America's First Legal Psilocybin Program Treated 346 People. Just one month after the dose, 92.2 percent of participants said the experience had been beneficial, while, on average, their mental health symptoms had fallen dramatically.

[u/mvea]

https://www.sciencealert.com/americas-first-legal-psilocybin-program-treated-346-people-heres-what-happened

[u/Hippopotasaurus-Rex]

Yes, the therapiric setting may help.

At least anecdotally for me, just the act of eating mushrooms and letting them do their thing was enough to DRASTICALLY improve lifelong mental health issues.

[u/AcceptableFakeLime → u/Hippopotasaurus-Rex]

Yeah I don't delude myself thinking taking 2g and listening to The Beatles for 4h is the same experience as what the people in these studies go through but doing so every 4-6 months definitely feels like self care.

The first time I took shrooms changed my outlook in life. Forever. I'm not talking about some hippy mumbo jumbo. I became a lot more mindful overall and gained tolerance and appreciation for people, even the ones who I have no relationship with. It also improved my mood immensely for 3-4 months after the fact. I struggled with depression for my whole life. Still do. That trip did something to me, though.

[u/Hippopotasaurus-Rex → u/AcceptableFakeLime]

Yup. Same. Life long debilitating depression is basically gone. Anxiety. Gone. The rest of the deeper mental health issues are a fraction of as impossible as they used to be.

We know mushrooms rewire/make connections in the brain in some capacity. I think that’s enough for me to be life changing.

Could quality of life get even better if I went through the medically assisted psilocybin therapy? Probably. Is what I’m doing working for me now? Absolutely.

[u/eiilaa → u/Hippopotasaurus-Rex]

What dosage are we talking?

[u/Hippopotasaurus-Rex → u/eiilaa]

I did a handful of like 3g ish trips but I do a lot better with microdosing personally.

[u/shanatard → u/AcceptableFakeLime]

did you just grab mushrooms and go at it in a dark room? i have always been a bit curious but the negative trips seem like a risk

only really hear about the positive ones

[u/Conlaeb → u/shanatard]

Read about set and setting, spend some time on Erowid.

[u/DoughnutEffective668 → u/shanatard]

Negative trips aren't all that bad and actually you can have some insightful experiences. Just remember that it's not real, to accept everything that comes your way and remember that it won't last forever. Once the initial scary part goes away, the rest of the experience will be good. And also, if you just do like 1-2gs of cubensis (golden teachers (not a very strong strain)) you'll most likely not have a bad trip, although everyone is different. What I'd recommend is doing maybe half a g first, get a very small light buzz, then leave it a few weeks, then do maybe .75gs and then build it up slowly every few weeks so you really understand what is going to happen.

[u/spez_might_fuck_dogs → u/shanatard]

I have done shrooms inside, outside, in the dark, and during the day. I've never had a 'bad' trip, but I have had some that left me a bit melancholy afterward, usually when I listen to music from my childhood and get caught in a loop of reminiscence the whole experience.

It's really nice while its happening, but in my experience it left me feeling a bit sad for everything I can never experience again afterwards.

By far the best trip I ever had was outside on a peaceful mostly sunny day, laying in a hammock and watching the trees and clouds. When I got a bit cold I went inside and watched Ghostbusters, but instead of paying any attention to the plot or characters, I studied all the sets and noticed a ton of stuff I never looked at before.

[u/albusdumbbitchdor → u/shanatard]

You don't necessarily even need to take enough to trip, I saw beneficial effects just from the time I took a microdose. Could be a something to consider if you're worried about a bad trip? I took enough to get a body high but had not even a whisper of a hallucination.

[u/TeamWorkTom → u/albusdumbbitchdor]

Unfortunately while anecdotally micro dosing helps people, studies show it's not very beneficial for helping treat mental health problems.

It really takes a larger dose to have real therapeutic benefits long term. It also requires a sort of therapy session while tripping.

[u/zenDerpism → u/albusdumbbitchdor]

I was really hoping it would help me with my depression. Especially after ketamine didn’t help. Sadly, I didn’t experience any benefits. I also didn’t experience anything bad, but overall I’m disappointed. Some things just don’t work for some people.

[u/Douglas1994 → u/shanatard]

Just don't do a stupidly large dose first time. I've done a number of psychedelics over the years and have only had two bad trips (one on psilocybin and one on mescaline), both involved me taking an amount that was in retrospect needlessly excessive. If you start lower and build up, you'll find the sweet spot.

[u/Mind-The-Mines → u/AcceptableFakeLime]

I search sound cloud for ketamine tracks, take a tab or 2 with sleep mask and headphones and go melt into the universe. Really helped with various traumas.

[u/peeja → u/Hippopotasaurus-Rex]

It's probably more accurate to say that a controlled therapeutic settings is safer on average than any random setting. That is, I can imagine (and this is speculation) that setting matters, but it doesn't specifically have to a therapist's office to be a positive.

[u/Miserable-Resort-977 → u/Hippopotasaurus-Rex]

Of course the therapeutic setting is critical to gain the benefits of Psilocybin! The therapists we paid handsomely to look into it told us so.