Psilocybin or shrooms is a hallucinogenic drug that people get from some types of mushrooms. People in Europe, South America, Mexico, and the United States cultivate these.
People know Psilocybin-containing shrooms as magic mushrooms.
Psilocybin is a scheduled-I-controlled drug. This means that it has a high risk for abuse and does not serve a legitimate medicinal purpose.
Individuals use psilocybin as a recreational drug. It induces feelings of euphoria and visual distortion that are common to hallucinogenic drugs.
Clinicians do not consider psilocybin addictive. But, users can experience disturbing hallucinations, fear, and panic from using the drug.
Key facts
- Shrooms have both positive and negative physical and psychological consequences.
- The shrooms are not naturally addictive.
- The drug can cause psychotic episodes.
- People with a family history of schizophrenia or early onset of mental disease face an increased risk of an adverse psychological reaction to shrooms.
What are Shrooms?
For a distinct and profound psychedelic experience, Shrooms is a slang of psilocybin mushrooms. Psilocybe is the most common magic mushroom, but over 180 different species contain psilocybin. Although naturally occurring, psilocybin is a Schedule I substance in the United States. Still, activists in communities worldwide are working tirelessly to decriminalize magic mushrooms.
People used Psilocybin mushrooms ceremonially for thousands of years. And there are still religious mushroom ceremonies in some indigenous communities. They continue to take the “little saints” for healing, divination, and other revered reasons.
In 2006 when Johns Hopkins University released the first research since the Psilocybin Ban in 1968. This odd scientific paper showed that psilocybin produced profound “mystical experiences.” This experience has great mental well-being potential. The mushroom compound is currently being used in:
- Clinical trials for end-of-life anxiety
- Medication-resistant depression
- Obesity
- Eating disorders
- And unprecedented success illnesses
Psilocybin-assisted therapy with the status of FDA “breakthrough therapy” as a therapy for depression.
How Do shrooms Work?
Psilocybin is the primary psychoactive ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms. These mushrooms are also known as psychedelic truffles or magic mushrooms. Since its scientific discovery in 1958, psilocybin has been commonly used in clinical research. Over 40,000 patients received this drug without significant adverse events.
The stomach transforms psilocybin to psilocin. This then crosses the blood-brain barrier. It works by exerting partial agonist effects on the brain (5-HT) 2A receptors, among others. And it can modify normal waking consciousness. Common effects include:
- Unusual and vibrant visuals of eyes open or shut
- The disintegration of ‘self’ or ‘self,’
- Unrestricted explorative thinking
- Cognitive, emotional, and perceptual changes
- And a sense of self-relationship with others and the world
Ingesting psilocybin, mushrooms or truffles, creates an intense psychedelic experience lasting several hours.
As soon as it reaches the body, psilocybin is broken down into psilocin. Psilocin is a substance that serves as a neurotransmitter serotonin that controls mood. Psilocybin is known to stimulate a specific type of brain serotonin receptor. This activates its psychedelic effects.
Its hallucinatory effects can lead a person to see images, hear sounds that seem real but are not. Somebody on psilocybin can experience a mix of two senses, such as feeling like they can smell colors.
Participants in psilocybin-assisted therapy sessions tell the drug’s effects as life-changing. Here they obtain a deep insight that changes the way they think about themselves.
A magical form of experience has also been related to the use of psilocybin, Johnson said. People described feeling together with humanity, feeling a sense of peace. And they also have felt a sense of self-dissolving after consuming the psychedelic drug.
After taking psilocybin, there is a sharp improvement in connectivity between the brain areas. These areas usually do not talk to each other, which may explain the new insights people experience. There’s also a quieting of deeply entrenched patterns of thinking that lead to addiction, depression.
By altering several various systems in the brain, magic mushrooms stimulate neuron receptors. This causes several brain systems to change significantly.
This has major cognitive consequences, including:
- Ego-dissolution
- Improvements in external perception
- Changes in time’s subjective awareness
- And even a full mystical blow
Researchers showed that psilocybin reduces symptoms in individuals suffering from depression. These positive changes last longer than typical therapies. It is especially true if specialized therapeutic integration programs assist them.
However, certain traditional antidepressants often work on the serotonergic system. So, the body may overstimulate if you combine psilocybin with some medications.
What is the risk of using shrooms?
It is difficult to take psilocybin mushrooms that are physically harmful to the body or brain. Psilocybin has a powerful effect on judgment and coordination. However, doing something like driving when under the influence of psilocybin will be risky and illegal. There are so several myths of bizarre deaths on hallucinogenic drugs. But, people are very rarely injured or killed because of the drug’s effects on their behavior. Someone taking psilocybin mushrooms should have plans. They should also make it impossible for them to end up around roads, mountains, or anywhere they may have had a serious accident.
Psilocybin can lead to a state of confusion, misery, anxiety, and fear. Negative experiences that hallucinogenic drugs triggers are also referred to as ‘bad trips.’ The point here is that believing that a trip as a whole is going ‘bad’ at the first hint of an unpleasant effect may be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Bad or at least overly stressful, difficult moments during heavy trips are very popular. But they usually pass or overcome. There is a possibility that high doses of magic mushrooms could cause adverse effects. Disastrous, prolonged, and traumatic effects are called ‘psychedelic crisis,’ but this is not common.
The risk of someone suffering unpleasant symptoms increases if the drug is taken without planning. Taking the drug in a busy, loud party full of strangers can also increase the risk. There is also a risk that the psychiatric disorder will worsen. Even it can cause psychiatric disorder if the person taking the drug has a pre-existing vulnerability. However, there is a low risk of long-term psychiatric disturbance.
The Bottom Line
Shrooms quickly exit the body. But many variables make it difficult to say exactly how long they’re going to hang on in the body.
If you worry about the use of the drug, help is available. If you are comfortable, you can bring it to the healthcare provider. Keep in mind that patient confidentiality legislation would prevent them from reporting this information to law enforcement authorities.
