Eating healthy food, exercise, taking daily hikes in the woods, companionship didn’t help my depression and I desperately tried it all for years. The only way out for me was psilocybin for instant relief and then prescription medication for ongoing stability.
When I hear people dismiss, discourage or belittle medication like this it makes me sad because I wish I would have tried medication years sooner but I had these kinds of voices in my head saying “no, just try harder doing this or that you don’t need pills and all the side effects”. I think that can work for some people and is a good place to start but for others, medication is the only thing that sustainably works and that is in no way a failure like many people imply (intentionally or not).
To anyone who is struggling and can’t manage to cook healthy food or reach out or even leave the house, there IS hope!!! Even when it seems absolutely hopeless, things can change for you if you don’t give up, I promise. And please don’t let anyone stop you from trying medication if you want ❤️
First off, I am sorry you had to go through such serious depression.
Indeed there is a time and place of medication. The point was not to reject pharmacological interventions altogether. Rather it was to start from behavioral, and only if that does not work, augment with pharmacological. So what you did. :)
Most people go for medication at the first signs of depression or other mental pain. I strongly believe this is harmful. On one hand, medication can have severe side-effect (now and in the long-term). On the other, without healthy daily habits and environment, medication is not enough. Someone eating junk food, sedentary indoors and alone will almost certainly have mental suffering regardless of the medication.
I am glad you found your solution, especially as it looks like it was quite a difficult issue. I would be curious, if you are willing to share, how you did the initial psilocybin? Was it in a dedicated treatment center with a guide, or on your own, or something different?
I was gifted some golden teacher Psilocybin mushrooms during a particularly rough patch and journeyed on my own on a mild/medium dose several times. It was extremely effective and noticeably helped my mood and functioning for about a month after each session. Microdosing doesn’t seem to effect me, and in my experience it’s not necessary or even more effective to have a full blown out-of-this-world dose, just a nice medium amount outside on a nice day to get my brain out of the “default mode network”. Sadly it was too challenging and unsustainable to stay up to date on this schedule since it requires at least a full day set aside with strong intention and ceremony and reverence for the medicine 🍄🟫
So prescription medication became a more consistent and sustainable option for me. For now I am extremely happy and grateful for this type of medicine too. To each their own in their own timing ❤️
Note: I have had several psychedelic experiences in community and would not recommend that anyone do this protocol alone, at least the first few times.
Eating healthy food, exercise, taking daily hikes in the woods, companionship didn’t help my depression and I desperately tried it all for years. The only way out for me was psilocybin for instant relief and then prescription medication for ongoing stability.
When I hear people dismiss, discourage or belittle medication like this it makes me sad because I wish I would have tried medication years sooner but I had these kinds of voices in my head saying “no, just try harder doing this or that you don’t need pills and all the side effects”. I think that can work for some people and is a good place to start but for others, medication is the only thing that sustainably works and that is in no way a failure like many people imply (intentionally or not).
To anyone who is struggling and can’t manage to cook healthy food or reach out or even leave the house, there IS hope!!! Even when it seems absolutely hopeless, things can change for you if you don’t give up, I promise. And please don’t let anyone stop you from trying medication if you want ❤️
First off, I am sorry you had to go through such serious depression.
Indeed there is a time and place of medication. The point was not to reject pharmacological interventions altogether. Rather it was to start from behavioral, and only if that does not work, augment with pharmacological. So what you did. :)
Most people go for medication at the first signs of depression or other mental pain. I strongly believe this is harmful. On one hand, medication can have severe side-effect (now and in the long-term). On the other, without healthy daily habits and environment, medication is not enough. Someone eating junk food, sedentary indoors and alone will almost certainly have mental suffering regardless of the medication.
I am glad you found your solution, especially as it looks like it was quite a difficult issue. I would be curious, if you are willing to share, how you did the initial psilocybin? Was it in a dedicated treatment center with a guide, or on your own, or something different?
Thank you for your thoughtful reply.
I was gifted some golden teacher Psilocybin mushrooms during a particularly rough patch and journeyed on my own on a mild/medium dose several times. It was extremely effective and noticeably helped my mood and functioning for about a month after each session. Microdosing doesn’t seem to effect me, and in my experience it’s not necessary or even more effective to have a full blown out-of-this-world dose, just a nice medium amount outside on a nice day to get my brain out of the “default mode network”. Sadly it was too challenging and unsustainable to stay up to date on this schedule since it requires at least a full day set aside with strong intention and ceremony and reverence for the medicine 🍄🟫
So prescription medication became a more consistent and sustainable option for me. For now I am extremely happy and grateful for this type of medicine too. To each their own in their own timing ❤️
Note: I have had several psychedelic experiences in community and would not recommend that anyone do this protocol alone, at least the first few times.
Fascinating about how you used Psilocybin for this. I think it's great the stigma around psychedelics is lessening.
I am glad you found a sustainable solution :)