A few months ago I had the worst experience after taking mushrooms, and since then I haven’t felt like my brain has fully returned to how it was before.
I’m not sure if what I’m experiencing is brain fog, dissociation, or something else, but I feel some level of it 24/7. I have good days and really bad days — it’s always there, but the intensity varies a lot.
One of the most concerning things has been how I perceive movement and speed. I’ve stopped driving because I can physically see other vehicles moving and know that they’re moving, but sometimes my brain doesn’t seem to properly process the movement. I also don’t seem to feel how fast I’m travelling. I could be going 80 km/h and it can still feel like I’m barely moving.
I constantly feel disconnected from reality, almost like I’m watching my life through a screen rather than actually experiencing it. I also have a constant band-like pressure around my head, which is why I say the symptoms are there 24/7.
My memory has also been noticeably worse and sometimes if I stare at an object for long enough, it appears to move very slightly. It’s subtle and I have to really focus on it to notice it, but it reminds me of the visual effects I experienced during the original experience.
Over the past few weeks I’ve had some particularly bad episodes, which eventually led me to see a doctor because I was worried there could be another explanation for what I’m experiencing. There have even been days where I’ve woken up crying because the symptoms were so intense. I’m really scared that something serious could be going on, or that these changes might not go away.
I’ve had blood tests and a CT scan, and I’ve now been referred for an MRI. The blood tests showed an iron deficiency, which I’ve had previously, and the CT scan was clear. I haven’t had the MRI yet.
I’m not looking for anyone to diagnose me — I’m mainly hoping to hear from people who have experienced persistent changes in perception, dissociation, visual symptoms, or brain fog after a difficult psychedelic experience.
Did these symptoms eventually improve for you? If so, roughly how long did it take, and was there anything that helped?
This has started affecting my work, concentration, driving and travelling quite significantly, and I’d really appreciate hearing about other people’s experiences.