In my personal experience (not a lot, from my early 20s) the opposite can also be true.
I came down from that trip thinking everything I had previously believed, and had been taught, was a sham. For the rest of that summer I was worried about a great number of things.
That is the desired effect. People with mental illness live in cycles that cause them illness and don't see how they're doing it to themselves. They're stuck, and can't see outside of themselves. Or if they do they lack the ability to care.
The effects of certain psychedelics are such that it can, if done therapeutically, "wake up" the individual to these behaviors and their ignorance of the reality around them.
This comes with it's own issues ofc, but they can become seemingly good issues to have.
Many things we have grown up believing and have been taught are shams, insofar as they often are not based on actual thought or circumstances but rather are "common wisdom" (rules) passed down and reinforced with an unquestioning society.
Yeah like from example, from an atheist point of view (and I'm not an atheist) you could say all religions are a sham...
FWIW, I also think all religions are a sham but I do think something "above" exists, and yeah, that which exists allows suffering in this world, take it or leave it...
...which is one of the main atheist debating points like "but the children with cancer" and yeah I agree those children shouldn't go through that but I also acknowledge something "greater" exists, that, for better or worse, whether I like it or not, or anyone else for that matter, allows these children to exist and suffer...
...humankind does however self-inflict a lot of suffering...
> I came down from that trip thinking everything I had previously believed, and had been taught, was a sham.
Me too, except this gave me a tremendous feeling of freedom. Suddenly there were no constraints as I realised most of the barriers were invented and in my head. I was filled with awe, curiosity and love.
> In my personal experience (not a lot, from my early 20s) the opposite can also be true.
Such is the nature of street drugs. The odds of what you took actually being 100% pure real LSD is approximately zero, unless it was directly handed to you by a trained chemist. Much more likely an obscure cocktail of designer tryptamines.
Can you provide a source for this? This has not been my experience, nor have I heard this anywhere before, and I am quite involved in the psychedelic community.
Sometimes people pass off research chemicals as LSD but the only real reason to do this is cost. It's not like LSD is wildly expensive. People might sell you bunk or under dosed tabs though
I mean, I had LSD from a handful of different sources, as well as psilocibin, and the essential dimension to any of the psychedelics effects I experienced were very similar, and it was only in that one instance that it led to lasting feelings of anxiety.
I do not believe it was the drug itself that messed me up. It was the insights that the drug revealed to me that were the source of my anxieties.
I worked through that stuff, and maybe in the long run I'm better off for it. It's hard to say for certain. One way or the other, life goes on.
LSD is a uniquely potent psychedelic. Especially in the pre-research-chemicals-from-china era, you could be pretty damn confident you took LSD if you were tripping balls on less than a milligram.
> The multicenter, randomized, double-blinded trial tested doses of 25, 50, 100 and 200 micrograms compared with a placebo.
Recently, the scientific testing of LSD seems to max at 200 micrograms. If you read the literature from the 50s and 60s, and if you listen to many recreational users, this number is low. I am actively curious if there are measurable positive effects in the 300-500 range. It seems like 200 is where negative effects start to really appear, so the researchers are afraid of going above that because the data they collect may not look good for regulators.
Phase 3 trials targeting 100 micrograms is further along legitimizing LSD than I ever expected in my lifetime. It doesn't seem like a full embrace though.
200μg is not really low, it's pretty much in the range for a "standard" dose. I personally prefer anywhere between 125-250μg for a worthwhile trip, including ego death, any time I have taken over 250μg it has required some preparation.
300-500μg range goes into way over a normal trip, I've only once taken 500+μg (and I consider myself experienced with hallucinogens) and the experience was borderline overwhelming, I had a good trip but wouldn't ever recommend it to anyone that isn't very experienced and knows very well what they are getting into.
Snacks if thats your vibe, plenty of fluids, a safe space and 2-3 easy/actionable game plans if the vibe changes. For a personal anecdote, it’s being mentally aware/prepared that “I’m tripping on LSD and this too shall end” when things go awry.
To be fully prepared, you should practice your maniacal howling and wild ecstatic movement well ahead of dosing or you will have no idea what to do when you are peaking and a faerie opens the void in front of you begging you to jump in and be swallowed into a world of colorful, cherry-flavored music. If you can manage it, you will want to have a hose connected to a reliable water source and some dry clothes just in case.
Think of it like prepping your inner landscape for a "vehicle rollover". Eat properly, get proper sleep, and get yourself in order, because soon anything you not securely stowed in your head is gonna be flyin' around in your noggin like a bunch of crumbled fast food bags, dropped change, and empty soda cans.
The dose that recreational users are being told they're getting is FAR off what they are actually getting. When someone says they're taking 3 tabs of 100 microgram dosages, it's likely they're taking 50-75% of that.
I'm not sure I would trust this. I was at a party and ended up chatting to a researcher working with VA hospitals to develop psychedelic treatment for PTSD-- the VA doesn't fuck around with hippie shit, so his research was reasonably grounded in reliable, repeatable results-- and he emphasized that LSD is not being seriously considered as a possible treatment, because the emotional effects are pretty short-lived compared to psilocybin, MDMA, ketamine, etc.
Which is not to say LSD trips can't be useful and transformative experiences, but both personal experience and scientific account confirm they tend to be "intellectual trips", whereas what you need to help anxiety are the "emotional trips" that other drugs are better-suited for.
PTSD and generalized anxiety disorder are very different scenarios, so it wouldn't be surprising that treatments for one wouldn't be effective for the other.
The initial data looks promising in this case, so it'll be interesting to see how the studies develop.
"hippie shit" is apart of the science, but it can't be sold so medical research doesn't get funding. It's not as if they get a blank check, there's stakeholders and expected outcomes involved.
For example if you don't embrace the "hippie shit" all you're going to get out of psychedelics is an emotional trainwreck with nothing to anchor it. It is a powerful medicine that has throughout history been a medicine for human connectedness.
The environment, people and seemingly the direction the sun is pointing through the window affects how the experience works.
If my physician offered LSD to me, would want to be sure it was a last resort. Don't want to risk HPPD without good reason.
After experiencing very mild visual snow for a few months, that's frightening enough for me. My job is looking at a computer screen. I need my vision intact.
This happened to me. After one particularly intense trip I couldn't even look at a television for 6 months without having really jarring visual hallucinations. A few years of panic attacks too.
I quit taking LSD after that one and all psychoactives not much longer after.
I had a similar experience with a similar time frame. It didn't completely go away, but I stopped noticing it as much. Except for situations where it's hard to not notice like at night or when it's dark or I actively pay attention to it, I ignore it without having to think about it most of the time.
I support this. Seems like having a trained therapist involved can't HURT though. So not having one kind of feels like cutting corners, but maybe there's a more academic reason?
Never tried LSD, but a couple of weeks ago I consummed canabis oil from a small spray bottle I bought from our province's official canabis store. Not knowing much about canabis and proper dosage, I decided to try it, but it's clear I took too much...
The trip was like a mental battle between moments of lucidity and negative thought loops and light paranoia. It forced me to see my own automatic thinking process and this "inner voice" I have with more clarity.
I realized we can orient our thinking and it's polarity at any moment and it would influence our perception of reality. Sounds obvious on the surface, but it became clear when I realized negative thoughts were appearing and I would reorient my thinking elsewhere, the vibe changed and it felt like I was becoming more lucid.
I've done that with weed where I felt ego death basically, because my dose was too high as well. But the next day I felt fine. I've been using CBD oil as an anti-anxiety treatment, it works quite well.
CBD is great for dealing with anxiety. I use broad spectrum drops and take quite a high dose a few times a day. Because the broad spectrum doesn’t have any thc it’s still easy to get work done with it and sometimes it even helps with getting started on something.
So am I crazy in noticing all of these "X psychedelic great for anxiety/depression/Y" stories over the last couple of years and wondering if it's natural or else why there's a propaganda campaign pushing this idea out now? The internet is ruined for me now, I now just assume by default that it's likely coordinated, not natural, and there's some overall political/social angle they're trying to achieve. Probably working to soften up the population for legalization efforts in a few years? The weed pattern - spend a few years pushing studies that weed helps cure/treat X/Y/Z disease, which led after enough years to medicinal weed, which led after enough years to legalization.
LSD, MDMA and Psilocybin (mushrooms) are all very potent non-habitual substances capable at creating instant psychic breaks and creating permanent improvements.
"Terence’s pivotal, existential crisis came abruptly, some time in ’88 or ’89. Everything that happened after that event was fallout. I don’t know exactly when it happened, and I don’t know exactly what happened; I am piecing it together from what Kat [his wife at the time] has told me, and she has volunteered few details, and I am reluctant to probe.
It happened when they were living for a time on the big island, and it was a mushroom trip they shared that was absolutely terrifying for Terence. It was terrifying because, for some reason, the mushroom turned on him. The gentle, wise, humorous mushroom spirit that he had come to know and trust as an ally and teacher ripped back the facade to reveal an abyss of utter existential despair. Terence kept saying, so Kat told me, that it was “a lack of all meaning, a lack of all meaning.” And this induced panic in Terence, and probably, I speculate, a feeling he was going mad. He couldn’t deal with it. Kat’s efforts to reassure him were fruitless. After that experience, he never again took mushrooms, and he took other psychedelics, such as DMT and ayahuasca, only on rare occasions and with great reluctance.
Whatever the specific content of the psychedelic experience might have been that triggered the cognitive collapse of Terence’s worldview and precipitated his existential crisis, what was most remarkable was that he did not see it coming. He did not see it coming."
— From Dennis McKenna, The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss: My Life with Terence McKenna, now excised
My brief experiences with entheogens largely agree with the study. However, if you're not in a good place (mentally), please don't just do drugs (it won't solve anything).
Also, if anybody suggests you "try this," perhaps start with a microdose of psilocybin, first (but only if you're curious).
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The beautiful interconnectedness of everything is my main "takeaway" from brief dabblings.
I cannot express how much I agree that psilocybin is a considerably better place to begin a journey like this. I can only speak for myself obviously, and I'm quite sure entheogens are a difficult thing to paint with broad strokes in, but if I were to, psilocybin being the best place to start is something I deeply believe. I would also add, if you are curious, be cautious, but don't be scared. :)
>if you are curious, be cautious, but don't be scared
I suggested starting with a microdose, above, because for me it is one of those experiences which just helps me "be" [makes my attitude less shitty].
But as others have suggested, a smaller dose might be more appropriate for anybody looking for "an experience on psychedelics."
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My absolute DO NOT recommendation: don't try any drug alone. When you're doing drugs alone (particularly first experimentations), you open yourself up to all sorts of gruesome outcomes (whether physical or mental).
Individuals should "put in some mental groundwork" in preparation of taking any entheogen; my best advice would be to use a spirit guide / healer for your first trip, particularly if you're extremely anxious.
As example, I have previously been turned down [by a US MD] as "too anxious" to try legal ketamine-infusion therapy [immediately after loss of a parent].
In using a trained professional (e.g. see Oregon's new psilocybin guide certification) to help you determine your "use fitness," you can probably avoid a very bad experience...
I just looked up "entheogen" (e.g. LSD, psilo, salvia, mescaline) in my personal dictionary and the origin is this: "Greek, literally becoming divine within."
Just a perfectly-generated word, based on my own personal experiences of connecting with the above examples (except S. divinorum, which can go to hell (or take you there)).
I assume you don't mean a micro dose, but a smaller dose. The point of microdosing is to almost not feel the effects of the substance, and recent research has shown that microdosing is largely ineffective (both for the neuroplasticity effects of psilocybin, but also on its effect on DMN; my hunch: the reasons are probably related, but I'm not a neuro scientist!)
There is some data, but not much and not very good, that microdosing probably helps alleviate anxiety. However, I think what isn't well understood is, is this like using a band-aid for cancer. In my personal discussions with folks who work around psychedelic assisted therapy, these folks seem to believe it's the trip that knocks you right, and microdosing can keep you right, but you need to start with the trip. I have no real opinion on this, seems plausible to me based on my own experimentation, but I don't know.
BIG DISCLAIMER before you read the next bits: I'm not a researcher/scientist in this field, but psychedelics have helped me get a handle on CPTSD, process trauma.
My take on this is that microdosing probably still has some acute benefits, since it still does alters brain chemistry. So, can it be helpful? Probably, but it should come with a big "YMMV" disclaimer.
In the context of psilocybin, my understanding is that it doesn't give long-term benefits as a "macro" dose would like DMN regulation[1] and neuroplasticity[2]; a lot of people tend to attribute these to microdosing too, but apparently it's not the case[3]. Also, due to tolerance build up, so you start getting diminishing returns from microdosing, so it's not effective long-term (even with the Fadiman microdosing protocol where you take breaks; I think there's other protocols that claims to lessen the diminishing returns). I don't think LSD triggers these physiological changes in the brain, but it's believed it can helps with the psychological aspects.
I don't take them regularly anymore (I used to take them every couple of months during a rough patch in my life, but I also did therapy on-and-off during that period too). I now take them every few years as to check-in with myself, or special occasions.
Yes 100% agree, microdose has a specific meaning in the literature, that it is below active threshold. Please stop overloading this term to mean "I didn't take a very high active dose of a drug". You'll never microdose and have any apparent classical effects. At best you've have a quasi might have/mightn't have effects that can't specifically be pinned to the drug ingestion.
My original comment had specifically meant "taking a dose which is barely noticeable" as a first time experience, e.g. 0.5 grams [vs "small"@2g; "heroic"@5g].
>You'll never microdose and have any apparent classical effects.
This is incorrect, but probably only on a case-by-case basis (to each, his own).
I think we're getting into "undefined semantics" here, so I'll share my own psilocybin dosing [260lb Male, 40]:
<0.5g == microdose (you just feel happier, more connected)
0.5-2g == small dose (you definitely notice distortions/connections)
2-4g == normal dose (silliness, connectedness, impactful mental rearrangement)
>5g == heroic dosing (you'd better be ready for visuals, tracers, and a few hours of helpful insanity)
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Personally, I agree that the real therapy begins after your first normal dose; however, I would not start there, nor even with a small dose. Start slow, build up to the revelation.
100-125 should give you visual effects you'd expect based on your existing conception of hallucinogens.
If you don't care for visual hallucinations, anywhere from 50-75 will give you a lot of the usually pleasant mental effects: high sense of novelty, mood elevation, curiosity, sense of openness, etc.
Even a smaller dose of 25-50 will give you perceivable mental effects.
You should also spend the bit of extra money on a reagent testing kit to ensure you aren't taking random research chemicals being passed off as LSD. You can keep the reagents in the fridge pretty much indefinitely for future use as well.
> “We’re very confident based on the results that 100 micrograms is the right dose to bring into our phase three studies, as we didn’t see any more improvement with 200 micrograms but did see additional adverse effects,” Karlin said.
For therapeutic effects (not recreational) might recommend the smallest dose that’s accessible and scaling from there. Ex. Taking a 100mcg tab and dividing it into fourths. This will accustom your friend to the new feelings and lowing the chances of an anxiety attack and allow them a reference point if they want to do it again, increase the dose, or abstain. LSD is known to be anti-addictive so having some leftover should be considered safe.
No particular schedule, I can feel when I need to. Usually something triggers my depression or anxiety, and then I sit with it for some period of time till I feel I'm ready to make peace with it. Last year 3 times, this year once so far. I should also note, I use psilocybin now, however I started with lysergic acid.
Well hopefully we can continue actually studying benefits of psychedelic treatment in a medical setting because for about 30-40 years it was a dead field thanks to the government being oh-noesies in the late 60s. Maybe they should have put more money into understanding the drug from a medicinal perspective and not as a chemical agent against enemy troops or covert assassination through hyperdosing.
I came down from that trip thinking everything I had previously believed, and had been taught, was a sham. For the rest of that summer I was worried about a great number of things.