Mistakes said:

I confess that tomorrow after some yard work and a shower, I'll be eating 10 to 14 grams and jumping in for a cage match with creation itself. I've been playing shaman too much lately and I haven't been able to properly trip in 3 or 4 months. Tomorrow I'm strapping in with some Pink Floyd, Tool, and then Allegaeon. I'll see you all on the other side.

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Awfullotofshrooms said:

That’s insane lol I’ve only ever done five. @mistakes I wish you smooth sailing!! Can never go wrong with the Pink Floyd either

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sure is an awful lot of shrooms to take

BeefExtreme said:

I did 16 once like a tough guy.  One of the worst experiences of my life.

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Belintaf said:

I saw a brief exchange about antidepressants in Quick Questions, Quick Answers, and to avoid cluttering that thread — I'm dropping this here, in case anyone finds it interesting:

Guys, I understand the importance and efficacy of antidepressants, but given my field, I feel it’s necessary to share my perspective.

Antidepressants do work, but I believe they should be the chosen solution when other strategies have genuinely failed. Obviously, I don't know your personal histories and every case is unique, but at a physical level, they often end up converging quite a bit.

That is why I emphasize at least minimally understanding how the body sustains and feeds that "danger state" through a miscalibrated neuroception. For those of you dealing with these kinds of issues, I recommend taking a look at Porges' Polyvagal Theory. Often, these problems start at a physical level before becoming a mental one. And while many of Porges' points have been refuted, his concepts of neuroception and "somatic feedback" were spot on—and it serves as a very useful clinical metaphor.

Because of this, any somatic work that contributes to a sense of safety (better body mapping, experiencing non-linear patterns, clear reference points) or dials down "threat" responses directly impacts the nervous system and allows for its re-education.

If we combine, for instance, the Feldenkrais Method, TRE (Tension, Stress and Trauma Releasing Exercises) — neurogenic tremors — strength training (heavily backed by studies for depression), and the window of neuroplasticity opened by a psilocybin session... we have a very powerful strategy.

Unless we're talking about severe depression, where antidepressants do serve as a scaffold — just enough to get somatic work off the ground.

Understanding certain mechanisms helps you break out of the loop, step out of the victim mindset, and regain agency over the process — which is fundamental.

Hugs

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BeefExtreme said:

Belintaf said:

I saw a brief exchange about antidepressants in Quick Questions, Quick Answers, and to avoid cluttering that thread — I'm dropping this here, in case anyone finds it interesting:

Guys, I understand the importance and efficacy of antidepressants, but given my field, I feel it’s necessary to share my perspective.

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Wow it sounds like you know a lot about this.  Id love to hear more thank you for sharing.  Im a person who falls into that treatment resistant depression camp.  Cptsd and a severe anxiety disorder punctuated with cyclical panic attacks.

So in no way an i against the idea of it and if you were referring to my comment about lexapro, i really wasnt suggesting he drop the lexapro so he can trip.  I was simply saying that tripping on lexapro isnt going to work. 

Anyway id love to know more about this stuff.  I wish i could find a medication to worked around the clock for me.

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Belintaf said:

Alright, we've moved past depression here and into the puzzle itself. And I'm really glad that within this puzzle you've found your own way of functioning, expressing an extraordinary personality, and keeping up with the grows — that's genuinely admirable.

Given the CPTSD and the cyclical panic attacks, your window of tolerance is probably quite narrow, which means that right out of the gate, the possible tools (somatic work, for instance) can themselves become triggers. So what needs to happen in these cases is finding an "anchor" — some breathing work, humming, something you can actually tolerate — to start widening that window. Like peeling through layers of an onion.

When inhabiting your own body becomes threatening, it's about finding "the sequence" where each step provides enough safety for the next one to be possible — otherwise the threat-defense system just fires again.

Most likely (because I don't know your specific case) the panic attacks generate altered breathing, paresthesias (tingling), tachycardia — and these afferent signals become established as danger cues. What I mean by that is: when the brain receives these same signals again outside of a panic attack — for any other reason (a foot falling asleep, running, training) — it can interpret them as "imminent danger" and trigger a response all over again.

This is where interoceptive exposure within a safe context comes in. It's not pleasant at all, but it has solid backing and, more importantly, it helps lay the groundwork for everything else.

And the heightened neuroplasticity window post-psilocybin is precisely the moment to introduce real somatic work and autonomic regulation work — because that's when resistant patterns actually become accessible. I don't think it would work before that.

It's seriously complex, but it all follows a chain of logic once you look at the gears. The other side of CPTSD is that it becomes identity — and that requires parallel work that's already beyond my expertise, but it's equally important. I don't know if it's curable, but I do know it's perfectly manageable.

I also don't want to oversimplify this, because that wouldn't be honest. There are cases where you tell someone — do strength training — and in six months they've forgotten they were depressed. In others, it'll take six months just to slowly dial down the threat responses enough for them to be able to start strength training without having a panic attack doing it.

You can always try softer tools — box breathing, humming, NSDR, TRE or others in small doses — and see if they let you access other things that aren't usually reachable at first. Observing how to get to other layers.

The brain learns safety through repetition.

Hugs

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Awfullotofshrooms said:

That’s insane lol I’ve only ever done five. @mistakes I wish you smooth sailing!! Can never go wrong with the Pink Floyd either

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