How to Know if Microdosing Mushrooms is For You

Photo by TherapeuticShroom on Pixabay

A lot of people feel that microdosing helps them realize better versions of themselves and their health. It gives folks the ability to interact with their bodies, creativity, and feelings in all sorts of new ways.

I, myself, am one of those people who has experienced the benefits of microdosing. Microdosing has given me the ability to treat my anxiety and depression in a way that doesn’t totally wreck my life. As one of those people who get every side effect on the planet, medications my doctors have prescribed me over the years have had as negative reactions as you can imagine. My decision to try microdosing was the byproduct born of frustration in not being able to treat my conditions and a hell of a lot of research. For me, it has made a night-and-day difference in my life.

While my experience has been positive, it’s not everyone’s experience. Which is why I sat down with an educator and policy wonk in the psychedelic space, who we’ll be calling Mr. Mushrooms, to learn some tips on how to get started on your own journey.

Identify Goals for Your Microdosing Experiment

So whatcha, whatcha, whatcha want? That’s the question to ask yourself before you start your microdosing journey. Microdosing psilocybin has the potential to be pretty amazing and has the ability to help you with a lot of things, from accessing your creativity to helping manage depression and anxiety.

Microdosing with the goal of treating a mental or physical health condition is different from microdosing with the goal of just “seeing what it does,” “being more present,” or “improving creativity”. Laying out your goals for what you want to accomplish with your microdosing helps you assess if what you’re doing is working and revisit your goals as you proceed with your treatment. 

However, with such a wide range of uses, when choosing to do microdose to treat something mental or physical it’s a good idea to loop in your medical caregivers. As Mr. Mushrooms explains it, the more complex the issues, the more important it is to communicate with your doctor or therapist about what you’re doing.

Understand the Placebo Effects

It is important to note that there are placebo effects associated with microdosing. What does this mean? Well, unless you are setting up a controlled experiment for yourself, it’s difficult to determine if microdosing is truly working or if you’re reaching that feel-good place on your own steam. 

Being okay with the possibility that the effects/outcomes you encounter are entirely or primarily due to the placebo effects is critical. After all, at the end of the day, all you can say is, “I don’t know, maybe it was the doses.”

This is definitely not a microdose.

Do Your Research!

Odds are you’ve been inundated with info on microdosing research and companies hyping microdosing products. With such a glut of information, finding non-biased resources can feel like, well, searching for Lucy in a sky of diamonds.

As a researcher, it’s not a huge surprise that Mr. Mushrooms is a huge proponent of doing the research. However, he suggests checking out older harm-reduction resources rather than falling down an internet rabbit hole. These sites tend to be more impartial and less impacted by current societal and commercial trends around drugs. Where to start? My guy inside suggests checking out organizations like DanceSafe and Erowid. Also, while not an OG site, the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics is also a fantastic resource.

As far as sourcing your stash, if you’re in a legal or decriminalized state, your options are, pun low-key intended, higher. However, a good catch-all for everyone is to understand that with the rising popularity of psilocybin invites the opportunity to make big money. Keep your eyes open for snake-oil vendors, check product reviews, and do your due diligence.

Now little grasshopper, you have the tools at your fingertips to help you figure out if microdosing psilocybin is the right path for you, and if it’s not, that’s cool too.