# Psilocybin for depression. Any personal experience? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 20, 2023, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psilocybin-for-depression-any-personal-experience/981393 "2023-03-20T02:11:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2023, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psilocybin-for-depression-any-personal-experience/981393/21 "2023-03-22T01:31:26Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > I know that LSD should not be used by anyone with a family history of schizophrenia but I don’t know if that also applies with psilocybin. If I recall right, it depends on first-degree vs. second-degree. For normal people with no history, the odds of schizophrenia are 1% (and, correspondingly, the odds of a psychedelic triggering latent schizo are 1%.) If your aunt or uncle has schizo, your odds are 3% - higher, but not much more so. If you have a parent or sibling, though, who is schizo, then your risks rise to about 10-20% if you use psychedelics, which is a much bigger worry. But even more dangerously, about 40-60% of people who develop a drug-caused psychosis during a psychedelic trip go on to develop schizo (wish I could find the source again, but I read that months ago. Not sure if it means temporary psychosis during the trip itself, or permanent-lasting psychosis after it’s done.) ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2023, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psilocybin-for-depression-any-personal-experience/981393/22 "2023-03-22T01:33:30Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > It also has helped me see things differently and opened my mind to see that I am in control of more things then I realized, I saw destructive patterns in my life and the way to end them and also it was my choice. I realizes that though others mistreated me and tried to limit me, it was my reactions that held me back, not their actions. It also restored a degree of child like thinking and wonderment of the world and my environment. I realized that I was thinking in ways I have not for a very long time. That has been a lasting effect. Does this introspection happen during the come-down phase? I haven’t done shrooms yet but as I understand it, you first have a come-up during which you feel tense, then a peak period where you’re hallucinating and getting strong distortions, visuals, audio effects, etc., and then a 1-3 period of comedown where you can “see” things about your life or yourself clearly? ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2023, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psilocybin-for-depression-any-personal-experience/981393/23 "2023-03-22T01:38:37Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Well the thread is asking for anecdotes … is there some even second hand experience to share that your “I hear that” is based on? Oh dear. I’m sorry. I should have used the sarcasm tag. * * * > [@ThelmaLou](#): > > > [@sitchensis](#): > > > > I’ve never felt the need for mental health. > > I hear it’s overrated. I was cynically/sarcastically replying to sitchensis’ comment and suggesting that “mental health” itself is overrated. Seriously, as someone with an M.A. in psychology and 40+ years in therapy _as a client_, I’m on a lifelong quest for mental health. Hope that clarifies. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2023, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psilocybin-for-depression-any-personal-experience/981393/24 "2023-03-22T01:48:43Z")
My idiocy. I had presumed you were saying that psilocybin was overrated. On review your meaning is clear. Sorry for my lack of comprehension. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2023, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psilocybin-for-depression-any-personal-experience/981393/25 "2023-03-22T01:54:00Z")
That’s okay. All good. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2023, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psilocybin-for-depression-any-personal-experience/981393/26 "2023-03-22T02:04:10Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Does this introspection happen during the come-down phase? Well, yes and no. At least for me. I think that many of the realizations may actually happen during the peak phase but it comes to you during the come down during some reflection. The come down is so mellow and it is the time to enjoy just about anything. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2023, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psilocybin-for-depression-any-personal-experience/981393/27 "2023-03-22T02:19:35Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Does this introspection happen during the come-down phase? I haven’t done shrooms yet but as I understand it, you first have a come-up during which you feel tense, then a peak period where you’re hallucinating and getting strong distortions, visuals, audio effects, etc., and then a 1-3 period of comedown where you can “see” things about your life or yourself clearly? There was an initial break through zone which could be described as tense. Not the most comfortable state but not too bad either. It was described to me ahead of time that you don’t want to be on the edge, but over it, and I was told that if I feel on the edge I should take a bit more. When I felt that edge I took a bit more to get past that. IDK if I just took the total dose at once I would have avoided that, or if it’s inevitable. The peak period was fun and yes hallucinating though able to function (walk, talk, eat (though I did notice some fine motor movement difficulties with eating). The following waves come and go. Sometimes I thought it was ending just to go up again. For me this was the point I wanted to wander in nature (again escorted) and was so fascinated with it and how alive it was everywhere. Due to how I used them this way it was not really a time for introspection. But perhaps if you took them in a different setting and mindset it may and my wife’s trip was more introspective in this respect. The introspection for me came days and weeks after, not reflecting on the trip so much, but myself and my reactions and patterns and new ways of thinking of old patterns. The introspection came quite automatically when my life circumstance took me to one of those patterns. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2023, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psilocybin-for-depression-any-personal-experience/981393/28 "2023-03-22T03:20:28Z")
FWIW, [84% of people who’ve had bad trips say they benefited from it, and 46% say they’d even repeat it again.](https://healingmaps.com/bad-trip-psychedelics-benefits/) In other words, even if panic or terror sets in, it can actually be beneficial. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2023, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psilocybin-for-depression-any-personal-experience/981393/29 "2023-03-22T14:45:16Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Does this introspection happen during the come-down phase? Just to add something came up this morning in relation to thinking differently about 2 months after using shrooms that seems directly relevant to this. I am on a hiking club board of directors. Yesterday I missed a meeting, mainly due to fire department activity, but also a bit of tiredness when I returned as I could have joined in towards the end, but I wanted to just chill a bit. This morning I got a email from the chair person saying that we missed you at the meeting and hope everything was OK. Normally I would have taken this defensively as a way of asking me why I didn’t attend the meeting. Basically in a way I took it as I was being reprimanded and they have noticed my absence, then my self righteous thoughts that I can miss a meeting. This would be, and has been my normal reaction to such things in life, sort of a uh-oh angst moment as the email came in, then an attempt to avoid it and ‘hide’. I wouldn’t even cross my mind to question that though at it was so normal. As such there was very little (no) thought to their point of view, and that them may just want to know if I was OK. After shrooms, I read that they were asking me how I was, and took it as concern, as I have never misses a meeting in the recent past, and missing one every now and again is part of life. But I also realized that there were 2 thinking paths that I could use, one I realized was from my childhood when I would get in-trouble, even for things not my fault, but had no choice back they and learned the CYA/ hiding approach as a defensive strategy, and how things back then really set a repeating pattern that had me always try to avoid, instead of accept what was in this case meant as concern that I can and should answer as they have expressed concern, not condemnation. This thought process just came to me, the 2 paths and where one was set and why, or at least what it seemed related to. One path was hidden under patterns of abuse, but I was still able to access it and I do attribute it to shrooms. With that said it’s not a cure all either as something similar happened, though I was in the wrong there and was caught and reprimanded and that fell back on my old pattern and am still avoiding it, not wanting to deal with it. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2023, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psilocybin-for-depression-any-personal-experience/981393/30 "2023-03-30T01:47:42Z")
Anecdote update. Not any noticeable response for my treatment resistant loved one. Sad to report. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2023, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psilocybin-for-depression-any-personal-experience/981393/31 "2023-03-30T02:36:54Z")
Psychedelics can be wildly variant from person to person, or even trip to trip. Maybe he/she is unresponsive - which is sad, yes - or maybe a few more trips could make something happen. ---
**Author:** ![WellHelloThere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9dc877/32.png) [@WellHelloThere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WellHelloThere)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2023, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psilocybin-for-depression-any-personal-experience/981393/32 "2023-03-30T03:00:46Z")
I have no experience microdosing, and the idea is intriguing as a therapy. I tripped on mushrooms about 12 times when I was younger, late teens to early 20s. On the whole it was a very positive experience but as we get older we lose opportunities to wander around with giant pupils and stare at trees without looking extremely weird. The sole bad time I had, was not even my own but another person in the group. If anybody freaks out in the group it is important to bring them back and remind them they are on a trip. One particular guy started to get violent which really messed it up for everyone. This is why it is helpful to trip with an experienced user, and best of all an experienced user who is willing to not partake and just watch out for everyone while they do their thing. Also, a trip lasts 4-6 hours but you will be falling asleep after, so this is best done on a day where you have nothing else to do. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2023, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psilocybin-for-depression-any-personal-experience/981393/33 "2023-03-30T03:13:55Z")
Problem is that the macro dose, at least as guided by the practitioner they have, is most likely effective off any SSRI and benzodiazepines. At this point in their depression that was hard even for a fairly short period of time and they are back to another different combination of meds building up long enough to hope for a response. Taking time off from that again is not going to happen without good reason to expect a positive response in a second treatment. Micro dosing “stacked” with lions mane and B6 is suggested but well, the sparse data for macro dosing is relatively robust compared to data on that! Including how it might interact with other meds. As stated no magic was expected. A roughly one in three chance of a robust response and some additional possibility of some positive response was worth the try, and not ruled out for in the sometime future. But not very soon. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2023, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psilocybin-for-depression-any-personal-experience/981393/34 "2023-03-30T05:33:14Z")
No personal experience in therapeutic use as the OP is requesting, but… I have some recreational experience back in the day, and some casual interest in micro dosing, maybe after retirement, so I’ve been watching as data has been coming in. I did see this recently, which is a way of grouping the drugs and their mechanism, FWIW. [Psychoplastogen - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoplastogen) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psilocybin-for-depression-any-personal-experience/981393.md?page=1)