Microdosing Mushrooms

What it is: Magical mushrooms or “shrooms” contain the psychoactive compound psilocybin. They can be eaten, brewed into tea, or sprinkled onto a snack like nutella buttered toast. 

How microdosing feels: About an hour or two after ingesting the microdose, people notice an increase in focus and energy. Many users find that it helps with weaning off — and staying off — smoking, drinking and anti-depressants. It can help lessen the side effects of withdrawal and even mitigate depression. Many also speak to the drug’s ability to increase empathy and creativity.

When you take tiny amounts of psychedelics, like mushrooms, you won’t experience hallucinations or get particularly high. But anecdotally, people who microdose say that taking these drugs in this way can lead to better focus, more creativity, and even help with depression. 

So, what is Microdosing? 

Microdosing is taking a sub-perceptual dose of psychedelic drugs every few days. Most microdoses are 1/10th – 1/20th of an average dose but can vary depending on the drug, user, and tolerance. 

Start with 1/10th – 1/20th of an active dose. For psilocybin mushrooms, this is typically dosed from .05 grams to 0.1 grams. Conveniently, there are measured capsules readily available for microdosing.  

How do I get started? 

Although the experience can vary depending on the person, a full dose can typically alter your sense of time, enhance introspection, and facilitate problem-solving. 

Measure and track your experience.

Start off small, from 0.05g to 0.1g, and gradually take more after about an hour when you get the feel of it. Most users describe the feeling as “much less anxious, in a better mood, and much more productive and efficient in general”. If you start feeling high anxiety or just weird, maybe you’ve taken more than your body is comfortable with. Common main focuses with microdosing is to: 

• increase awareness of surrounding and one’s self 
• enhance sensory perception 
• relieve headaches or cramps
• increase productivity and thinking 
• increase in creativity

Besides just improving cognitive performance, increasing flexible thinking could one day help people with depression or OCD since both suffer from rigid thought patterns.

When to start?

I would advise starting a microdose before noon, taking it later may make it harder to fall asleep. From there, people should keep to their daily schedule: work, leisure, meals, medications, exercise. After a month or however long you decide to microdose for, users were found to typically continue microdosing only occasionally, on an as-needed basis. Plus, like with most things, it’s good to take a break.

Best ways to ride it out

If you accidentally feel like you’ve taken too much,

• Go outside for a walk, get some fresh air.
• Exercise. Do some light yoga at home or an easy workout circuit.
• Put on some music. Enjoy your favourite tunes.
• Eat something, drink lots of fluids.

To really appreciate the effects, it is best if you keep track of what happens while you dose. Microdosing is not a magic cure – it is a tool to possibly enhance certain aspects of oneself. But of course, if you decide you want to experience the full spectrum of mushrooms, have fungi!