The Battle Continues

However, this has not been an easy battle. In many places — in fact in the majority of places — mental health conditions are still stigmatized and often misunderstood. As an ailment that is not immediately visible, unlike say, a broken leg, many people do not know how to approach it. 

However, attitudes are finally changing. What was once brushed under the rug is now coming into the open. Mental health is being recognised as a global issue, with the WHO estimating that 1 in 4 people will suffer from a form of mental illness in their lives, while nearly 1 billion people worldwide are currently suffering from some form of mental or substance disorder. The covid-19 pandemic has only made this worse, with isolation, anxiety about the future, and loss of loved-ones all contributing. 

Thankfully,there are huge strides being made in the way mental illness is approached. Treatments such as cognitive behavioural therapy are becoming mainstream, public figures speaking up about their battles with mental health and a re-jigging of attitudes in general is in process. And, there’s another player on the field. One who has also been maligned and underestimated in the past, but is looking like they could be a key fighter in the mental health epidemic. 

How Psychedelics Can Treat Mental Illness

We’re talking psychedelics. You’d have to have lived under a rock not to hear about all the leaps and bounds psychedelic research has made in the past couple of decades. Specifically in the treatment of a whole host of mental health conditions. From depression, to PTSD, to anxiety, OCD, addiction issues, postpartum depression — the list goes on!

Psychedelics, specifically magic mushrooms (even more specifically the active compound within them called psilocybin), are the darling of the medical scene. The lawmakers are taking a bit of time to catch up, but the outlook looks promising. We love the fact that something that grows from Mother Earth is stepping up to help its fellow organism heal. It makes sense right? We’re all just creatures in the world. But not to get too hippy-dippy on you — there’s hard evidence to back this care revolution up. Even the notoriously difficult FDA have rushed psilocybin through as a breakthrough treatment. 

‘Mental Health In An Unequal World’

This year’s World Mental Health Day theme (previous ones include Women and Mental Health, Mental Health and Aging, Living With Schizophrenia, and Suicide Prevention) is ‘Mental Health in an Unequal World’. It aims to highlight the ever growing wealth gap around the world, and how this leads to unequal access to vital mental health care. It also confronts the inequalities related to gender, race, sexual orientation and location. This all contributes to poor access to treatment. In fact 75-95% of sufferers of a mental illness from low or middle income countries cannot access help for their conditions at all.

The issue of access is a big one. However, psychedelic treatment could again be a key turning point. If the legal changes necessary ensue, then it could mean in the future people can grow and harvest their own medicines to treat themselves. For example, our customers who purchase their own magic mushroom grow kits, become independent in how they treat their conditions. Luckily, at an absolute fraction of the cost Big Pharma charges for its (often damaging) medications. 

Psychedelics and Mental Health: Stories & Examples

So from this, we have decided to outline a few different mental health situations that could be treated with the help of magic mushrooms. Of course, psychedelics are not always a magic bullet — hard work and therapy goes hand in hand with any kind of recovery. But, they can be the catalyst, or the support, for big positive changes in your mental health, and therefore, your life. There is no one-size-fits-all diagnosis, but psilocybin could be the key to treatment as it works with the individual themselves. Perhaps there’s something here that resonates for you…

Treatment Resistant Depression

Mina has treatment resistant depression. She has suffered from major depressive disorder for most of her adult life. Since she was a teenager she has lived between bouts of feeling ‘normal’, and periods of not even feeling able to get out of bed. Although she has tried various medications including SSRIs, nothing has relieved her of her symptoms. Symptoms which are preventing her from living her life to the fullest. She is part of the 1/3rd of adults whose depression cannot be treated with traditional pharmaceuticals. And it sucks. 

Luckily for Mina many studies are showing that magic mushrooms could be exactly what she’s been waiting for. In a recent John Hopkins study, volunteers with treatment resistant depression were given a high dose of psilocybin. They lay listening to choral music, with an eyeshade, for the duration of their trip. The session, paired with therapy, was found to be 4 times as effective as traditional antidepressants. Within a month half the participants were in ‘remission’— i.e. no longer depressed.  Due to the success of these trials, and others, it is hoped that psilocybin assisted therapy could become widely available by 2024. Exciting news for people who thought healing was inaccessible to them! In the meantime, Mina could purchase some magic truffles or a magic mushroom grow kit, and with the help of a trusted trip sitter, explore the possibilities of psychedelics herself.

OCD Taking Over A Life

Joe suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Although he is superficially keeping it together, and just about holding down a job, his condition is ruling his life. He has to compulsively clean and disinfect his house multiple times a day. He is also often late to work as he has to check everything in his house is turned off multiple times before he can leave. On bad days he cannot leave at all. On the surface he seems just like a normal, quiet guy. But Joe is unhappy, lonely, and exhausted. The problem is, he has an overactive DMN. That is the part of your brain in charge of your ego, self-perception, and your envisioning of the future. When this is overactive it results in negative thoughts and increased anxiety. In Joe’s case this focuses on cleanliness, germs, and safety. 

Luckily for Joe, microdosing psilocybin could help with exactly this problem. Taking a larger dose of psilocybin could also help Joe, as it could cause ego ‘death’ that can reset harmful behaviors and habits he has accrued over time, by lifting him out of himself. However, Joe is nervous to ‘trip’ fully. So he chooses to microdose instead — which causes more of an ego ‘dissociation’. Although he does not feel the psychedelic effects or a ‘big bang’ moment, he is able to sidestep his compulsive behaviours, and separate them from reality. Thus he becomes able to reset his habits. 

Someone Living With PTSD

Hailey is an ex-soldier. She served two terms in Afghanistan. Although she is lucky enough to have emerged physically healthy, she, like millions of other veterans, suffers from PTSD — due in part to the suffering and deaths she witnessed — of both fellow soldiers and civilians. Veteran suicide is a devestating problem. Hailey’s partner Chris knows this, and worries about her. He’s heard a podcast which explained the healing potential of magic mushrooms for PTSD, and, he’s read even the state of Texas is gearing up to carry out clinical trials of the shroom extract, specifically to help its veterans.

So they buy a grow kit and when the harvest is ready Hailey takes a moderate dose. The day after her trip, at her therapy session, she is more open and trusting towards her therapist and able to talk through her experiences without becoming triggered by it. This way she is finally able to start engaging with the therapy she greatly needs. 

Feeling Trapped and Hopeless

Asif is a graphic designer. Before the covid-19 pandemic he worked in a vibrant office, which helped him keep his creative juices flowing. Recently, working from home, he has lost much of his motivation and creative drive. He can’t seem to reach deadlines, and his partner is on him to ‘snap out of it.’ But he just can’t. He knows nothing ‘big’ is wrong, and yet why this unhappy nagging in his stomach, feelings of hopelessness, and inability to enjoy himself any more?

Asif begins a microdosing routine. Every 3 days he takes a microdose (between 0.1-1g of magic truffles). Immediately he begins to feel like his old self again. He can focus on his work, and feels creatively stimulated. Additionally, his mood has improved overall, as he can face the post-lockdown anxieties that started building up during his long time at home. He has climbed out of his rut.

A Hopeful and Healthy Future

Although there is a long way to go to combat the global mental health crisis, days like World Mental Health Day make us feel optimistic about the future, as change is visibly happening. And we believe that psychedelics will play a large role in that change. As with the example situations outlined above, and many more besides, magic mushrooms are the caring medicine for a new more caring world.

Happy World Mental Health Day!

And remember to check on your nearest and dearest <3