MENTAL HEALTH, MUSHROOMS, MAGIC & ME
DISCLAIMER
This post is intended to be for entertainment purposes only, and should NOT be considered medical advice. ALL opinions are my own and are an overview of my personal experience using mushrooms for medicinal purposes. Links to ANY claims made from scientific research will be included and clearly marked by being embedded in the body of the text.
Introduction.
In recent years, the world has taken a keen interest in exploring plants for medicinal purposes. One of the plants gaining plenty of attention is the humble mushroom. Technically, not a plant but a fungi, they serve a purpose in nature to provide support in so many different ways to all life on Earth. Mushroom supplements can be easily purchased from any health food store to support optimal health, with benefits such as – anti viral properties, anti tumour properties, anti dementia properties and many, many more benefits. I have taken mushrooms (reishi, chaga, shitaake (legally approved dietary food supplements)) from the health food store for quite a few years now. They have helped me feel stronger and more healthy in combination with a good diet, I couldn’t be without them. I have seen so much talk about mushrooms online, especially since the Netflix show Fantastic Fungi has been released. It inspired me to add Turkey Tail mushroom to my supplement collection, after mycologist (mushroom scientist!) Paul Stamets, assisted his mum in surviving an aggressive terminal cancer by giving her 8 doses a day. As much of a HUGE fan of easily accessible and legal mushroom stains for health, I want to discuss the benefits of psilocybin (sill oh sy bin). This is also explored in the Fantastic Fungi documentary, it’s a very relaxing show, full of easy to digest science facts.
About Psilocybin (magic mushrooms).
Let me preface this by saying, when a person (me) is so desperate to be well, there isn’t anything I wouldn’t try if I thought it could make me well.
Psilocybin is a compound found in MANY different strains of mushrooms. It is classed as a psychedelic which means, consumption can cause people to feel quite out of sorts and out of this world, people can hallucinate or “time travel” reliving past traumas. The severe symptoms experienced are usually only experienced when taking large doses of psilocybin or a “macro” dose. For these reasons, across the world, the consumption is illegal. Some countries are much more liberal and it is acceptable to use mushrooms containing psilocybin for a myriad of reasons. The Netflix documentary Magic Medicine explores (in a controlled psychological study), how very large doses of psilocybin mushrooms can assist in the recovery from treatment resistant depression. It is sad, scary, wonderful and weird all at once – a must see! Magic Medicine also touches on the difficulties faced by researchers who wish to further explore the proven psychological benefits of taking psilocybin.
Micro Dosing & Overview
Micro dosing is pretty self explanatory, it is a term referring to taking small, regular doses. As it is illegal, you really have to be in the know or part of an underground club to access the doses. The process of taking mushrooms is pretty particular, as in when you are taking them there is a widely accepted method to be followed that should be taken seriously for optimal health benefits. The method was coined by Paul Stamets, it involves taking a combination of psilocybin with lion mane (legal) on an empty stomach, followed ten minutes later by niacin (vitamin b3). You can learn more about his research and theories in the Fantastic Fungi documentary, Taking mushrooms in this way is a highly respected and serious process, in fact it is frowned upon to refer to magic mushrooms as shrooms or mushies.
My Experience Micro Dosing Magic Mushrooms
You’ll wonder if I am feeling ok once I try to explain to you that micro dosing psilocybin is both everything and nothing all at once. If you have ever drank alcohol or taken a opioid painkiller like codeine, you’ll be familiar with being high, having dark or crazy thoughts and the sudden rush of no longer being yourself. Mushrooms are not like that. It is both subtle and dramatic how much more “you” you feel. It is so peaceful in a way, the day just seems to flow much easier, things that anger me just slide away. I feel like I am the person I want to be and I am supposed to be – calmer, brighter, louder, quicker to react, patient, inspired and at peace. But it’s not an intense change when you KNOW the drugs have kicked in. It is the most natural transition into being your best self, there is no peek to that and no come down. I barely know anything has changed for me. I just often reflect on the day when I go to bed, as normal and I realise what felt different about the day. I described it once as life, but it is LIFE. The world is in capital letters, colours and sounds are in crisp HD, movements feel more defined and I feel as though I am connected to nature. When I say connected to nature, I mean I feel as though I know the energy of for example a tree, how it is so necessary and vital to my life. This sounds like a wild trip, but the feelings are not all present at once, it is the most natural feeling of flow. I get the feeling that humans are supposed to feel the way mushrooms make me feel. As though I am as pure as the universe intended humans to be, and really connected to our source. However, none of this interferes in daily life, driving is normal, life is normal, colours are still the same, problems still arise and nobody could look at you and know you are high.
One big change I noticed the morning I woke up 24 hours after my first dose. A brief back story – I had a brain tumour removed in September after a traumatic month of back to back trips to A&E. Surgery went well and as I recovered at home I had more bad health news. My soul was destroyed and I fell into the darkest depression of my life. I couldn’t see any light, I was angry and felt hopeless. The morning after my first dose and I woke up wondering why I was ok with waking up, the gut wrenching dread of dealing with another day of recovery and gloomy thoughts were gone. I felt like someone had emptied my thoughts, cleaned out my brain, and put my thoughts back in the correct order. That feeling never really left, even during breaks from taking a mushroom a day, I can manage my mental health MUCH better. Problems don’t feel as gloomy as they used to, I can cope with what issues I have to deal with much better than I did before.
Micro dosing mushrooms has been the best decision I ever made. I am not immune to bad mental health moments, but they pass. If you enjoyed this post and wish to know more about me and my health condition and mental health please follow me on Instagram
This post was written in December 2021 following my second brain tumour surgery, the following two posts were written in 2019 following my first brain tumour surgery
alchemybyamyuk@outlook.com
Amy Versus Life 
Love you Amy
You are a very beautiful person inside and outside
You are very special to this world and you have and still are helping people in this world, in many many different ways
Thankyou xxxx
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