Guide to Microdosing

Almost anyone can gain from microdosing mushrooms. The potential benefits of microdosing are boundless. The following are just a handful of reported benefits from microdosers — this list is by no means exhaustive.

Exercise: Microdosing can help you stay motivated and focused. While you may not usually love to spend an hour working out, many people report having boosted willpower and a clearer, deeper understanding of the expansive benefits of exercise, which offers motivation and incentive to push further with ease. Many people also feel that microdosing is performance enhancing.

Migraines and cluster headaches: Migraines and cluster headaches are debilitating, episodic, and often chronic. Sufferers report headaches that affect not only their quality of life but their ability to maintain employment and satisfying relationships. Many people dealing with migraines or cluster headaches have run the gamut of available pharmaceutical treatments, usually reporting only temporary or unsatisfactory relief and often finding that secondary effects and prohibitive costs have led them to look for alternative treatments. Psilocybin is taken into the body, and is part of the tryptamine family which includes the triptans and ergots found in many migraine medications. It acts on the same receptors as these pharmaceutical drugs do, but without any of the dangerous or uncomfortable side effects.

Facing Death: For people facing death, a daily battle with depression and anxiety can become a crushing reality. Studies out of Johns Hopkins and New York University show that psilocybin can significantly reduce depression and anxiety in patients facing death as well as improve feelings about life, relationships, and spirituality. Of those participating in the studies, 80% still had a more positive outlook on life and death 6 months post-trial. Researchers believe that this is due to properties found in magic mushrooms that can produce unique changes in thoughts, perceptions, and emotions.

Mushrooms for Depression: Consider the fact that depression is one of the leading causes of disability and poor health around the world. Research indicates that there may be a part of the hippocampus whose electrical pathways are particularly active in depressed patients. Now consider that one unique characteristic of psilocybin is its ability to alter existing brain pathways and create new connections. Could magic mushrooms offer transformative relief for those suffering from depression? Studies indicate that for people suffering from depression, including treatment-resistant depression, even a single dose of magic mushrooms can cause immediate and sustained relief from feelings of depression, as these new pathways are stimulated.

Alleviating Anxiety: The extreme fear and worry that comes with anxiety can make life for those suffering feel overwhelming. It is estimated that 275 million people around the world suffer from anxiety disorders and some of the most commonly prescribed medications to alleviate anxiety actually lead to paradoxical effects such as increased anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and violent behavior. Microdosing mushrooms have been shown to not only alleviate anxiety but also help people look within at the root causes of their fears and anxiety, allowing them to ultimately feel more peaceful. A study published in a 2017 report indicates that mushroom therapy affects two areas of the brain; the amygdala and the default mode network, both of which have been closely linked to how we process emotions including anxiety.

Mushrooms and OCD: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is known to be extremely difficult to treat. As the symptoms can be unusual and even morbid in nature, those suffering from OCD often feel ashamed and stigmatized which can lead to further mental health struggles. A 2005 study out of Arizona and Texas on the efficacy of psilocybin mushrooms in treating OCD showed significant reductions in OCD symptoms of all test subjects, more than half of whom described their experience as mentally and spiritually enriching.

Breaking Addiction: The potential benefits of microdosing mushrooms to treat addiction are two-fold, offering both a preventative and therapeutic result. Research indicates that experience with psychedelic mushrooms can actually reduce instances of opioid dependence, suggesting a protective effect. While it is a commonly held belief that addiction is caused by drugs, many believe it to be a symptom of trauma. For those suffering from addiction, microdosing mushrooms have been shown to help people reflect upon the cause of their trauma and find healthier ways to create connection and meaning in their lives.

Relief from Menstrual Pain: Some women have reported relief from menstrual pain, PMS and PMDD, and hormonal fluctuations related to menopause.

Heightened Creativity and intelligence: A recent study on microdosing out of the University of Toronto showed scores higher on measures of wisdom, creativity, open-mindedness, and problem-solving for participants. Another study out of Norway reported similar results with microdosing participants also indicating better mental clarity and relief from pre-existing conditions such as depression and anxiety.

Spiritual Growth: With the appropriate dosage, setting and intention, working with magic mushrooms can lead to a spiritual experience that can profoundly shift your perspective forever. Many people report feelings of interconnectedness, self-love, spiritual understanding, and connection to nature. In a study from Johns Hopkins University on the long-term psychological effects of psilocybin on adults, two-thirds of participants reported that their experience was among the top five most spiritually significant experiences of their entire lives, with a dozen of them saying it was the single most profound spiritual experience they’d ever had.

Achieving Flow State: Flow state has been defined as “The optimal state of consciousness where we feel our best and perform our best… being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.” Microdosing stimulates the flow state, allowing users to be more creative, patient, open-minded, and focused. Rather than being distracted by worry about the past or future, people who microdose have reported feeling more present and able to perform tasks with accuracy and ease.

Microdosing Psilocybin for PTSD: Many people facing PTSD and the extreme challenges they deal with recovering from trauma find that traditional psychotherapy and medication may not be enough to ease their suffering. Many have had to deal not only with the mental anguish associated with trauma but also with social isolation and rejection that only serves to compound their suffering. Because of the promising results research has shown with psilocybin in treating various disorders including PTSD, the FDA has granted it “breakthrough therapy designation,” allowing research looking at its therapeutic potential to be fast-tracked.

Treating Eating Disorders: In 2019 Scientists from the Johns Hopkins Psychedelic Research Unit began a clinical trial to look at the effects of psilocybin in people with chronic anorexia nervosa (AN). Given the phenomenological similarities between AN and other psychological disorders that have been positively responsive to the therapeutic use of psilocybin, researchers are hopeful that mushroom therapy can be used to help treat eating disorders.
Helping Long-Term Demoralization in AIDS Survivors: Dr. Brian Anderson from UCSF is currently looking at the impact of psilocybin-assisted group therapy on treating demoralization in long-term HIV/AIDS survivors. These are people who were diagnosed before the availability of life-saving antiretroviral drugs and who were essentially told that a diagnosis of HIV/AIDS was a death sentence. Most watched friends and community members die and most have felt isolated and rejected and hopeless because of their diagnosis.