At 65, after 38 years of sobriety, Linda reflects on her first psychedelic experience and how an intentional psilocybin journey reshaped how she understands herself, her past, and her life. She speaks about releasing long-held anger toward her brother, living without the anxiety she carried for decades, and walking away from her business with a calm she had never known.
In this story, Linda reflects on:
Her first psychedelic experience after 38 years of sobriety, approached with intention and care
Releasing anger toward her brother that had quietly shaped her inner life for decades
Stepping away from her business with a calm and clarity she had never known
How microdosing supports her ongoing integration, improving sleep, deepening her sense of presence in nature, and helping her process daily life with greater clarity and peace
It changed how I see the world. It changed how I see me.
Watch: Psilocybin After 38 Years Sober: Letting Go of Control and Anxiety
What drew you to your first psychedelic experience after nearly four decades of sobriety?
Linda: I had been reading about how psychedelics were being used therapeutically for trauma and PTSD. At first my recovery mindset told me, “You can’t do this, you’re sober.” But the more I learned, the more curious I became. Eventually I realized this wasn’t about escaping anything. It was about understanding myself and my trauma more deeply.
Was there a moment during the journey that changed how you see your past?
Linda: My brother came up during the journey. We hadn’t spoken for 15 years before he died by suicide, and I carried a lot of anger and resentment toward him and my family. Seeing his life differently gave me compassion and forgiveness I didn’t have before. It opened up space in my life that simply wasn’t there before.
What led you to walk away from your business?
Linda: I had raised that business like a child, and I had taken it as far as I could. It wasn’t aligned with who I was anymore. When I made the decision to walk away, a buyer showed up, and the entire process happened with zero anxiety. I sold my business and stepped out of my entire world without a plan, and for the first time, I felt completely calm about it
I sold my business and walked away from my entire world with zero anxiety.
How does microdosing show up in your day-to-day life?
Linda: I sleep better. I’m less hungry, and I naturally want to eat healthier food. It helps me process what’s going on in my head with more clarity. When I microdose, I take the same short walk each day and notice how present I feel with nature. Everything feels more peaceful.
This story was recorded in collaboration with Mycology Psychology. Linda references her personal experience with microdosing as part of her broader integration process.
Supporting Research
Psilocybin and Depression
Psilocybin therapy and depression clinical trials Psilocybin has been studied in multiple randomized and open-label clinical trials showing rapid and sustained reductions in depressive symptoms, including in major depressive disorder and treatment-resistant depression. These studies often involve one or two dosing sessions with psychological support and report improvements lasting weeks to months. Cambridge University Press
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses of psilocybin for depression Meta-analyses combining multiple clinical trials suggest psilocybin can produce both short-term and longer-term antidepressant effects compared with traditional treatments, with patients reporting meaningful decreases in symptom severity. Pubmed
Psychedelics and Addiction Recovery
Psilocybin in substance use disorders A 2025 systematic review identified preliminary clinical evidence that psilocybin-assisted therapy may reduce alcohol and tobacco use and related symptoms when combined with psychotherapy, although larger trials are still needed to confirm these findings. Pubmed
Classic psychedelics and addiction treatment research Reviews of the literature suggest classic psychedelics like psilocybin show potential in supporting addiction recovery processes — for example, reducing heavy drinking days or supporting smoking cessation — though research is still emerging and exploratory. Pubmed
You Are Not Alone
If Linda’s story resonated with you, we invite you to explore more psychedelic experiences or share your own story with Normalize Psychedelics.
Normalize Psychedelics is a nonprofit working to change public understanding of psychedelic medicine by sharing real stories of healing. Through firsthand accounts, we aim to reduce stigma and broaden the conversation around mental health and wellness.
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Adrienne Smith, a yoga studio owner and former triathlete, shares her transformative experiences with psychedelics. She delves into how her perspective on life and relationships changed after rowing across the Pacific Ocean and subsequent experiences with psilocybin and MDMA. She focuses on how psychedelics helped her rediscover marriage and improve the overall environment of her household.
Adrienne discusses the impact of psychedelics on her marriage, personal growth, and the importance of normalizing these substances for mental and emotional healing. She highlights the significance of creating intentional downtime, feeling emotions deeply, and how these practices have enhanced her connection with herself and others. Adrienne advocates for the responsible use of psychedelics.
Adrienne is the owner of Power Of Your Om Yoga studio in Santa Barbara, California.
Normalizing psychedelics is important because we’re having conversations about so many other things and methods of healing and this one should be included. If something that occurs in nature can help, in my opinion, heal our entire planet. Why aren’t we using it? -Adrienne
Watch: Triathlete Shares How MDMA Revived Her Marriage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4nCDu5uaps&t=43s
There is no amount of therapy that could have got us to this point. All the walls, the years of resentment, like, just issues and problems and disconnection that was present just dropped in an instant
Describe your first MDMA experience?
We cleared our schedule. My daughter was with my sister and we took some MDMA and went to the beach. And it was fascinating because it took quite a while to feel anything. And I was like, is anything happening?
And we’re laying there and my head’s up like the side of the ocean. My feet are facing shore where my husband and I are kind of facing each other. And he’s sitting in this chair and I asked him, I had my hand on my heart and I’m just laying there. We’re listening to music. And I said, how are you feeling?
And he’s like, nothing. I knew this would happen. And I said to him, I go, well, interestingly, I said, I’ve never seen you sit still for so long. And, classically people think of MDMA as like dance vibes. I had no expectations, really didn’t really do any research. I just trusted my friend.
And 10 minutes later, we’re laying down next to each other. And I said to him. There is no amount of therapy that could have got us to this point. All the walls, the years of resentment, like, just issues and problems and disconnection that was present just dropped in an instant and I mean, we had gone to therapists.
We were trying everything, but we couldn’t let go of stuff that was in the way. So no matter what kind of talk therapy or tools or skills or books that we were reading just like didn’t get through to us, like actually. feeling.
If I look back now, it’s like I felt whole and complete at that moment. And there was nothing else that I needed to do in order to feel that way. Like it was already present. And then he simultaneously having the same personal experience. And then we’re experiencing that together. And that was just the beginning of a completely new relationship, like what I now term is like, this is the real us.
that was just the beginning of a completely new relationship, like what I now term is, this is the real us.
The other way that we operate is just, When we get into our default patterns of operating so what started to shift from that day was the ability to go back and connect to each other to connect to that moment. And that’s just shifted the whole entire tone and energy of our house, even when I’m helping my daughter put her clothes on for school and I’m starting to get feeling having that feeling of, I don’t have enough time. She’s going to be late. We’re rushing. I’m able to really quickly and I know these are certain skills that we can learn just in a meditation practice and a yoga practice where you take a deep breath.
But there’s like an innate feeling that is remembered in the body, I can tap into instantly because of the experiences that I’ve had on psychedelics
Its just shifted the whole entire tone and energy of our house
How have psychedelics helped you as an athlete?
They’ve helped me feel my feelings and I’ve been an athlete since I was four. I’m 44 now, never in my wildest dreams thought that this would be a conversation that I would be having. Even one year ago today, I never could have even forecasted being interviewed for a normalizing psychedelics interview.
I did triathlon for a long time and I kept signing up for races. Because it was just what I was used to it was what I was good at and it’s what I got acknowledged for. The ego felt so good about that.
When I stopped doing it because I was like, I don’t like it anymore But I don’t have anything else to fill the space I started to realize that in a way just existing and giving myself this downtime has allowed me to see like, oh my god I like music.
I love dancing. I like going to concerts. I don’t even know how this came to be something that I practiced, but I would take a 500 milligrams or a gram of mushrooms and I would go on a walk just outside of my house, take maybe like 45 minutes to an hour, and then I would come home, I’d put in headphones, and I’d turn on a sound healing.
I would lay on my floor and just feel. And that would be the time of like the most intense sensory experience. Sound was louder. I could feel my body more. I would always put something over my eyes because I always noticed that during that time I do want to go internal and feel what’s happening.
Then all of a sudden, I just gave myself intentional downtime, different from watching movies and Netflix and scrolling on Instagram downtime. I like to call that, like, creative time. And, and then all of a sudden, that creation of space gives me ideas later. Like, the next day, I’m listening to people differently.
I’m able to listen. I think truly being able to identify that I’m feeling a physical sensation that I can then tie to feeling overwhelmed. So it’s like, oh, I’m feeling a tightness in my chest or my stomach is all weird.
And I can check and be like, yeah, I am feeling a little overwhelmed and overworked and irritated. And then as a result, I can look at my schedule for what I have to do over the course of a day and then prioritize what’s actually important today that I have to get done.
Watch: Triathlete on Psilocybin “It helped me FEEL my feelings”
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Jen Bruce is a functional nutritionist, psychedelic practitioner, author, and activist who specializes in helping people heal themselves from chronic mental and physical health conditions through a trauma-informed lens. Jen is the owner of The Recovery Reset, a coaching program that helps others heal through her signature programs. In this interview Jen talks about healing from addiction with Ibogaine and also with traditional approaches like The Twelve Steps.
Jen has been on her own healing journey for 12 years, successfully overcoming alcohol addiction, depression, and numerous chronic health conditions with the information and modalities she now shares with the world. Read more about Jen on her site.
Jen’s story of recovery
Jen: My name is Jen Bruce and I live in Arcada, California. I’m a member of Decriminalize Nature. I also work in the field. For the last seven years, I’ve been a preparation and integration specialist for people that are utilizing psychedelic medicines for healing from a myriad of different conditions. But generally trauma, addiction, and mental health are my three main ones that I work with. I’m in recovery myself. I was in addiction to primarily alcohol for 17 years. I had been sober for almost 12 years now, January 2nd, 2023.
I was born into a family that carried a tremendous amount of generational trauma. My grandfather and my father, my great grandfather all served in the armed forces. I’m half Irish and half Scandinavian and drinking was a way of life.
At a really young age, I actually ended up leaving home and going on Grateful Dead tour. So at my relatively young age for that era, I was able to experience the psychedelic era that was kind of trailing out from the sixties. And I grew up in Eugene, Oregon, so I had my first psychedelic experiences were within the Grateful Dead community.
There is a lot of beauty, but there was not a therapeutic container and there’s a lot of other drugs and a lot of other things. And due to my family’s background and my wiring and my genes and my entire constellation, I fell into addiction in that scene.
On choosing sobriety with The Twelve Steps
Jen: Fast forward, many years later, I chose sobriety and I really applied myself to the traditional program of 12 step, and it saved my life. And I learned how to not drink and to have my life be manageable. And a lot of really great things started to happen. I got into yoga and that helped me. I’ve been to India many times. I got into nutrition that helped me.
When I started out my journey to sobriety, I was like all of us with addiction stories, diagnosed with depression and anxiety disorder and PTSD.
So you can imagine when you put down your medicine, and in my case, was alcohol. Those things, although they improved, they still remained and like most people with addiction issues, that addictive tendency was still there.
What brought me to my knees and recovery was my work addiction.
So I was five years sober, as a last ditch efforts, before I went the pharmaceutical route and the reason I was not interested in that, as I’d seen hundreds of people around me put on prescription medication and although they may not have been struggling as badly with the symptoms that they were diagnosed with, they also couldn’t feel anything at all.
On finding Ibogaine in Mexico
Jen: I was feeling so bad in recovery, fully applying myself to all the things I mentioned that I felt as a mother of a young daughter, two years old at this time, that that was maybe my only hope to function.
I was exhausted. I had fibromyalgia. They called it chronic pain. I had fatigue. It was just exhausting. And so although I had gotten my life back from alcohol, it wasn’t much of a life to be living.
As a last ditch effort, I went down to Mexico because I’d seen a few people I knew go down for addiction purposes and to get treated by this medicine called Ibogaine, which comes from the country of Gabon in Africa, and Bwiti, the Pygmy people.
I went down. I took the last money I had. I was scared to death. I left my two year old little girl at home. I got ostracized from a 12-step community for choosing to do this because it was a mind altering substance. But I was in a position where if I didn’t alter my mind, I wasn’t going to make it.
The Ibogaine experience
Jen: What happened down there was absolutely magical. I think the first thing that I said after I came out of my experience was that this is the medicine they tell us as people in recovery doesn’t exist. It doesn’t exist, but it did. And the outcome of that experience was that it was a very first time in my life that I’d actually felt good in my own body.
I had no pain. I had no anxiety. I had no fatigue. I had no sadness. I had no depression. I was able for the first time in my life to have a slideshow and have no emotional charge behind it. It was absolutely 100% at peace and ease.
One of the first things that happened after my ibogaine experience was that I could do a slideshow of all the faces and all the people because I’d been through a tremendously long period of painful events for decades and decades of my life.
It’s not to be a victim. Everything is happening for us and I’ve got to learn and grow. So, it’s not like a pity story here. It’s just simply what happened. But I was able for the first time in my life to have a slideshow and have no emotional charge behind it. It was absolutely 100% at peace and ease.
I also realized that I was born in fight or flight response because I was born to a mother who is under a tremendous amount of stress herself while in the womb and we now know this is true through epigenetics. So it gave me the freedom to experience wellness in my own body and ever since then, that’s been my North Star in my life of what I need to do more of to maintain that feeling of wellness and that ability to viscerally experience feeling good in your own skin is so motivating I mean, it’s the greatest relapse prevention tool that I have is because I know how I can feel most of the time and it’s because of that ibogaine.
So I came home, dropped everything I was doing and I’ve been working in this field ever since.
The Twelve Steps program and how can we work in tandem with AA to accept other sacred medicines
Jen: What I will say about that is we don’t need to create anything new for the addiction epidemic.
I have spent much time in 12 step and I love it.
I taught the 12 step workshop to hundreds of people over the years.
I’ve spent lots of time in the yoga community, and there’s wisdom and medicine there. I’ve spent a ton of time in the medicine community now, and there’s so much wisdom there.
I have spent so much time in the nutrition and functional medicine community and there’s so much information there, and there are some things that we have been doing of the traditional model.
My hope is that we can all come together and start seeing the benefits of each modality and how that they can come together, because we do have a full robust, powerful program of recovery.
I know in the studies in Johns Hopkins right now where they’re using one dose of psilocybin, I believe, but in the proper container of setting integration and all the other things, therapy, trauma work that after a year they’re seeing an 80% cessation success rate with alcoholics. I mean, that’s unheard of. We’re looking at about an 8% success rate across the board right now.
What I can personally tell you, not from studies, but from being in these rooms, but that is a true figure.
Every single modality has the same failure rate because they’re incomplete. So the biggest block I see to moving forward and allowing the people that need to access this medicine the most.
I believe addiction is a particular kind of PTSD and nothing more or less. Recovery culture itself needs to stop being so frightened of possibility and embrace those of us that have gone forward and done some experimentation and trust that these experiences are real.
That being said. psychedelic medicines are not going to be for everybody. But we can learn from how these psychedelics are helping the people that are utilizing them within our own process and how to work through our issues in a similar way.
Some of us may not even need to take the medicine if we can just learn how the medicine is working for people and teaching us how to heal ourselves. Because that’s all we’re doing with this work is learning how to heal ourselves.
Watch the full interview of about Jen heal from addiction with Ibogaine
In this interview Danielle discusses the benefits, protocols, and integration of microdosing psilocybin mushrooms, addressing topics like managing depression, anxiety, PTSD, and helping individuals get off SSRIs. Danielle also highlights the significance of intention, support, and journaling in a microdosing program, while warning about potential risks for people with certain conditions. To learn more about Danielle’s work visit her website Microdosing Humboldt
About Danielle Daniel
Danielle was born and raised in Humboldt County and is dedicated to educating the community about the healing powers of psychoactive plants and fungi, along with providing support to community members during their path of healing.
For the last 10 years she has been studying psychedelics, along with personally benefiting through therapeutic exploration. She has experienced profound personal healing and fulfilment by working with psychoactive plants and fungi.
In May of 2021 Danielle received a Master of Arts in Sociology, with a focus on psilocybin mushrooms. Her thesis focused on those who took psilocybin mushrooms long-term, and explored the experience and motivation behind working with this medicine. You can read her thesis here.
After completing her degree she spearheaded the decriminalization movement in Arcata, CA in May 2021. Danielle became the Lead Organizer of Decriminalize Nature Humboldt. On October 6th 2021 psychoactive plants and fungi were decriminalized in Arcata. Danielle stepped down from her Lead position in February 2022, in order to focus her energy on her offering as a microdosing coach. With the decriminalization of entheogens in Arcata, she is able to share her knowledge and experience about microdosing with those in the community that need guidance and support.
Watch the Full interview with Danielle
What is microdosing psilocybin mushrooms?
Danielle: Microdosing is subperceptual, so you’re nowhere near a psychedelic experience, and it’s really a personal journey, so you got to feel into it – it’s about experimentation and really taking your time to find the perfect dose for you.
For most people it’s about 0.1 to 0.3 of a gram – so that’s 100 to 300 milligrams. And its best to get a very precise scale to measure this and ground up the medicine so the caps and stems are combined together.
For your first day it’s best to do it on a day when you have nothing important to do: you don’t have to drive, you don’t have to go to work, etc. Just because if you do feel a little something, you know what that feeling is. And next time you know to go down just a little bit, because a little bit goes a really long way. So, like, if you start at 0.13 and you drop down to 0.1, that’s quite a lot.
If you feel anything, it would be like a little floaty in your body. But it’s generally a very grounding medicine, so it really helps for being present. It really helps if you’re disassociated a lot to really bring you into your body and to really feel safe in your body.
What are the benefits of microdosing psilocybin mushrooms?
Danielle: Microdosing has so many benefits for being present and in the moment. But it also helps decrease depression, decrease anxiety. It helps manage PTSD and it helps manage OCD.
It really gives us the ability to see the patterns that we’re in and make that choice to get out of those patterns. It gives us a bit of spaciousness. So, you might be triggered by something, but you have the space to see, all right, I could react in that way, or I could respond in this new way.
Microdosing makes our brains malleable. So the brain has the ability to create new pathways, which is really such a blessing, because most adults don’t usually have that opportunity. It connects neurons and creates new neurons, which are actually better than our old neurons! Those of us who have depression and anxiety, we don’t have as many neurons connecting, and microdosing psilocybin helps with treating both of these conditions!
How often should you microdose psilocybin mushrooms?
Danielle: Oftentimes people think you need to microdose every day, but if you do that you’re going to get a high tolerance really quickly. After about a week or two, you’re not going to feel the benefits anymore.
So there’s a few different protocols that I recommend. And again, this is a very personal journey, so really feeling out what feels right for you is the most important thing.
I usually start people on the Stamitz protocol, which is four days in a row of microdosing with a three day break. But for some people, that third day off is a really hard day where you can be feeling extra depressed or extra anxious. And if that happens to you, try switching to every other day, and that can be more balancing. And this also prevents tolerance.
For other people playing around with two days on and one day off can be more beneficial. I’ve seen that be very helpful for those wanting to get off of SSRIs.
How can I use microdosing to get off SSRIs?
Danielle: When you’re wanting to get off of SSRIs with microdosing, the first couple of weeks, just micro dose and feel into it.
After that, hopefully, you can work with your doctor – I always recommend communicating with your doctor. The more people that know what’s going on, the more support you will have. But I suggest tapering down a little bit each week and really feeling where you’re at. Don’t go too fast. Healing takes time and that’s what microdosing psilocybin is all about. It’s all about being patient and taking the time to really give yourself what you need.
What is Seratonin Syndrome?
Danielle: Seratonin Syndrome is too much going through your serotonin receptors. So in the worst case scenario, that could cause death, but that’s more with Ayahuasca. So you got to be really careful with Ayahuasca. But if you’re having symptoms of Serotonin Syndrome, it usually happens about 24 hours later. You might be shaky, have a fast heart rate, diarrhea, and you might be feeling very confused.
If you do get Seratonin Syndrome, it’s usually pretty mild and you can just stop microdosing and it will go away. But again, I think with psilocybin mushrooms, you will be fine. With a microdose, it’s more with substances like ayahuasca that you need to be worried. So, probably don’t microdose with Ayahuasca.
What can you stack while microdosing Psilocybin mushrooms?
Danielle: I add lion’s main because Lion’s Mane is very good for cognition and helpful to decrease depression and anxiety – I recommend people just take more Lion’s Mane because it’s such a great medicine.
I personally don’t add Niacin because it causes flushing for some people and I don’t want that to make people not want to do it. Flushing means that your skin can get red and blotchy.
And sometimes you need more than one micro dose in a day. So if it’s an extra stressful day, you might need a micro dose in the morning and then you might need another one in the afternoon. With the Niacin, that can create flushing. But the reason many people add Niacin is because microdosing psilocybin mushrooms can cause vasoconstriction so that can create a headache and Niacin will prevent that from happening. But there are other things you can do to help with vasoconstriction such as taking magnesium, which can be helpful. L thianine is also helpful – So there are other alternatives besides niacin that I prefer.
How do you integrate after microdosing psilocybin mushrooms?
Danielle: Integration is SO important when it comes to microdosing Psilocybin – and that’s what I offer. Having someone to really hold space for you, someone who really understands and someone who doesn’t have judgment, to be there to hear about your experience an be incredibly powerful!
Oftentimes with my clients, they have realizations just by talking about their experience. I also recommend trying to journal as much as possible because microdosing is definitely going to bring up joy, just childlike fascination, noticing the previously unnoticeable, but it’s also going to bring up really big things – it’s going to bring up things that are uncomfortable, perhaps uncomfortable memories and uncomfortable strong emotions.
During those uncomfortable times it can be very helpful to journal about it. Oftentimes we push these feelings away because we don’t have the tools or we don’t want to deal with it. And that doesn’t work. So when you’re microdosing, you have that support to be able to navigate through these experiences.
For example, let’s just talk about anger.
So when you’re journaling about it. How is this anger feeling in my body? All right, I’m feeling this burning in my chest. Do I remember when it happened today? It happened around noon. Did someone say something to trigger it? Yes, I felt like I had to be on the defense or no, it just happened. hrough journaling as well, things might come up like, HM, when I was twelve, I remember this thing my mom said where I had to be on the defense and it made me really angry.
So you could get realizations through the journaling, but the most important thing is just going into it exploring and just giving these emotions and these memories the space to really be felt, to really be heard, and to get to know them. What purpose are these emotions and memories serving? Why did they come into our lives?
How can microdosing psilocybin mushrooms help with fear and anxiety?
Danielle: I’ve been working with macro doses of psychedelic medicines for a long time. But a big thing that I was never able to overcome was fear and anxiety.
When I started microdosing, I didn’t have fear and anxiety anymore. And I didn’t even realize I didn’t have the anxiety anymore until I stopped microdosing a month later. When I stopped microdosing, I had an anxiety attack, and I was like, Whoa, this really works.
The anxiety was so severe for me that sometimes I couldn’t even leave my house. So microdosing has significantly and positively affected my life in being able to not have crippling fear. And it’s still there. I mean, that’s the thing with microdosing is that it helps us be more aware of these cycles, especially from childhood traumas. These cycles are still going to be there, but for the most part, it’s manageable. It’s not going to be negatively influencing your life anymore.
What does a microdosing program look like?
Danielle: So, our first session is really about intention – Intention is so important with microdosing. Why are you doing this? Why are you showing up? What is the big thing that you’re working on? So, sometimes it takes a while to really pinpoint what is my intention. And that is the important thing of the first session to really get that foundation of what the focus is. And the first session also is about explaining what microdosing is – so it’s very clear and just understood.
After our first session, we meet every other week to talk about the experience. And I’m absolutely always available before that, because having that support is so important in order to go deep.
I start everyone on the golden teacher (mushroom) because the Golden Teacher is such a friendly, mellow, deep mushroom. And in a lot of people, it’s a perfect match. But for some people, it makes them really sleepy, and they need a mushroom that’s a little bit more energizing. So it takes time to really find what is the perfect mushroom.
So far, I’ve really found that the melmacs are really good for energizing and also the albinos have been really good for people who have insomnia. So it really is just about experimenting and seeing what mushroom is best for you.
Every other session, we’re talking about your experience, and so much comes up. And my program is an eight week program. Tthe reason it’s eight weeks is because this is a really good amount of time to know if this is the medicine for you. It’s not for everyone. Also it’s a good amount of time to know all the tools of the importance of journaling, the importance of being in nature and just understanding what this medicine is all about, how it isn’t always joyous, how it does bring things to the surface, how it does amplify your environment, and your inner world and outer world.
There’s five sessions all together, and our last session is really about what do you want to do moving forward? Do you want to continue? Did you get your intention, or are we still working on it? And then there’s the choice of more independence, where I’m still there and I’m still of support, but not the every other week.
Can microdosing psilocybin mushrooms lead to ‘bad trips’?
Danielle: It’s all about perspective – I mean, it does amplify what’s going on. So if you’re going through a really difficult time, it can really make it a little too much. And it’s absolutely okay to stop for a while and really check in with yourself of what feels good and what doesn’t feel good.
If it’s not feeling good, listen to that. And you can always go back to microdosing when things settle down.
Has decriminalization changed your city?
Danielle: Absolutely, just by decriminalizing, it allows people the safety to be able to ask questions about, what are these medicines, how could I safely access these medicines?
It is tricky because you can’t actually sell. But being able to be in situations with someone who is selling their time (like with what I do) and gifting the medicine is a solution there.
I never thought I was going to be doing this at all. I had been microdosing for a couple of years before decriminalization. I was helping friends and family and I was just in such awe of how it was helping people get off of SSRIs and how it was really increasing well being.
After decriminalization, whenever I get a new batch of mushrooms, I test a gram, because every batch can have a little bit difference in potency. And on that journey, I saw so clearly how the community really needed my support and really that it was time for me to open up just on a bigger level and to offer this to the community.
Who are people that should NOT be microdosing psilocybin?
Danielle: If you have a personal history of schizophrenia, it’s not the best idea to microdose. There has been a study out that it could potentially help, but if you’re anything over a microdose, it could really make things worse. And I would say, just it could do more harm than healing.
With Bipolar disorder, it helps with when you’re in a depressed state. It doesn’t do anything for the manic state. It really helps with when they’re in a depressive state just to level them out. But its NOT safe to mix with lithium – here has been cases of people getting seizures while on lithium.
Also, sidenote, if you’re a colorblind male, it could cause tracers. But if you’re a colorblind female, it makes no difference 🙂
