have a really beneficial effect on my mental health. I also get monthly Invega Sustenna injections and take Wellbutrin.
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BrendanFlock
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Re: Navigating mental health issues & drug use from a mystical angle [Re: FishOilTheKid]
#28237389 - 03/19/23 09:33 PM (10 months, 4 days ago) |
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I had a bad case of psychosis.. maybe one of the worst in history..
I fell into all the negative planes of existence..
I was a heavy pot smoker. Started doing first to second plateau trips on DXM everyday. Was also doing mushies once a month.. up to ten grams.. heroic doses..
But when the psychosis started I had to quit using drugs all together for 3 and a half years.. because it just made my psychosis worse..
I think the question boils down to a certain amount of maturity..
Allot of the bad parts of my psychosis are gone..
I consider my self very mature from having gone through what I did.
Now I do DXM and weed everyday.. drink 2 or 3 times per week..
I can drink like a fish.. Downing 26ers.. one time drank 50 ounces.. with no hangover the next day..
I think if you have the right belief system. For example I am very spiritual and religious person.. which has helped me push the envelope so to speak..
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solarshroomster
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Re: Navigating mental health issues & drug use from a mystical angle [Re: BrendanFlock] 1
#28237647 - 03/20/23 07:02 AM (10 months, 4 days ago) |
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Brendan, I agree with you that having a good belief system is paramount to dealing with challenging mental health experiences. To be honest, I found myself in a state of constant incongruency, disbelief, and cognitive dissonance with just being purely rejecting towards spiritual phenomena. It was a very closed-minded standpoint, that I've since shaken.
It sounds cliche, but the biggest learning I had in my mental health recovery journey with OCD was: Faith over Fear. Both are approaches to dealing with the concept of uncertainty, but Faith is about believing in something Good, without knowing how, why, or for sure. It acknowledges that all of life is fundamentally uncertain, and puts appreciation & gratitude to the Gift of Existence.
-------------------- Chopin in Eternal Sonata: "I believe that I am somehow being tested. That I am on this journey to come to some realization. And in order to do so, I think I’m supposed to live my life to the fullest, even if it is in this muddled world of dream and reality."
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Buster_Brown
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Re: Navigating mental health issues & drug use from a mystical angle [Re: solarshroomster] 1
#28237664 - 03/20/23 07:32 AM (10 months, 4 days ago) |
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Quote:
solarshroomster said: ... Faith is about believing in something Good, without knowing how, why, or for sure. It acknowledges that all of life is fundamentally uncertain, and puts appreciation & gratitude to the Gift of Existence.
Well put.
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syncro
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Re: Navigating mental health issues & drug use from a mystical angle [Re: solarshroomster]
#28237665 - 03/20/23 07:34 AM (10 months, 4 days ago) |
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It reminds me the other day in meditation, I was having typical challenges of mind and body, obscuration, fog, discomfort, ... and I said something like, "Obstacles should not be feared." This was like a high teacher coming through, the very position of the statement revealing power shining.
It is the concern itself, that the ten thousand obstacles have substantiality, that prevents the joining. "There should be no concern." Nothing can keep you from what you are. Though we (I) can remain very busy otherwise.
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solarshroomster
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Re: Navigating mental health issues & drug use from a mystical angle [Re: syncro]
#28237772 - 03/20/23 09:01 AM (10 months, 3 days ago) |
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Brendan/FishOil, how do you handle weed or shrooms when you have psychosis? Any tips on how to balance your condition with these drugs in a healthy manner? Any signs of what to look for and how to take care of yourself before/after/during drug use?
If I'm going to try smoking weed again, it will be once a month... at most. Weed is so strong for me, I trip for like 12 hours off a very small bud, vaporized through the Volcano. The last time, all it took was one inhale, and I was "gone". I don't know how I'm that reactive to marijuana.
-------------------- Chopin in Eternal Sonata: "I believe that I am somehow being tested. That I am on this journey to come to some realization. And in order to do so, I think I’m supposed to live my life to the fullest, even if it is in this muddled world of dream and reality."
Edited by solarshroomster (03/20/23 10:05 AM)
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Buster_Brown
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Re: Navigating mental health issues & drug use from a mystical angle [Re: solarshroomster]
#28237784 - 03/20/23 09:13 AM (10 months, 3 days ago) |
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Delta 8 thc gives me the threshold experience alleviating the fiending for the real McCoy.
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FishOilTheKid
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Re: Navigating mental health issues & drug use from a mystical angle [Re: Buster_Brown] 1
#28237948 - 03/20/23 11:09 AM (10 months, 3 days ago) |
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Quote:
...how do you handle weed or shrooms when you have psychosis?
You should read this book:

When I had my first mushroom induced break from reality this book really helped me reframe things so that I no longer FELT psychotic. I mean, who is to tell you what is real and what is not. This/that is relative for me. I just saw a video that mentioned that the Pentagon has admitted that there could be an Alien Mothership sending probes to Earth in our solar system...!! LOL.
Weed is enjoyable still, but I've made the choice to stay away from weed. Like I said, I've been clean from weed for a year and 2 months, and I'm so proud of myself. I know if I wasn't in a sober living situation I'd be smoking all day everyday again. I've found that I've been in a fog for so long... Mushrooms have to be in low doses or they aren't enjoyable. I guess I've been going through this for so long that I've accepted that what I experience makes me clinically insane. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy my time. Low dose mushroom trips below a g are really uplifting for me.
Check this out: (free trial)
https://www.audiobooks.com/audiobook/spiritual-emergency-when-personal-transformation-becomes-a-crisis/498442?refId=38712&gclid=CjwKCAjwiOCgBhAgEiwAjv5whJ9igTPIHwkjV8gWS6RXzCsCne69O6NkzFHKx7JwVFWJrj5gbscxahoCaF4QAvD_BwE
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Buster_Brown
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Re: Navigating mental health issues & drug use from a mystical angle [Re: FishOilTheKid]
#28238061 - 03/20/23 12:57 PM (10 months, 3 days ago) |
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BrendanFlock
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Re: Navigating mental health issues & drug use from a mystical angle [Re: solarshroomster]
#28238318 - 03/20/23 05:13 PM (10 months, 3 days ago) |
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Quote:
solarshroomster said: Brendan/FishOil, how do you handle weed or shrooms when you have psychosis? Any tips on how to balance your condition with these drugs in a healthy manner? Any signs of what to look for and how to take care of yourself before/after/during drug use?
If I'm going to try smoking weed again, it will be once a month... at most. Weed is so strong for me, I trip for like 12 hours off a very small bud, vaporized through the Volcano. The last time, all it took was one inhale, and I was "gone". I don't know how I'm that reactive to marijuana.
You have to be the judge ultimately.
If your curious about a substance Then I think its worth a try.. but start with low doses first..
Second of all if you DO do a substance and it doesn't work out for you. Then first realize it can't do permanent damage. Also you can wait 3-6 months to try again..
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solarshroomster
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Re: Navigating mental health issues & drug use from a mystical angle [Re: BrendanFlock]
#28239244 - 03/21/23 07:52 AM (10 months, 3 days ago) |
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Thanks, these are all really helpful responses.
-------------------- Chopin in Eternal Sonata: "I believe that I am somehow being tested. That I am on this journey to come to some realization. And in order to do so, I think I’m supposed to live my life to the fullest, even if it is in this muddled world of dream and reality."
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saintdextro
Entheogen psychonaut



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Re: Navigating mental health issues & drug use from a mystical angle [Re: solarshroomster]
#28241690 - 03/22/23 04:56 PM (10 months, 1 day ago) |
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I smoke Delta-8 THC everyday and for the most part it's relaxing and causing no problems in my life (neither socially or personally). it does make me a very slight bit dumber than normal but not as dumb as real THC weed.
I quit real Weed some years ago after quitting Spice some years before that. The real weed kept making me paranoid and have bad trips, completely irrational fears of "if I look out the window, that means I'm going to Hell" or "if I look at the ceiling fan I'm going to end up in Hell" or anything else I may possibly look at in my room, may lead me to Hell, it was like OCD but except I had to "not" do something, rather than have to do "something".
Cannabis is however Sacred to me. Jesus gave it to me in a Dream as a Gift. Right now it sits on the sideline of drugs I do or ones I did before without my interest in it. And I'm only really interested in it if I want to focus, without any self-censorship, truly on the Sins I've committed in my past or are currently caught up in. Being such that most of my last Cannabis experiences I usually get a face full of all I did wrong, most often the recent stuff I did wrong. It's usable as a Spiritual tool to me, though I do ponder if I'll ever enjoy it recreationally again, maybe after I'm more mature and can relax on it with a life that I'm proud of. Lord only knows.
-------------------- "He who finds peace and joy And radiance within himself That man becomes one with God And vanishes into God's bliss." -Bhagavad Gita, 5.24 One 21 - Building Better Bombs One 21 - Pacified One 21 - Two Sides Is Fine "Respectability is a cloak for the hypocrite" - Jiddu Krishnamurti
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