What Are The Health Benefits of Psilocybin?
Psilocybin is the hallucinogenic compound found in magic mushrooms. Even though people experience trips widely differently when they take magic mushrooms, there’s no denying that they have strong effects. So, are there any benefits of psilocybin? Considering these mushrooms have drastic mind-altering abilities, do the benefits outweigh the risks? Some anecdotal evidence reports that people may feel better after taking a trip, but what causes their elevated mood? We’ll answer these questions, as well as describe what micro-dosing mushrooms and psilocybin therapy are. We’ll also go into what are some of the mushroom effects long-term.
How Does Psilocybin Work?
To understand the benefits of psilocybin, we have to know how it works in our brains. So how does it work? Well, psilocybin turns into psilocin after digestion, and both have a very similar chemical structure to one of the chemicals in our brain called serotonin. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter, which is a type of chemical that brain cells use to communicate with each other. This particular chemical is responsible for a lot in our brains, including regulating mood, sleep, and stress.
A neurotransmitter will dock onto a brain cell to send a signal, and these docks are called receptors. Because psilocin is similar in structure to serotonin, psilocin docks onto certain serotonin receptors in the brain, effectively blocking serotonin from working but also sending an even stronger signal to the cell that it’s docked onto. Because of this, psilocin takes over serotonin’s function of regulating mood and does a way more powerful job than serotonin. Psilocin also blocks normal brain communication pathways, so it causes the brain to find other ways to communicate with different areas, which is part of what’s called neuroplasticity. These theoretical effects of psilocin inspire research behind micro-dosing mushrooms and psilocybin therapy.
Micro-dosing Mushrooms
The dosage of dried magic mushrooms can vary depending on how strong of an experience is wanted to the type of magic mushroom, among other factors. But what is micro-dosing mushrooms? As the name suggests, micro-dosing means taking only a fraction of a normal dose. For example, if your medium dose is 2-3 grams, then the microdose would be about 0.3 grams, anecdotally. There is extensive research going on to determine whether or not micro-dosing mushrooms is an effective therapy. The scientific community doesn’t have a definitive answer yet. This is largely due to the fact that their status as a Schedule I drug has made executing studies particularly difficult. Anecdotally, micro-dosing allows a person to experience a better mood without experiencing a trip that is usually caused by a regular dosage.
Psilocybin Therapy and Benefits of Psilocybin
Psilocybin therapy is colloquially the use of magic mushrooms to experience a better mood and better mental health. The benefits of psilocybin is largely anecdotal, but if you’ve tried mushrooms, you’ve more than likely experienced some kind of trip. Taking magic mushrooms for psilocybin therapy may help people achieve a more positive mood. Of course, differences in dosage affect everyone differently and the benefits of psilocybin can vary from one individual to the next. Once the scientific studies become more conclusive, maybe then psilocybin can be officially recognized as an effective therapy for mental health struggles. Besides possible medical benefits of psilocybin, the main benefit is having a fun psychedelic experience.
Mushroom Effects Long-term
While there are possible medical benefits of psilocybin and anecdotal hallucinogenic experiences, there could possibly be mushroom effects long-term. There are very few solid scientific studies that look at the mushroom effects long-term partly because it’s very difficult to get approval to test psychedelic substances on humans. However, there has been anecdotal evidence of the long-term effects of using magic mushrooms. It’s important to remember that a number of factors can affect someone’s experience with psychedelic mushrooms. These factors include, but aren’t limited to, dosage, type of psychedelic mushroom, and frequency of use. It’s also hard to predict how someone will react to and experience a trip, even though they’ve taken mushrooms before. So, let’s dive into some anecdotal long-term effects of taking magic mushrooms.
Anecdotal Long-term Effects
Just like with other medication and substances, bad effects and experiences are possible. Taking magic mushrooms can lead to having a bad trip which is a negative experience contrary to the stereotypical good trip. Magic mushrooms can also cause latent flashbacks that happen without taking the drug, which reportedly can happen days or more than a year after taking magic mushrooms. Other possible long-term effects include drug-induced psychosis and hallucinogen-persisting perception disorder (HPPD). Drug-induced psychosis causes a person to be unable to know what reality is and be unable to communicate, among other severe symptoms. HPPD causes a person to have flashbacks of the same hallucinations as they did during the trip that causes their HPPD. Both drug-induced psychosis and HPPD can last for years after taking magic mushrooms. Understanding the possible long-term effects is helpful when deciding to try or continue to take mushrooms. Everyone experiences them differently, but it’s still helpful to be aware, as it’s difficult to determine how someone will experience magic mushrooms and if they’ll develop long-term effects after taking them.
From taking a regular dosage of magic mushrooms to micro-dosing them, there is anecdotal evidence of a large range of health benefits to taking magic mushrooms. The main anecdotal benefits include improved mood and experiencing a fun and psychedelic trip. However, scientific studies are still pursuing solid answers surrounding these putative health benefits.