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Psilocybin decreases depression and anxiety in cancer patients (2016)
- BlueGh0st 1y ago(2016)
- clbrmbr 1y agoThis. I saw the late Roland Griffiths as first author and thought the same.
- milchek 1y agoAnecdotal, but about a year ago my wife participated in a psilocybin trial at a university here who were looking at patients with severe anxiety. It was her last hope after trying therapy, various supplements, as well as dietary and lifestyle changes, etc It has been life changing for her, but one thing she tells people now is that what also helped was that it was facilitated with a trained therapist there during the session for guidance to make sure she didn’t “get stuck in a loop.” There was also many sessions pre dosing day to optimize the result. She would highly recommend the treatment and hopes it becomes mainstream soon.
- Traubenfuchs 1y agoTechnically, what is the approximate dosing regime? How often, for how many days, how much (=how high?)? Is this a therapy with an end or do you have to take mushrooms forever?
- AndrewThrowaway 1y agoWas she in placebo group?
- yesseri 1y agoIs it possible to have a placebo group when doing a study on psilocybin? Would participants in the placebo not notice the lack of psychedelic effects? EDIT: In the original link it says the placebo group received a much lower dose, so that seems to be one way of doing it.
- mock-possum 1y agosounds like in that case you’re not testing the efficacy of high versus sober, you’re testing heroic dosing versus micro dosing.
- sorcerer-mar 1y agoThere are also studies that test against placebo. There have been lots and lots of trials on these things with different designs that make different cost/benefit tradeoffs. A difficult one with psychedelics is as-mentioned: people can easily "break the blind". But if you want to eliminate that problem you can instead do a micro vs macro dose, in which case you're measuring a slightly different thing.
- AndrewThrowaway 1y agoThen again what if showing some funky hallucinogenic images/movies would have the same effect on some people? We surely know that people can go crazy (so have psychological effects) in cults and similar settings. What if intense visual/sonic/etc stimulation, visual distortions etc. together with messaging like "it will change your life and cure your anxieties" is the key in this therapy?
- cassianoleal 1y ago> intense visual/sonic/etc stimulation, visual distortions etc. together with messaging like "it will change your life and cure your anxieties" is the key in this therapy? I sincerely hope this is not at all how any of this works. That sounds like a recipe for paranoia.
- sorcerer-mar 1y agoThat isn't how these studies are being done... because yeah, it'd probably confound the results.
- nemomarx 1y agoThat's not so much a placebo as a head to head test of different effects? I think you'd do it in a new study entirely
- milchek 1y agoThere was a placebo group that were given basically a very strong antihistamine which induced some drowsiness. This particular trial, however, allowed participants who were in the placebo group to later opt in for the real dosing - obviously with those results omitted from the trial.
- Levitating 1y ago> "get stuck in a loop" I feel that. Thought loops are scary and it takes someone to recognize them to get you out.
- sampl3username 1y agoThe point of music during a psychedelic experience is to provide a reference for the passing of time and to help with progression of thoughts. Music guides you through your thoughts, avoiding loops, by providing a changing texture, melody, rythm, and story. This is on top of the other effects of music, such as emotional effects.
- foobiekr 1y agoFor other readers, I would like to suggest no music, just a sunny day and quiet. Music, television, people talking, etc. gives you an external clock and the timelessness of the experience, one of the greatest feelings, is lost. I guess if you're just doing them for fun it's ok.
- milchek 1y agoYes, exactly - I should’ve added that she head a specific guided soundtrack as well, which the facilitators said was integral to optimal treatment, at least for this particular trial.
- strnjrloops 1y ago[dead]
- ThinkBeat 1y agoIf I understand what you wrote correctly, Your wife did not try any traditional medication to treat her anxiety? Or is that included under "supplements"? If so the term "lost hope" is not in my opinion accurate. I am quite happy that it worked and it is a better alternative than medication, I certainly do not think that medication is the cure all, or optimal.
- esseph 1y ago> If so the term "lost hope" is not in my opinion accurate. What an absolutely asshole statement, which also shows an absolutely profound misunderstanding of suicide prevention and care. Edit: Core belief of suicide ideation is that hope is gone. This is often (but not always) a perception. There may always be more things to try - but that's irrelevant to the person that is dead because they could not see another way.
- cubefox 1y agoHe meant "last hope". That was the original phrase.
- esseph 1y agoAh, then I'll fix my statement! > If so the term "last hope" is not in my opinion accurate. What an absolutely asshole statement, which also shows an absolutely profound misunderstanding of suicide prevention and care. Edit: Core belief of suicide ideation is that hope is gone. This is often (but not always) a perception. There may always be more things to try - but that's irrelevant to the person that is dead because they could not see another way.
- cubefox 1y agoConventional anxiety medication is a lot easier to obtain than psilocybin.
- cubefox 1y agoYou are right, there are many medications against anxiety disorder, and psilocybin not anyone's last hope if they haven't tried any of those other drugs.
- foobiekr 1y agoTaking mushrooms together with someone you love, who loves you, is possibly one of the most life changing experiences a couple can have. Have you taken them with her?
- milchek 1y agoI haven’t yet. It’s not easy to find the place or time to do so. The trial was great because everything was meticulously organised, such as the dose and - I guess - quality? I’d be worried about sourcing myself and messing something up there.
- say_it_as_it_is 1y agoTrial eligibility required someone with documented evidence of treatment-resistant depression, with at least two prescription regiments in recent history.
- milchek 1y agoCorrect, screening was pretty thorough and there were a lot of sessions with therapists, blood tests, etc before they made the decision to allow her into the trial.
- sneak 1y agoIt’s also possible that the effect is purely pharmacological/physiological and the things you think or don’t think during the trip are entirely immaterial to its effects on depression and/or anxiety (which last days or weeks, whereas the hallucinogenic effects last only hours).
- tux3 1y agoThe study design does try to mitigate blinding issues and expectancy effects, but with half of the participants reporting past use of hallucinogens, this is not going to be very effective blinding. A majority of your low dose 1st group likely very much realizes that they're on the inactive dose.
- bedane 1y agoI think this says more about the usual psy drugs we're prescribed and use. they don't do jack shit.
- Bluestein 1y agoThe very apparent effect these things have makes you wonder if they do not (somehow) correct for what otherwise could be a built-in deficiency we carry with us, by "design" correcting some sort of built-in imbalance ...
- jenkstom 1y agoSorry, but I'd be dead without mine. I'm going to have to disagree with you.
- hattmall 1y agoThe interesting thing with mushrooms is that you could eat a handful, realize you are already dead, and then maybe not need the other meds at all.
- quesera 1y agoThis could be interpreted as psychedelic ego death from psilocin, backdooring into some kind of personal revelation. Or as clinical death from Amanita toxicity, with some meta commentary on religion. +1. :)
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- 1y ago
- apwell23 1y agofull title Psilocybin produces substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer: A randomized double-blind trial
- pbhjpbhj 1y ago@dang, the OP title needs changing imo.
- bedane 1y agothis stuff cured a lot of problems I had been trying for years to get rid of, overnight. (literally) mind-blowing bonus, it made my buddy quit drinking variance, it made my other buddy delusional and stupid. hasn't really recovered
- g-mork 1y agoit only takes one bad trip (absolutely massive overdose in my case) to understand how badly south things can get. used to be a favourite consumable, haven't touched it in over a decade and extremely unlikely to again following that one experience. it also helped phrase 3 earlier experiences in terms of the new "peak", and made me understand how much incredible danger I had been in at all times even prior to the bad trip
- Towaway69 1y agoDid you ever reflect on why you had a bad trip? Did the drug change or did you change? Was the setting different? Different people around, different location … After all learning from mistakes can be just as helpful as the positives in life.
- mauriciokeita 1y agoWhy is there no more recent studies on that?
- Joel_Mckay 1y agoBecause usually the "euphoria" people feel is their biology failing due to mild poisoning. It is why most people will often upchuck within a few minutes of ingestion. People may think they are finding enlightenment, but are no different from the local deranged squirrels aggressively howling at passerby after nibbling Amanita in the fall. Apparently the squirrels use the mushroom to help preserve food stores, and it doesn't poison them as severely (often fatal for humans.) Paul Stamets is a weird dude, but his work contains some profoundly detailed observations. People need to think about Fungi as closer to animals that don't move on their own, and acknowledge they rapidly adapt genetically to survive. Pretty to photograph, but often far more complex than people like to admit. =3
- pjerem 1y ago> Because usually the "euphoria" people feel is their biology failing due to mild poisoning. All the recent studies in the last decade have proven it's the opposite. What's your point exactly ?
- Joel_Mckay 1y ago[flagged]
- jfyi 1y ago>Amanita It's an entirely different class of hallucinogen. I don't have personal experience with it but I have done other dissociative hallucinogens and his take is likely largely true (though I wouldn't argue with someone saying they felt euphoria on it). The problem here is it's the entirely wrong mushroom. I can assure any doubters that psilocybin on the other hand has legitimate euphoric effects.
- 1y ago
- hellohello911 1y agoFigure 3 is suspicious. Even the placebo arm has much better scores for depression and anxiety from baseline?
- ketamine 1y agoNot defending that - some times just knowing you are trying to better yourself helps make things seem better.
- hellohello911 1y agoSure - but I don't see the authors mention group convergence anywhere. While the first 5 week post treatment actually looks impressive, I don't think the treatment arms being essentially the same after 6 months supports the conclusions of the study. Unless we backpedal and say the inactive grouo was microdosing (which has its own baggage...)
- AndrewThrowaway 1y agoAs far as I know antidepressants and even pain killers are the most susceptible to placebo effect.
- hellohello911 1y agoAgreed. If I saw an SSRI with those curves I would doubt the efficacy of it. But this might be why I am not in charge of clinical trials. Just a layman taking pot shots.
- Aurornis 1y agoThis happens in every depression study: Placebo effect is extremely strong for depression. You can even collect depressed people, do nothing at all, and when you survey them 6 months later the average scores will improve. This is because depression is, on average, an aberrant condition and the average patient will tend to revert toward the mean. However, psychedelic studies have a bigger problem: Psychedelics trigger false feelings of amazement and wonder, feeling like something magical has happened. This is like turbo placebo when you tell people that it’s a depression treatment. Maybe that’s a valuable therapeutic effect, or maybe not. There’s a lot to explore, but from all the studies I’ve read I’m not as bullish on mushrooms for depression as the headlines would indicate.
- black_13 1y ago[dead]
- Youden 1y agoThis is from 2016, a lot has happened since then: - The FDA recognized psilocybin as a breakthrough therapy for treatment-resistant depression: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/compass-pathways-receives-fda-breakthrough-therapy-designation-for-psilocybin-therapy-for-treatment-resistant-depression-834088100.html https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/compass-pathways-re... - Some more studies, such as https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27909164/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27909164/ - More widespread use in medical treatment, such as approval in Australia (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-66072427 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-66072427) and limited approval in Switzerland Very much anecdotal but I can say that psychedelics helped me and several friends a lot with depression. They don't just magically make you feel better - at least not long-term - but they give you the neuroplasticity you need to adjust your internal filters and behaviour. As such, if the purpose is truly healing and recovery, they're best paired with professional therapy, preferably from somebody who's experienced with psychedelic-assisted therapy specifically.
- tuesdaynight 1y agoI don't have depression, but the first time I used psychedelics was so emotional helpful that I strongly suggested for depressed friends. I corrected that mistake hours later, after realizing that the risks are low, but life changing if it happens. However, I will never forget that feeling. I've used it again in the following years, but the results faded and it became boring for me.
- rjxc 1y agoWhat are the low-but-life-changing risks?
- causality0 1y agoSome people report personality changes, some as radical as "I found I didn't love my husband anymore."
- BiteCode_dev 1y ago
- jtrn 1y agoWelcome to year 30 of trying to prove psilocybin works for psychiatric illness. And still in the pilot stage. Even taking the data at face value, the trial cannot disentangle the drug effect from expectancy, psychotherapy, and statistical noise. The enormous effect sizes are almost certainly inflated, multiple-comparison error is uncontrolled, and the participant pool is highly self-selected. Until a preregistered, parallel-group, active-placebo, adequately powered study with blinded independent raters replicates these findings, their practical value for routine cancer care remains minimal. It’s so interesting to see how strong the drive to prove something works is, overriding everything. As a clinical psychologist, I would welcome this kind of therapy if it worked. But this is just sad. It’s just like listening to people claim that ivermectin can cure everything. Show me one place where this therapy is conducted by people who haven’t "drunk the Kool-Aid," and I’ll be impressed. It’s so frustrating to work with actual patients and see how much these therapies really don’t work in reality. These kinds of biased studies pop up all the time without actually panning out. I’m starting to think that people promoting therapy, giving false hope, and spending money on research like this should be viewed as corrupt and evil.
- motoboi 1y agoTo better appreciate his point, read “The Control Group Is Out Of Control”: https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/04/28/the-control-group-is-out-of-control/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/04/28/the-control-group-is-o...
- johndhi 1y agoWhy do you say the effect sizes are inflated?
- jtrn 1y agoDue to a small, self-selected sample, biased toward educated, prior hallucinogen users, inadequate blinding, p-hacking via uncorrected multiple tests on 17+ outcomes, and crossover design flaws that confound long-term effects with intensive therapy. Similar psychedelic therapy claims—for LSD/psilocybin alleviating cancer-related anxiety/depression—have echoed since the 1950s-1970s, yet they've never panned out into practical, scalable clinical therapies. This alone should raise a MASSIVE Bayesian statistics red flag, due to prior discount: with decades of unfulfilled hype. At this point new evidence requires extraordinary proof to update our view. If such massive effectiveness were true, it would blow what we already have out of the water, and I would be the first to promote it to my patients. But you know what they say when something sounds too good to be true.
- yewenjie 1y agoThe study mentions they administered 30 milligrams of psilocybin for 70 kg of body weight. Does anybody know how many grams of dried mushrooms that is equivalent to, roughly?
- adamgordonbell 1y ago2 to 5 grams dried psilocybe cubensis, per chatgpt.
- TrackerFF 1y agoYou’ll be tripping balls on that amount. 5g is close to a heroic dose. EDIT: Never mind, didn't see that it was cubensis - which might take more due to being weaker than regular wild semilanceata.
- throwaway330935 1y agoI've been doing some recent research and testing, and here's what I have found: I'm talking about the "Penis Envy" strain, which is quoted as being ~30% more potent than typical. 2g is the edge of where I start getting visual artifacting, and only sometimes. 3g, which I have not tried, was quoted as being towards the upper end of a "theraputic dose", and 6g as the upper end of a recreational dose. Some friends with much more experience consider 1g to be microdosing, FWIW. 0.25g I can't feel at all. .5g I start to feel some euphoria and 1g to 1.5g I start to feel "high" but with no noticeable psychedelics or just minor visual artifacting when I'm reading. I don't really have anxiety or depression. I do have a fairly high stress family life, wife and kiddos have lots of issues. A few weeks ago I had 2g on an empty stomach on a Sunday and I just listened to music for ~4 hours and it was like I had a vacation. I hadn't enjoyed listening to music so much for 20-30 years. Also, I seem to feel kind of sleepy when I'm trippy, but afterwards I'm wide awake for 4-5 hours. So evening dosing is best avoided. It's kind of great, for me personally, living in a state where it has been decriminalized.
- amanaplanacanal 1y ago
- bowsamic 1y agoFor me it did the opposite, made me suicidal when I'd never felt that way before. I didn't even have particularly bad trips or anything.
- mehphp 1y agoAnecdotally, I didn’t get severe anxiety and panic attacks until immediately after trying mushrooms. I didn’t even have a bad trip, but the next day something was off and I never truly recovered from that.
- krzat 1y agoPsychodelics allow brain to change, but the change is not guaranteed to be positive.
- Trasmatta 1y agoExactly. This is why I hate it when psychonauts push the "there are no bad trips" angle. It's a lie, and psychedelics can have a long lasting negative impact on the brain in some cases.
- immibis 1y agoFollowing the logic, though, it could be undone with a positive experience on psychedelics...
- Trasmatta 1y agoOr you could have further triggering experiences
- immibis 1y agoI'd guess it falls in the category of "don't do that", along with things like using dd to overwrite your failing hard drive with a copy of your shiny new blank drive. You shouldn't take psychedelics therapeutically unless you're set up to have a good experience, I assume. (I've heard that expectation of your experience actually influences your experience a lot, so it could even be self-fulfilling!)
- spiralcoaster 1y agoI had this exact same experience. It felt like it opened the door to panic attacks, and I had a few of them in the years that followed.
- IceDane 1y ago... In patients about to die from cancer. This title is disingenuous.
- foobiekr 1y agoYou think depression knows about cancer?
- ArthurStacks 1y ago[dead]
- thisismyswamp 1y agoTo be fair, so did a lobotomy. I believe close attention should be paid to any unintended outcomes of a therapy that the patient themselves would no longer be able to identify due to the nature of the treatment itself.
- sebmellen 1y agoPsilocybin is about the 180-degree opposite of a lobotomy, just from a purely mechanical perspective. And it certainly feels that way qualitatively as well.
- thisismyswamp 1y agoorganic systems seek points of equilibrium, with veering too much off in any axis being detrimental
- gavmor 1y agoYes, although—within a specific range—mild "hormetic" stress or departure from baseline can lead to adaptive and beneficial effects in organic systems. Hormesis is characterized by a biphasic dose-response: low-level exposures to stressors (toxins, temperature, exercise, dietary restriction, etc.) are those which stimulate adaptive beneficial responses, eg exercise, ischemic preconditioning (short bouts of reduced blood flow improving tissue resilience), and dietary energy restriction. Rather than negating homeostasis, we can say that hormesis "refines" it: mild, intermittent stress can make us resilient through larger future perturbations.
- itomato 1y agoA patient doesn’t metabolize a lobotomy.
- thisismyswamp 1y agothey don't have to as there's no ingestion of the therapeutic agent
- Aurornis 1y agoAnecdotally, I know several people who have tried mushrooms and/or ayahuasca for depression in recent years and their results are nothing like the glowing Internet reports. The worst case is a friend who became disconnected from reality for a very long time. Went from atheistic to believing in mystical ideas. He thought he was able to see and sense things that we could not, like auras and secret messages. He was getting better last time we checked but he’s hard to get in contact with now. No prior hints of psychosis or family history, just a psychedelic induced mental illness. The other anecdotes were not as dramatic, but also not as positive or free of side effects as studies like this one would make you think. Multiple stories of extended periods of derealization or anxiety attacks that started after the trip. There are similar comments here throughout this comment section. There was a time when sharing these negative stories was met with disbelief and downvotes. I think as it’s becoming more common people are realizing that the interaction between psychedelics and depression isn’t as great as it seemed for a few years when they were virtually being promoted by podcasters and social media influencers as a novel cure for depression.
- hattmall 1y agoPsychedelics are basically like shock therapy. The whole ketamine thing though is even crazier at least with psychedelics there is a forced introspection and very little addictive nature.
- chuckadams 1y agoI think a lot of the negative reception to negative anecdotes were because they were often in the context of legalization. "I know someone who went crazy after trying $foo so we should still lock people into iron cages just for the crime of possessing it." Debate tends to get polarized when doors are being kicked down. Academic studies that are disconnected from culture wars don't tend to provoke such responses, probably because they don't tend to reach the general public in the first place.
- landl0rd 1y agoWhich is a terrible strategy actually. People did the same with marijuana. “Dude it’s medicine lol. Dude it can’t possibly contribute to schizophrenia. Dude weed lmao.” All this does is create a credible argument that the pro legalization crowd are objectively lying to people and therefore untrustworthy.
- phyzix5761 1y agoAnecdotal, but I know someone who suffered major depression and was hospitalized multiple times. Their medication wasn't working and neither was therapy. They discovered mindfulness meditation and in combination with becoming a more moral person, limiting music, eliminating social media and unwholesome entertainment, and practicing small acts of charity multiple times per week they were able to overcome their depression. It's been almost 15 years since they've had any symptoms.
- vonneumannstan 1y ago"Just be a better person" is not real treatment advice lol.
- phyzix5761 1y agoThe way they've explained it is that immorality is usually based on desire and aversion. And constantly giving in to these things creates a dependence where we're never satisfied with what we have. Having a structured moral code that allows for observing these mental qualities without giving in to them eventually leads to their reduction because we're breaking the habit pattern. Once your desires and aversions are reduced then you become more satisfied with what you have; ie eliminating depression in their case.
- echelon_musk 1y agoPali terms for anyone interested in the "source code" of the modern Mindfulness Movement that allows you to look up the original Pāli technical terms: > [unskilful] desire taṇhā (The second Noble Truth) > aversion dosa > we're never satisfied dukkha (The first Noble Truth) > moral code sīla
- draw_down 1y ago[dead]
- mistermann 1y ago[dead]
- neom 1y agoFWIW: Got me sober and I think: kept me sober. Psilocybin is some powerful stuff tho, do recommend if people want to try it for "issues" - you seek someone who knows what they are doing first.
- baerrie 1y agoTaking psychedelics allowed me to shed years of guilt and my own historic personality to become a more open and grateful person. I think some people have psychologies built on strong foundations that if shaken by psychedelics, cause more harm than good. The people who psychedelics help are those with more suggestible psyches that want change.
- esseph 1y ago> own historic personality What do you mean by this?
- baerrie 1y agoI meant to say historical personality. I thought I had heard about this type of ego-death when reading some of the early pioneer’s works but can’t find a mention. Basically it was the idea of who I was that had built up over time based on people’s assumptions, judgements, and the way they treated me. My built up idea of self was enforcing negative looping behavior patterns until tripping freed me from that past idea, my historical personality. This led to me feeling a more open and unburdened sense of identity, allowing my idea of self to be an unfolding story rather than someone else's half-telling
- tbirdny 1y agoAnd it might slow aging: https://x.com/bryan_johnson/status/1943824432419811437 https://x.com/bryan_johnson/status/1943824432419811437
- sibeliuss 1y agoI have a family member who participated in this trial and their life was utterly transformed, from top to bottom. And it resolved a lot of _other_ unrelated issues in a totally unexpected way. They describe their participation as the most meaningful event of their lives, second to the birth of their children. (Stage 4 metastatic lung cancer -- and still kicking nearly 10 years later ;)
- pxc 1y agoDoes anyone know if any similar treatments are currently available or if there are any ongoing or pending such studies? Someone in my life is a cancer patient who could potentially benefit from this.
- bongodongobob 1y agoJust buy some mushrooms and turn on some Allman Brothers.
- pxc 1y agoMy dad is a boomer who's strongly (and I think uncritically) against non-medical use of all drugs except alcohol (and he himself doesn't drink). He would be hesitant to do this under medical supervision, but he definitely wouldn't just do it "on his own". Besides, he's kind of a closed off person who has a lot of emotions he just avoids dealing with, even more so since the cancer diagnosis. He definitely needs a trip sitter, but he has few friends (certainly none who could do that competently), and no one in our family could fulfill such a role for him. Maybe I could for someone else, but my relationship with him is too complicated for me to do that job well, I think. :-\ To top it off, my dad's cancer is in his liver, even though he never drank much at all for dietary reasons (he was on a strict keto diet for ages). I would worry about the possibility of toxicity with introducing new drugs without medical supervision.
- jdietrich 1y agoOregon, Colorado and New Mexico have legalized psilocybin for supervised medical use. There are a number of clinical studies that might be relevant and are recruiting or soon to recruit participants. https://clinicaltrials.gov/search?cond=cancer&aggFilters=status:not%20rec&term=Psilocybin https://clinicaltrials.gov/search?cond=cancer&aggFilters=sta...
- pxc 1y agoThank you so much. I have no familiarity with the appropriate search tools for this kind of thing. It's really great that we have a tool like this. Thank you for introducing me to it!
- aristofun 1y agoDo you really need to be a doctor to realize that this type of drugs makes someone’s mood better?
- yieldcrv 1y agoAnother positive anecdote for me I am more empathic for weeks after doses of psilocybin. Getting there doesn't rely on any hero trips, no fractals, just maybe to the point of seeing more vibrant lights for a few hours. They used to hurt my stomach which would throw off a trip while dealing with that, and I still avoid eating stems, but it looks like I have tolerance to that now. Nothing supremely insightful, I mostly ignore my mind's attempts at epiphanies and the false feelings of clarity, I wait till music festivals to consume them and just enjoy the vibrant lights and echo-ing sounds. Just to the point where conversations and ambient noises from further away than expected are being amplified and spliced in to things happening much closer to me. Recreationally, I like the people I attract when I'm feeling the effects of psilocybin. I'm far too analytical in default mode, not nearly as much as when I was a bit younger, but still a far cry from where I would prefer to be. Its like I "null route" all of that and am more present to how people feel or want to feel. Its kind of crazy and obvious when it wears off, I respond to stimuli differently, or ask about things I don't really want to ask about. Less "vibes" in the moment and more "analyze" like noticing incongruences in people's lives and asking about that as a form of smalltalk, when it would be better off ignored. People respond normally, but I can tell it doesn't give them a spark of warmth like the vibes version of me does. Wasn't a goal or something I was aiming to work on, just a side effect I noticed over time. I also use other kinds of psychedelics but I didn't want to pollute this comment with more anecdotes.
- pstuart 1y agoI did a medically supervised psilocybin treatment and it was a glorious adventure but had no lasting effect. Ketamine was equally "experiential" but actually had lasting impact. It's a pity it's challenging to come by, as one can DIY the former.
- cantSpellSober 1y ago> a high dose (22 or 30 mg/70 kg) of psilocybin What is this compared to a recreational dose? Are these patients getting high as part of their treatment?
- psyclobe 1y agoPsychedelics put me in Heaven… and in Hell. Use wisely.
- RomanPushkin 1y agoHello from cancer family. It indeed decreases. When my spouse was diagnosed, they prescribed her anti-depressants. We replaced them with psilocybin. Never taken any anti-depressants. We had a very serious case with multiple surgeries, chemos, radiations. Not one, not two, and not ten or even twenty. MORE than that. The treatment still goes on, soon it is gonna be 5 years. With ZERO anti-depressants. And I've learnt how to grow them, not buying them. So we don't need studies, we tested it the hard way, and it works :) I can talk about it for hours.
- Bluestein 1y agoI am sorry about the situation and hope it goes well. Hang in there.-
- RomanPushkin 1y agoThanks! I just realized we're mostly feeling normal, maybe even a bit more happy than average non-cancer family. It's only the side effects that are uncomfortable: losing money, a couple of jobs down the road, affected childhood of our 11 y.o., dealing with jerks, etc. Mood-wise psilocybin brought us back to normal life, maybe even slightly better than it was before :)
- Bluestein 1y agoHappy to hear. Be well :)
- aszantu 1y agoI used to Microdose psylocibin, ever 4. Day. Since I didn't hold a job but did some daily routine, I knew it would be a slow day. It actually worked really well. One day I had a little too much. That day I was really productive and obsessed with folds in clothing.
- lukasb 1y agoBeing obsessed with folds in clothing has a long, noble history - check out Huxley's Doors of Perception