If you are struggling with depression and have found it hard to heal, you are not alone. I hope my story is just what you need to help you realise there is a solution.
This story is about how I healed from depression with psilocybin, a.k.a magic mushrooms.
Hi! My name is Waleed. I am bald, bearded and magnificent. I write this with unshakable confidence. However, I wasn’t this jubilant 12 months ago.
In reality, I was low on self-esteem, self-worth and confidence. I couldn’t sleep at night, and my days were inescapable stretches of agony.
I had lost interest in almost all activities, even the ones I loved. I would sit in the corner hopelessly and think about my death.
Things became worse during the COVID-19 induced lockdown. Although I talked to my friends like I usually did, I would slip back into everlasting helplessness as soon as the calls ended.
I tried online therapy, but my subconscious mind would conspire against me every time the session ended.
I was at the lowest point in my life, and hope seemed out of reach.
One evening, I browsed through Instagram, where a friend of mine had linked an article to the New York Times. The article explained how a man who suffered from severe depression was cured with the help of psilocybin.
Just another drug; that was my initial thought. But as I kept on reading, I was convinced that psilocybin was my last hope. I did more research and analysed studies that proved its efficacy. For instance, I found this study conducted at John Hopkins University, where researchers took 51 terminally ill cancer patients as their sample.
Naturally, these cancer patients had high levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms. After taking psilocybin, their symptoms reduced significantly.
When re-evaluated after six weeks, 80% of the patients had not gained back their symptoms. In fact, their positive emotions, optimism and meaning in life had increased.
I came across another study conducted on treatment-resistant depressive patients. The results were similar to the earlier study on cancer patients.
When you see results like these, the hope circuits in the brain just light up. That is precisely what happened to me. Psilocybin was my knight in the shining armour, batting away all of my internal dragons.
But what about its reputation? What about the reputation of psychedelics in general? I wanted to be super sure about what people had to say about psilocybin. I researched a lot on platforms like Quora and Reddit. I wanted to see what objections people had regarding psilocybin.
One of the things that came up quite frequently was the assumption that “Psychedelics are addictive.” I wanted to be sure before using it, so I started to look for scientific articles. What I found was utterly opposite to what people assumed.
Addictive substances mainly act on the dopamine pathways and therefore change the reward systems in our brains. However, psilocybin does not work on the dopamine pathways and, therefore, does not cause addiction. In fact, psilocybin is now being used to cure addictions like drug use and alcoholism.
That was the confirmation that I needed to get started. I ordered my first bottle of Smart Shrooms from www.mindmend.co
I had read Dr. James Fadiman talk about the appropriate way to take psilocybin: 1 day on 2 days off. I started with a low dose of 125 milligrams and was prepared to work my way up to find the perfect dosage for me.
Benefits of Microdosing with Psilocybin
The first time I took 125 milligrams of psilocybin, I felt a sense of calmness in my head. I felt like it was all going to be okay. It was nothing how people had described it, like having those mystical experiences and getting high. Maybe the dosage that I took was low, so I didn’t have those experiences.
However, It was a feeling that you get when you achieve something great. I remember that day with absolute clarity because I sat down and wrote what I wanted to do in my lifetime. I wanted to play basketball, sing and write many books.
Depression had taken away all my energy, but after taking psilocybin, I felt super energised. It is an amazing combination when you are mentally calm and energised at the same time. You become efficient and aware of what is happening around you. I couldn’t let this feeling slip away, so I started to live out what I wrote in my journal.
When I began writing the first chapter of my book, words just started to flow effortlessly. I was able to form punchy sentences, something that had never happened before. It was as if psilocybin had unlocked the creative centres in my head.
I even started taking on more projects at work. Usually, I would get overwhelmed by the amount of work that needed to be done. However, after taking psilocybin, I could manage my stress. My anxiety levels went down, and I started crushing deadlines.
I did gradually increase my dosage, but I never went past 250 milligrams. I didn’t need to. I experienced the benefits within the 125-250 milligrams range.
I didn’t stop my therapy. I felt it was essential to explore myself. But psilocybin supplemented my therapy. I was able to understand myself. I could recall memories and beliefs from my childhood that aided my depression. I was able to deconstruct those memories, analyse them and let them go.
Overall, psilocybin helped me tremendously in gaining back the control that I had lost.
In my opinion, Psilocybin is a life-altering product. Governments now realise how beneficial psilocybin can be and therefore are legalising its use. People in Canada and the USA are taking psilocybin for therapeutic purposes and are getting the results.
If depression has cost you your peace of mind and you want to start healing, try Mind Mend’s line of microdosing products. You deserve to be hopeful for the future. You deserve a smile on your face.
References
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5367557/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-13282-7
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1876201816303185
