Psilocybin for Depression

[Aragorn]

Depression is something that I've had to deal more or less for most of my life. Or should I say melancholy? Of course I'm not always feeling down, it comes and goes.

I can relate to that.

I have a really strong dislike for tobacco. The smell of it burns my nose and makes my eyes watery. I've never smoked a single one and I hate the fact that my mother is killing herself with them.

That being said, ironically I used to like cigars (made from real leaves), but the smoke from them is never inhaled to the lungs. I haven't smoked at all for a while and when I did, it was only very occasionally. Sometimes they made me feel dizzy, but also good.

Without wanting to derail this thread any further, I have the opposite reaction. I have smoked a few cigars in my time — just for the humor of it — but I don't like them, and I hate the smell of them. The smell of cigarettes on the other hand has always felt comfortable to me — possibly because my dad, both of my grandfathers, most other male (and adult) family members, and most male friends of the family were all smokers, and so I grew up with that scent. It was as intrinsically linked to adult manhood as talking about automotive technology and playing cards on New Year's Eve.

Nevertheless, my parents have tried to discourage me from smoking when I was a teenager, namely by simply forbidding it. I started smoking during the final exams of my 9th-grade school year, and I had to keep my smoking a secret up until I was putting in my military service. When I was a teenager, my obsessive-compulsive mom would even go through the pockets of my coat almost every day while I was in my room doing my homework in order to look for tobacco crumbs, and if she found any — or worse, if she found any actual cigarettes, which did happen on a few occasions — then I was severely punished.

That all said, once we had moved to a different house — when I was 17 — I found that didn't like the smell of my dad's cigarettes anymore, and especially so when I was still busy eating while he lit up a cigarette after he had finished, but that's because from that point in time on, his cigarettes were hand-made, with the same kind of tobacco as for hand-rolling but with the tobacco inserted into the cigarette tubes by way of a little device. You know, you put the tobacco in the device, you attach a cigarette tube on one side, and then you pull the slide back and forth, and you've got a cigarette. He would always prepare a whole box like that in advance. It was cheaper than buying off-the-shelf cigarettes.

I'm not sure whether it was the particular flavor of tobacco that he was using or whether it was just that class of tobacco in and of itself. Tobacco for hand-rolling is commonly less finely cut and of a more moist variety than the kind that goes into prefabricated cigarettes. Not only do they smell differently, but they taste differently too.

Anyway...

[Lemual]

Don't tell me I'm the black sheep of the forum!?!

I've tried pretty much everything except Heroin and Cocaine (and associated Opium, Crack et el).

One thing that strikes me is quite a few people say they don't like the "loss of control". I've only ever felt a loss of control while drinking. Had some crazy/cool times on Shrooms/LSD/DMT but never felt like I wasn't in control. Maybe that's just me.

What I found to be quite a positive experience was Ayahuasca. I wouldn't take it lightly or even as a "drug" experience, and find a Shaman/practitioner who you can trust. It helped my ex partner with a lot of her childhood trauma.

[Dreamtimer]

I met a guy once who described it all as the same. A drug is a drug is a drug. But no matter how many times he said it I wasn't buying any six of one, half dozen of the other when it comes to heroin v. caffeine, pot, alcohol. No way. He was talking like his regular use of heroin with his wife was no big deal.

I didn't like cocaine. It made me hyper and addicted several of my friends. It also caused anti-social behavior at parties because everyone would go off into the private VIP chambers to snort. Then the ladies talked a mile a minute and the guys couldn't perform.

One of the reasons my husband and I got along was because we weren't on the cocaine train.

Ayahuasca has not been on my menu but I'll second the shaman-you-can-trust advice multiple times over. I'd be more inclined to try DMT even though it's short. A snippet of a dream can be a treasure trove.

Mescaline is the pill form of peyote. Thus, if one was to consider microdosing with that compound, the pill form might be the way to go. The buttons are apparently unpredictable. I have never tried that. The mescaline form is considered similar to LSD and psilocybin.

[Dumpster Diver]

I met a guy once who described it all as the same. A drug is a drug is a drug. But no matter how many times he said it I wasn't buying any six of one, half dozen of the other when it comes to heroin v. caffeine, pot, alcohol. No way. He was talking like his regular use of heroin with his wife was no big deal.

I didn't like cocaine. It made me hyper and addicted several of my friends. It also caused anti-social behavior at parties because everyone would go off into the private VIP chambers to snort. Then the ladies talked a mile a minute and the guys couldn't perform.

One of the reasons my husband and I got along was because we weren't on the cocaine train.

Ayahuasca has not been on my menu but I'll second the shaman-you-can-trust advice multiple times over. I'd be more inclined to try DMT even though it's short. A snippet of a dream can be a treasure trove.

Mescaline is the pill form of peyote. Thus, if one was to consider microdosing with that compound, the pill form might be the way to go. The buttons are apparently unpredictable. I have never tried that. The mescaline form is considered similar to LSD and psilocybin.

Dreamy! I didn’t know you were such a hop-head.

...but I get you on the guys underperforming. I’d be pissed too.

[sandy]

Cigarettes have never changed my mood, my reflexes, my cognition or my consciousness. Just sayin'

Try quitting and then see what happens with your moods, cognition and reflexes....Just Sayin'

[Aragorn]

Cigarettes have never changed my mood, my reflexes, my cognition or my consciousness. Just sayin'

Try quitting and then see what happens with your moods, cognition and reflexes....Just Sayin'

That is quite a different thing, sandy. If you were to stop eating for about a week, your mood, cognition and reflexes would also be affected. Tobacco creates a dependency in the body, and whether it's a innate dependency or not is irrelevant.

The body has an innate dependency on food, and so if sustenance — a very appropriate word — were to fall away, then the dependency would manifest itself through neurological and physiological effects, as a signal from the body that it needs replenishment of the sustenance of which it was deprived.

I am talking of the direct influence of tobacco — read: the introduction of nicotine into the blood stream — on my mood, cognition and reflexes. Smoking doesn't change my mood, nor does it change my cognitive abilities, nor does it change my reflexes. And that's where it contrasts with the substances which I myself label as "drugs".

[sandy]

Well Aragorn;

If you are talking of physical dependency versus psychological then the theme changes somewhat.............. but then is not our psychological well being part of our physical well being......thus for many having a cig' when stressed has a calming affect and effect which then becomes a mood changer, facilitating clearer thinking as a result of the calming and relaxed muscles and nerves will perform with greater ease than uptight ones......

I quit smoking 5 years ago after a 50 year habit of a pkg a day and sometime more. I have a nicotine free vape now for my behavior need of a "soother" and I call my vape my soo-soo......

Still yearn to have a real cig' no matter the 5 years without. Even the yearning can change my mood until I do something different to change my focus and or redirect my thoughts and images.

Almost to the point some days of being willing to try those mushrooms to shake these winter blues....

[enjoy being]

I quit vaping 13 months ago and quit tobacco 21 months ago. 25 year habit with many attempts to give up but vaping worked a treat and I knew within 2 weeks I was never going to smoke again, no yearning, no fear of being around people smoking, no dislike of the smell.

I dont think magic mushrooms should be considered as a medication for headaches, the suggestion is to me too hilarious for words. I would personally rather drink several glasses of water and ride it out rather than take a mushroom trip. There's heaps and heaps of those things in the land of my mountain and my days of those things are in the very distant past.I think the risks of such things are far too high to even suggest using to relieve a headache lol.

[Dreamtimer]

I smoked cigarettes in college. I never got beyond a half a pack a day. I quit shortly after graduation. The smell of tobacco is still appealing and there've been a couple of times when I drank too much and decided to smoke a cigarette. I always regretted it, and sometimes it made me feel sick. A sudden shot of nicotine will do that if you're not accustomed to it. I would get a head rush, too. But I don't do that anymore. Smoking will remain a thing of the past.

There are many kinds of fungus that grow around here but I don't think any of it is magic.

[Elen]

There are many kinds of fungus that grow around here but I don't think any of it is magic.

Check out the pine-trees...that's where they are to be found.

[Dumpster Diver]

I smoked cigarettes in college. I never got beyond a half a pack a day. I quit shortly after graduation. The smell of tobacco is still appealing and there've been a couple of times when I drank too much and decided to smoke a cigarette. I always regretted it, and sometimes it made me feel sick. A sudden shot of nicotine will do that if you're not accustomed to it. I would get a head rush, too. But I don't do that anymore. Smoking will remain a thing of the past.

There are many kinds of fungus that grow around here but I don't think any of it is magic.

Dreamy get some that look like these:



fry 'em up in a pan and eat them. Resist the urge to barf and the "magic" will come, trust me. :batman

[enjoy being]

There have been no deaths from those Fly Agaric toadstools for 100 years, but it would be advised that they are not of the psilocybin genus and are in fact of the death cap and destroying angels family (Amanita). They used to be considered more toxic than they are, but I would say not many people would be ingesting these ahead of actual psilocybin "magic mushrooms" "these days" so perhaps the stats are shaped that way because of it. This toadstool contains muscimol, not psilocybin as its psychoactive ingredient.
I was under the impression that these toadstools contain high amounts of strychnine which can build up and cause death. Though, I was also always told that about psilocybes too. Still unsure of the truth in that. All I know is that psilocybes you can eat raw, whereas those little red and white horrors need to be cooked to make them slightly safe.

Not that I believe anyone reading this thread is going to go out and start chewing on toadstools. It is also said that toxicity levels vary seasonally. Spring and summer have higher toxicity levels for Fly Agaric. Psilocybes it is advised to let them be for the first week or so of their season, which tends to be in early autumn when the rain and first cold nights start to arrive.

[Dumpster Diver]

There have been no deaths from those Fly Agaric toadstools for 100 years, but it would be advised that they are not of the psilocybin genus and are in fact of the death cap and destroying angels family (Amanita). They used to be considered more toxic than they are, but I would say not many people would be ingesting these ahead of actual psilocybin "magic mushrooms" "these days" so perhaps the stats are shaped that way because of it. This toadstool contains muscimol, not psilocybin as its psychoactive ingredient.
I was under the impression that these toadstools contain high amounts of strychnine which can build up and cause death. Though, I was also always told that about psilocybes too. Still unsure of the truth in that. All I know is that psilocybes you can eat raw, whereas those little red and white horrors need to be cooked to make them slightly safe.

Not that I believe anyone reading this thread is going to go out and start chewing on toadstools. It is also said that toxicity levels vary seasonally. Spring and summer have higher toxicity levels for Fly Agaric. Psilocybes it is advised to let them be for the first week or so of their season, which tends to be in early autumn when the rain and first cold nights start to arrive.

Wait, what? The label on the jpg said “magic mushrooms” and I believe all the labels on the interweb.

[Aragorn]

There have been no deaths from those Fly Agaric toadstools for 100 years, [...]

Just as an aside, the name "toadstool" is actually the literal translation to English of the word we use in Dutch for any kind of mushroom — i.e. "paddenstoel". ("Pad" means "toad" — it can also mean "path", but then the plural is "paden", not "padden" — and "stoel" means "stool", "chair".)

[Emil El Zapato]

that makes sense to me because I consider anything called 'mushroom' ain't nothing more than a toadstool.