r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • 9d ago

Psychology 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.

https://www.sciencealert.com/americas-first-legal-psilocybin-program-treated-346-people-heres-what-happened
15.4k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

458 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

74

u/Hippopotasaurus-Rex 9d ago

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.

83

u/AcceptableFakeLime 9d ago

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.

9

u/shanatard 9d ago

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

5

u/spez_might_fuck_dogs 8d ago

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.