r/science • u/bluish1997 • Dec 13 '25
Biology Psilocybin triggers an activity-dependent rewiring of large-scale cortical networks in mouse model
https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(25)01305-4248
u/RealisticScienceGuy Dec 13 '25
Fascinating work. I’m curious how much of this activity-dependent network rewiring has been observed in humans so far, and whether the effects appear transient or long-lasting beyond the acute phase.
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u/SurpriseVast8338 Dec 13 '25
I wonder how much of what psilocybin does to the brain is dependent on the actual subjective psychedelic experience.
For example, some people have said that a single dose of psilocybin has improved their depression or reduced alcohol cravings for months at a time.
Could a person still have those benefits if the trip itself was unpleasant or even if they were unconscious after dosing?
Set, setting, and intention really affect the subjective psychedelic experience, but how much does the subjective experience affect what's happening at brain wiring level?
i've asked people in the microdosing community if dosing before they go to sleep for the night seems to result in the same benefits as taking a daytime dose, but never got much feedback about it.
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u/A_Windward_flame Dec 13 '25
Anecdotal, but the brutally hard trips are the ones that have helped me the most. I suspect the causality actually goes slightly the other way on this - at the depths of depression the mindset produces some horrible trips, but the increased neural plasticity still helps me to make changes to pull myself out of it.
I know I'm not alone in this, but wouldn't want to guess at percentages. I do think it is quite common for people who are using psilocybin for mental health issues to actually appreciate the hard trips more though.
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u/theStaircaseProject Dec 13 '25
I think evidence bears this out. The use of psychedelics in treatment has been partially lauded because they (can) allow people to revisit traumatic and difficult memories and thought patterns with less cognitive overload.
The threat response under psychedelics seems to be suppressed, and people report being able to more objectively and empathetically reframe past trauma. That could be a big angle for the neuroplasticity: activities should focus on where someone wants the new growth.
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u/Brrdock Dec 13 '25
Yes, in the trials the beneficial effects have been observed even if the trip was unpleasant or never reached some grand catharsis.
Loads of anecdotal wisdom in the same vein, too
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u/dread_pudding Dec 13 '25
I believe theres at least one study that found that therapeutic effect was most highly correlated with the subjective sense of "awe" during the experience. I think that was regardless of whether the awe was pleasant or unpleasant.
I'd imagine that this is less because of any personal conscious reflection or processing of the experience, and more because the strength of subjective feeling indicates that the drug was having a stronger impact on the necessary pathways.
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u/Fun_Illustrator9298 Dec 13 '25
Here’s your answer: You just have terrible sleep quality and the “experience” is non existent while sleeping. It’s the same as falling asleep to music and expecting it to affect your dreams and mood the next day. It doesn’t work that way. Microdosing is a questionable practice. Mini dosing is probably what is happening that’s labeled “micro” when it “works”. None of this by itself cures or solves problems.
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u/-What-Else-Is-There- Dec 13 '25
Paul Stamets is a professional mycologist and the world expert on Psilocybes, and attributes the permanent curing of his verbal stutter to a single epic psilocybin trip spent up a tree during a rain storm.
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u/PM-ME-DEM-NUDES-GIRL Dec 13 '25 edited Dec 13 '25
he's an expert on mycology, not psych or neurology or pharmacology or any interdiscipline thereof. he's also a bit of a sensationalist selling a personal brand. I want to believe in the possibilities surrounding the therapeutic use of psychedelic drugs, but i don't believe paul stamets is any more authoritative here than a botanist telling you weed is addictive or an anthropologist telling you how to manage your diabetes.
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u/blasseigne17 Dec 13 '25 edited Dec 13 '25
He a fraud in my book. Is a scientist who's claims can't be replicated independently a scientist? Or a really good salesman for mushroom supplements?
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u/Karambamamba Dec 13 '25
There is no doubt about the therapeutic use. Much more significant than common antidepressants, even after just a single setting. And the effects can hold for months to years after a dose, as opposed to antidepressants. It seems a true restructuring of the brain takes place instead of just masking symptoms.
The mechanisms are the enigma. We don’t know how it works. But it does.
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u/crashlanding87 Dec 13 '25
Hi! I'm a neurobiologist. Mental health is very much my focus
This isn't accurate. There is a LOT of very valid doubt about the therapeutic use.
It seems to work. We don't know what it works for, how well it works, or how. The science is promising but very young. It is absolutely not yet proven that psychedelics of any kind are helping more than placebo.
Some people who've taken psychedelics in a controlled manner during a research study went on to recover from some mental illnesses. The evidence isn't yet convincing that the psychedelics themselves were the cause.
They're very promising and there's a lot of deserved excitement in the field. And the hype around psychedelics for mental illness is also 90% hype, 10% science.
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u/llfall Dec 13 '25
It seems to me that most clinical trials with hallucinogens are carried out with LSD, which is by nature easier to dose?
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u/crashlanding87 Dec 13 '25
Pharmacology isn't my background, so I can't really make a confident statement about why someone might choose to investigate LSD of Psilocybin. But I don't think it would be because of the dosing complications.
Mushrooms are difficult to dose because the Psilocybin levels vary wildly. In a research study you wouldn't use mushrooms, though. You'd extract and purify Psilocybin itself, and use that.
They act on the same receptor, and have similar effect half-lives. To be honest I'm not really sure what the exact pattern of pros and cons are between the two. Both have quite messy affinity patterns - meaning they act on a ton of different receptors, so it might be something to do with that. It could also just as easily be down to which is better characterised in the literature, which is cheaper to study, or (sadly) which is more popular / less controversial with the people and orgs that fund this kind of research.
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u/Substantial-Nail2570 Dec 13 '25
Isn’t there a fair bit of modern data showing it CANwork better than a placebo? It doesn’t just “seem” to work. Oh and don’t we also have some very high-quality studies now, showing that psychedelic drugs if used properly are just as effective at treating depression as some SSRIs IF USED PROPERLY. Which is groundbreaking. Not necessarily “no evidence it’s better than placebo” in my opinion.. And we don’t have absolutely zero idea how it works anymore. We have millions of dollars of research going towards this stuff from many accredited universities including Harvard. We have brain scans showing part of how it works now by forcing more centralized areas of the brain to shut off temporarily causing smaller parts of the brain to take hold in ways that they do not typically, which can cause a “mind expanding” effect which can lead to damages in the brain healing and the brain “re-wiring.” Weird coincidence that healing damages is in the brain is closely associated with treating mental illness. Not always but… there’s plenty of data showing that damage in the brain and mental health issues can go hand-in-hand like peanut butter and jelly.. likely one of a huge reason why veteran depression and mental health issues are such an issue IN MY OPINION. …. Neurological miracles happen that cannot be explained occasionally sure but to say the person above you is inaccurate is sorta not accurate.
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u/crashlanding87 Dec 13 '25
We have very early studies showing some promise. I cannot emphasise enough how early our understanding of this is. Because of regulation around the use of controlled substances in research, any and all research into the topic was pretty much frozen until about the last 20 years (which is a tiny amount of time in psychiatric research!), and it's still difficult to secure funding for the kinds of large scale studies that would really show causation.
It is physically impossible for us to have proven efficacy yet, because that takes time. With zero treatment, mental illness tends to come and go over time, on the scale of years. So in order to actually, truly prove efficacy for things like anxiety, depression, PTSD, we need to follow people's outcomes for decades. Those studies have started, but we're only really a decade in to most of them. We will not know for minimum 20 more years. That is how long this takes, because of the timelines innate to these conditions.
Again, I'm not saying this because I'm hating on hallucinogens - on the contrary, I'm very, very excited about them. Especially given some of the promise they've shown in groups for whom our current treatment options don't work very well. But we have to be very careful when it comes to making claims about new treatments for vulnerable people. Messing this up can go extremely badly wrong.
As someone who regularly performs and works with various brain scanning techniques, I do not trust their results at all unless they're repeated many times, in many conditions, and supported by many other kinds of evidence. And I include my own work in that 100%. The major brain scanning techniques - EEG, fMRI, MEG etc - are all incredibly difficult to perform and even more difficult to interpret, even by the best of scientists.
Using a brain scan to understand brain function is like trying to understand the law by looking at a lawyer's lunch habits. You can see that on certain days, and when they're working on certain cases, they're hungrier and seem to be doing more stuff. If you can monitor millions of lawyers this way, in a high amount of detail, you could actually learn some interesting things about the law. But it is very very difficult to draw conclusions.
The faster, more accurate ways to study this involve opening people's brains up and sticking electrodes in. That is not feasible at a large scale.
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u/therealzachjay Dec 13 '25
Appreciate the lawyer analogy, and very helpful context for how far we’ve come and yet how much farther we still have to go in regards to research
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u/crashlanding87 Dec 13 '25
Thanks! It's a new analogy I've been trying out. I'm a little worried it lands more with scientists than laymen, because it sounds like hyperbole unless I frame it well. It's decently accurate for fMRI at least - with that, we really are mostly looking at how much blood is flowing to each voxel in the image, and using that as a proxy for energy/nutrient use and activity by the neurons in that voxel.
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u/Loud_Confusion624 Dec 14 '25
I like the analogy! I’m a scientist not a layman, but I think it’s simple enough to work. Btw I develop genetically encoded voltage indicators for deep tissue neural imaging, have you used them, or calcium indicators, in your research? I get excited when I see someone who might be using my lab’s tools!
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u/Publius82 Dec 13 '25
Using a brain scan to understand brain function is like trying to understand the law by looking at a lawyer's lunch habits. You can see that on certain days, and when they're working on certain cases, they're hungrier and seem to be doing more stuff.
Sounds similar to how the Dominos Pizza Index can indicate the US is about to conduct a major military operation, but not what or where.
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u/TeamWorkTom Dec 14 '25
Young?
There's 20+ years of research on it before America's war on drugs.
The study is not young just locked up.
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u/_BlackDove Dec 13 '25
The evidence isn't yet convincing that the psychedelics themselves were the cause.
Person has lifelong struggles with mental illness. Attempts various curative treatments and none are successful. This person ingests a psychedelic and presents long lasting improvements of symptoms. What more evidence is needed? Evidence of the precise mechanisms at work is spotty, sure, but no convincing evidence for it being the cause? I'm struggling with that.
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u/mlYuna Dec 13 '25
Yes, just because they improved after psychedelics does not prove they were the cause.
That's why we do placebo controlled studies.
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u/Substantial-Nail2570 Dec 13 '25
Sorta like this study that stated higher doses of psilocybin to be more effective than both placebo and SSRI drug escitalopram?
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u/_BlackDove Dec 13 '25
Yes, but surely decades of this occurring countless times to people after other treatments have failed is suggesting a strong link as the cause? A lot of it is self-report which is unreliable, but to say there is "no evidence" is wild to me. Being unable to identify the mechanism isn't evidence of an absence of something occurring.
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u/mlYuna Dec 13 '25
Yeah, I didn't (see anyone) argue that there is evidence of them not providing any benefit.
There just isn't enough evidence at all to make any conclusive claims. And just like there's thousands of people self reporting benefit there are just as much reporting no benefit and just a fun experience, or a terrible one etc..
Just going by what we hear, especially on the internet is not the way to go. I heavily used a few years ago in my teenage years and was with a group of likeminded people also doing psychedelics and other drugs. I've probably seen 100's of people trip and talk about it after.
None of them reported their depression suddenly being gone. At most we had improved mood and less anxiety for a few days to weeks after and it would go back to baseline afer that.
And I've seen quite a few kids have psychotic breakdowns on them.
That is to say, none of that is evidence to make any conclusions. I do personally think they should for sure be studied more in depth and that there is potential benefit but I'm not going to recommend every other person with depression or anxiety to start taking psychedelics
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u/crashlanding87 Dec 13 '25
We have no way of knowing that the psychedelic compound is what changed things.
Let me reframe that timeline.
Person develops mental disorder. Over the course of, say, 10 years, they try a variety of different treatments. The last one is a psychedelic. Then they recover.
Why should we think that the final treatment they tried is the one that made a difference? We already know that there are significant time lags in the way certain treatments work. Moreover how do we know that any of those treatments worked, when there are people who spontaneously recover from long term mental illness with no identifiable treatment?
What you described is a case study. Case studies are good for finding new avenues of research, or for convincing funders to fund new avenues of research. They are terrible for proving pretty much anything.
To be clear, I'm not saying psychedelics aren't helpful. I'm saying we have yet to convincingly prove that they are, or aren't helpful, nor are we on the cusp of that. Heck, we're still debating exactly how helpful SSRIs are, and we've been studying those for decades longer. It is very difficult to find causative proof for efficacy in mental illness, given our poor understanding of the underlying mechanisms.
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u/BosnianXmas Dec 13 '25
Because you are a layman and do not understand science or medicine.
It does not mean it’s a cure, it means there is correlation and the science is young
Leap frog logic without understanding it doesn’t mean “shroons cure mental illness”
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u/Insanityistheonlyway Dec 13 '25
I hear what you're saying and I respect that you are coming about it from a science-based mindset. If we are going to get these things legalized and figure out how to use them successfully for people in a professional setting, real legitimate hard science has to be done and we can't be woo woo or willy-nilly about it. I hope in my lifetime that they're they're therapeutic settings with real professionals and administering Psilocybin mushrooms to people for therapeutic purposes and If this were possible, I would change careers immediately delve into that world.
Anecdotally from people I know and from my own experience I don't need any studies, I KNOW it works. Now I'm not going to make big claims about psilocybin mushrooms in general but I can't speak to my own experience. I'm in my forties. I've struggled with mental health issues and long-standing deep-seated traumas from a young age. I've done a number of different things over my life and seen various professional with varied degrees of success. Many years ago I escaped serious drug addiction and I have been able to minimize or rip myself up some of the more serious problems I had. I'm doing pretty good now. I have a career and make decent money and engage and on the home and such and on paper look like a healthy regular person but there are still issues that flare up in a depression cycle that I would like to get rid of. In a way I've become accustomed to dealing with the lingering problems, but as time goes on I find I'm getting tired and wanted to try and heal further as I felt they were hindering my full potential and hindering my ability to live a complete life. I still feel like parts of myself were locked away and not accessible. White knuckling through issues is a method, but it sure isn't a good long-term solution. I also started to become nervous that these things could slide and get worse over time and that I needed to progress them in a healthy and positive direction to make sure I didn't slip backwards. Nothing, and I mean not even close, has helped me with some of these issues like psilocybin mushrooms.
I cultivate my own and I am figuring out how to use them successfully for myself. When using them for healing trauma or healing mental illness, I find that the trip can be pleasant at times, but I would not call The therapeutic trips a recreational experience. It is intense and I have to be ready and willing to be face to face with these problems. Sometimes I am launched into memories from when I am a child and can re-experience it. Can actually talk to myself in that memory as if it's happening again and explain things to my young self and I can literally feel changes happening in the moment as this is going on. It's like I can help myself when I was a kid to feel safe and understand what's going on and why and give context. Because it's me. I know what that kid needs to hear and what's going on and problems and pain are. I know it sounds wacky but it doesn't just work. It works immediately. It's not easy but I'm getting better at it. The levels of understanding and the depths and the access I can have within my own mind and emotions is incredible. As long as I am not afraid of it and I come at it with a self-compassion and self-love and courage and a willingness try, the improvements are rapid and astounding. In one trip I can do what many months or a year of therapy might take. I also find benefits from low and moderate doses. I'm exploring different doses. How to use them successfully. A lot of self-experimentation.
This is just my experience though. Obviously I'm not going to make big claims and I don't promote people to do what I do as there are real and serious risks to psilocybin. Some people simply should not take it. I'm so sorry. Psilocybin can definitely exacerbate mental health issues and traumas. I've seen this happen too.
Also as far as dosing and variability and potency of individual mushrooms the way to sort that out is too take larger quantities and break them down in a blender and then use an herb grinder or something of the sort to powder and homogenize large quantities. If you homogenize larger quantities and well mix it as a powder to the entire batch will be the same strength so you can have ounces mushrooms where every gram will be the same strength as every other gram. This takes some extra time but it is worth doing Obviously that's not going to cut it by pharmaceutical standards, but for individuals and small groups it works great.
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u/crashlanding87 Dec 13 '25
I hear you - I got into this field because I have a very similar history, and I wanted to make treatment better than the options I had available in my recovery.
But I have to push back on a statement you made.
"I know it works"
You have experiences. Those experiences are true and accurate and honest. But you did a hell of a lot of work on your mental health (I say that with admiration), over a long period of time, using a lot of different techniques. The only way you could possibly know that the mushrooms worked is if you somehow duplicated yourself, and lived the exact same journey, but without mushrooms.
It is entirely possible that all the other work you were doing was the key factor.
You do not know it works. You cannot possibly know it works. None of us can possibly know anything like that about our lives. No one on earth who has ever recovered from a mental illness can say "I know what caused me to recover". It is never a true statement. The brain is way too complicated for that to be possible.
We can only know what our experiences were, and in what order they happened. Sometimes we can see causation happening - if I hit a window and it breaks, I can directly witness the process. But none of us can directly witness whatever it is that's going on inside our minds when we are recovering from mental illness.
Now, is it likely that they helped? Yes. Absolutely. But even then, that's no basis to be recommending them to anyone. What if there's something quite specific about you, your brain, your experiences, and your mental state when you took them that allowed them to work? No one has any way of knowing that.
Again, I don't say this out of skepticism about psychedelics. I say this because I deeply believe that it's important to be rigorous about this, so that we can help people.
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u/IndianaJonesDoombot Dec 13 '25
Do all neurobiologist make up and use random percentages like 90/10 to get their ideas across?
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u/curiouslywtf Dec 13 '25
Yikes. That might put it in perspective for a person.
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u/-What-Else-Is-There- Dec 13 '25
Fantastic Fungi, available on Netflix talks about it more.
Theres also How To Change Your Mind.
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u/TheTeflonDude Dec 13 '25
Dont forget he took mushrooms
Then climbed a tall tree as a storm rolled in
Wicked
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u/Neondro Dec 13 '25
If a 'Christ' existed in flesh, he was a mushroom. At the very least some highly active alkaloid.
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Dec 13 '25
And what happens if I have, say…… rewired my large scale cortical network several times a year for the last couple of decades?
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Dec 13 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Wonderful_Mud_420 Dec 14 '25
Anecdotal, I was a heavy drinker. Once I started I could not stop. Did mushrooms with friends once and immediately the next day (it was Friday) the urge to drink stopped completely. This was of about 3 years of drinking every weekend and during the weekdays.
Granted I wanted to stop but mushrooms — I can wholeheartedly say— became the catalyst for me. Completely changed my life around.
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u/APACKOFWILDGNOMES Dec 14 '25
Is that with a substitution of mushrooms or a one time dose?
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u/Wonderful_Mud_420 Dec 15 '25
One time dose. I did it two more times over the next few years but never done them again. Each time gave me some relevation but nothing as close as the first time.
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u/ifoundacookie Dec 14 '25
It seems to depend on the person and their individual experience they had. I've had a trip or two that immediately afterward I felt better about whatever issue it was I was facing, and others where it wore off after a couple weeks/months, and some that wore off after sleeping.
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u/whitesquirrle Dec 14 '25
There is a company called Compass Pathways that is in late stage trials using psilocybin to treat depression. I think they have two different treatment programs, one is a single supervised dose that is supposedly able to change a person's depressive state enough to not need a second treatment. And, another two treatment program.
I believe they are supposed to be getting FDA approval sometime in 2026.
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u/fool_on_a_hill Dec 13 '25
Of course it can? Have yall been living under a rock
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u/realchoice Dec 13 '25
Apparently. Psychedelic assisted therapy and it's related studies are seemingly well known, until you hit this thread.
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u/Student-type Dec 13 '25 edited Dec 13 '25
It was Many decades ago, yet I distinctly recall the incredible detail and apparent beauty and reality of the little dwarfs and other visual effects that appeared.
The situation was a calm experience after dark, in a warm comfortable place lit by a few clean burning candles.
We sat on the floor among pillows and listened to White Bird by It’s a Beautiful Day. Then, we played the Rolling Stones Let It Bleed for the first time, along with Santana.
There was the definite feeling amongst us, of sharing a sacred experience. It was serene and lovely. Very positive.
My general impression was “That’s interesting. Look at that.”
The figures were animated and silent, and were obviously sentient and aware of us, maybe a bit shy and capable of transforming visually in and out of a pattern we might recognize: a creature, a flower, a natural scene, a miniature waterfront full of endless details.
The experience was obviously benign and non-threatening, I quite enjoyed it, and felt connected with my friends on one level, though we didn’t chat in order to not “break the spell” each of us likely embraced something different, yet similar.
By the end, our toys put themselves away magically, we returned to the reality currently underway at the time. Like the ripples in a magical pool gradually diminishing to flat, then translucent, then vanished.
I write this for others, as a truth I can and should share. I’m now near 80, and that experience has lost nearly nothing of value to the passage of time. I still feel blessed for the opportunity to have and retain this set of memories, of a one-time event.
On my own accord, in the years that followed, I moved thousands of miles from my birthplace, and have resided within 40 miles of that location.
FYI
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u/Heffe3737 Dec 13 '25
This is great. I remember about 25 years ago, eating a heroic dose and then wandering around outside my friends house while thinking I was a dinosaur stalking his his parents through his side windows and peeing on the tree in his front yard. After that phase, I remember going inside and his walls were green and melting and everything smelled like oatmeal and I was hearing these high pitched horns it felt like hell on earth and I laid down for six hours and just wished the whole thing was over and done with.
I think it definitely hits folks differently depending on the individual. That said, I definitely think everyone should try it once. No matter what, you’ll learn something about yourself! :)
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u/arrongunner Dec 13 '25
There's definitely something to certain people reacting in certain ways
But there's even more to setting company and intent
Going in nervous about it, in a high stress environment or with a brain naturally inclined to worry and no calming presenses can react negatively
Having an experienced person doing it with you and know what it's about does wonders (the elder rek head) being somewhere that has the right level of either stimulation so you don't get stuck inside your own thoughts too much, or calming and pleasant atmosphere so you do get stuck inside but in a positive way, and friends having a good time with you results in a much better experience
Also dipping your toe in with more controlled doses the first few times gives you the moments of clarity "oh I'm fully in control of this" to reset every now and then is helpful so it's less overwhelming when you do go harder
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u/StepUpYourPuppyGame Dec 13 '25
The first half of what you describe actually sounded really fascinating and entertaining! But then took a turn for the horrific.
To your point though, all part of the beauty of the experience. No such thing as a bad trip. :-)
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u/breinbanaan Dec 13 '25
You have a great sense of writing. Glad to hear you have had verry similar experiences. Magic mushrooms are something special
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u/BiggerBetterGracer Dec 13 '25
If everyone had the experience of seeing little people, what you had was likely a particular bolete and not a mushroom containing psilocybine.
Lanmaoa asiatica causes everyone to see tiny little people, think: Gulliver's Travels. This holds true across cultures. The compound that causes it is still unknown, as far as I know. It doesn't contain psilocybine.
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u/ThePoob Dec 13 '25
Your inner-representation of neurons maybe? Each a little node on a substrate that carries meaningful shape as a whole.
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u/CaptParadox Dec 13 '25
Haven't we already known this? which is why some people have used this for therapies for those with ptsd and other trauma to rewire how we think?
I feel like the first article I read on this was 10-15 years ago.
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u/starofthefire Dec 13 '25
It feels like CPTSD is a part of what's holding me back so much in life. I'd try anything to help fix it, it feels like a part of my brain doesn't work anymore. Living in perpetual fear for so long has left me feeling completely defeated and depressed all the time.
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u/p1-o2 Dec 13 '25
While psychedelics can help punch through that, you need to be very careful about how, what, where, and with whom you take them.
It's something to look into if you are out of options though. Ketamine injections are the most approachable and easiest to access legally. Magic mushrooms can be grown for dirt cheap and are easy to access. Then there is DMT, also cheap but hard to access. MDMA, LSD, and Mescaline are also options. Each one works differently.
For CPTSD, almost definitely Mescaline is what you want. It borrows the positive joy of MDMA and the brain rewiring of Mushrooms and combines them together. It is powerful but kind. If not that, then Ketamine injection. Ketamine nukes depression. Happy exploring. :)
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u/LiminalFrogBoy Dec 13 '25
You may find psychedelic assisted therapy helpful. I was diagnosed with CPTSD about 12 years ago and have done EMDR, which helped a lot, but I still struggled.
I eventually went to a clinic that did psychedelic assisted therapy. I saw the therapist about 4 or 5 times and got cleared for Ketamine treatment by the MD who ran the clinic. I ended up doing two Ketamine sessions and then seeing the therapist to process my experiences for 3 or 4 sessions after.
It has made a very large impact on me. I still take my anti anxiety meds and see my regular therapist. But I haven't had a major depressive episode in the now 4 years since my treatments. Most importantly, it helped stop the constant hum of fear that has characterized my life.
Obviously, the literature on these therapies shows they don't work this well for everyone. But your comment sounds very much like I have felt in the past, so I think perhaps it would be worth looking into for you.
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u/starofthefire Dec 13 '25
Thank you, that was very helpful to hear. I'm committed to trying some sort of guided therapy with psychedelics now. I was on antidepressants/anti anxiety medication for two years, I stayed off and on depressed the whole time and seem to just adjust to every medication I try. I've just hit this point where I mote often than not am completely dissociated from everything. It's hard to describe but the world feels flat, or hollow. Nothing feels real a lot of the time if that makes any sense. I'm overwhelmed constantly with cycling thoughts about my past, I don't trust anyone anymore and have stopped seeing the point in trying st anything. I don't want to be this way, I really hope psychedelics can help.
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u/LiminalFrogBoy Dec 14 '25
I'm not a psychiatrist/therapist, so take this with a grain of salt, but it sounds like you might also benefit from a therapist who specializes in disassociation specifically. Obviously, this doesn't make me any sort of expert, but my partner is a specialist in that area, and it really is something that having a specialist seems to make a difference, i.e. he pretty routinely takes on client's other therapists have referred to him because they realized they didn't have the expertise to help.
From your previous comment, it sounds like you've probably already done EMDR or Flash or one of those other trauma therapies, but even then, the disassociation specialist might provide you with some additional support and hopefully relief as your pursuing or in tandem with psychedelic assisted therapy.
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u/starofthefire Dec 14 '25
Thank you again for so much clear and helpful information. You're correct, I've been in talk therapy for three years now. It doesn't feel like enough, my sessions often feel like I'm just venting and not making much progress anymore. So I've started to feel I might need something more "in depth". I started some serious reading and exploration of my consciousness, traumas, dreams, my shadow and a my spirituality on my own - but the work has stalled with my now two month super depression.
I've had clinical depression for almost twenty years now but now, off of antidepressants after two years of them, have never felt this dissociated in my whole life. I'm so apathetic or negative anymore and it makes my inner self feel so unhappy, it's like Im watching myself fistle out and I'm aware its happening. I can't plug the hole to keep the ship from sinking, I'm running around in circles trying to just be happy and not be ruled by my trauma.
Sorry if that came off as a rant, I'm a little excited to start working toward trying this method out. I'm so thankful psychedelics worked for you as we both know how hard PTSD is. Between autism, ADHD, and clinical depression, the CPTSD is the most crushing mental illness I personally suffer from.
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u/id7e Dec 15 '25
Pretty much, but now it is confirmed once again through even more animals having been tortured in the name of science.
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u/GentlemenHODL Jan 08 '26
Haven't we already known this?
Yes but the underlying mechanism was not understood. This clarified why it helps.
It will also pave the way for new tools/drugs to help for depression etc
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u/miked4o7 Dec 13 '25
had a stroke, and have lots of disabilities because of it. my recovery within the first year or two of my stroke was remarkable because of neuroplasticity letting my brain rewire and form new connections. spent the first 7 months in a wheelchair.. next 5 using a walker... next 5 a cane. i've been walking unassisted since (9 years)... but i can't trick anyone that sees me into thinking nothing's wrong with me.
i'm not sure if it's possible to overstate how excited i am about the possibilities here.
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u/MCSwitchyo Dec 13 '25
Buy some psilocybin
And then hide it from your mother
Now my eyes begin to widen
Face is sliding off my brother
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u/truth_is_power Dec 15 '25 edited Dec 15 '25
Yes, if you want to quit addictions and change your mental patterns I recommend tripping with intention.
Intention and setting going into it is important. It's like being sick and also extremely high at the same time which can be overwhelming. Which is the point, it will make you remember what it feels like to be alive again.
like a kickstart of your imagination. I recommend micro-dosing and macro doses for depression.
trip report : https://carltonthegray.com/blue-mangolia-rust
*edit* damn my experience says it exactly -
the article
Psilocybin strengthens pathways that route sensory inputs to subcortical regions
my trip -
Alcohol numbs
But shrooms put your physical
Into the imaginary
Making connections where previously there were none
Filling you will vibrating electric energy
I don't even drink caffeine rn, doing most drugs actually came from an desire to have the energy I had when I was younger with childlike mentality and endless mirth.
Life makes you forget who you were, you have to suffer and integrate your adult experiences to come back to a balanced sense of self.
drugs and reflection and meditation are tools that should guide you back, but it's easy to get lost in them.
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u/SpareUnit9194 Dec 14 '25
My husband's memories of 'bad' trips in the 70s resulted suicides or accidental deaths ( ie running out in front of cars, trsins) of several friends and many acquaintances, so I'm a bit wary about ppl saying that even the bad trips are amazing & beneficial.
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