Psilocybin Mushroom Facts
Psilocybin mushrooms, better known as magic mushrooms or shrooms, are fungi containing psilocybin (the drug responsible for making shroom users hallucinate). Shrooms are illegal in the United States, listed as a Schedule I controlled substance.
What do Shrooms Look Like?
Psilocybin mushrooms look like your regular dried mushrooms, perhaps those you might use in a risotto dish. Unlike dried shiitakes, however, magic mushrooms contain anywhere from 0.2 to 0.4 percent psilocybin.
What is Psilocybin?
Psilocybin is a hallucinogenic substance that is chemically related to LSD. It is found in more than 75 species of mushrooms from South America, Mexico, Europe, Asia, and the United States.
How are Shrooms Taken?
They are most commonly eaten or brewed to be consumed as a tea.
Immediate Effects Upon Consuming Shrooms
Upon consumption, the user may experience certain effects and sensations enduring up to 6 hours (give or take, and this is also dependent on the amount taken):
- Almost immediate nausea before the desired mental effects kick in
- Increased energy and heart rate
- Altered and distorted perceptions of the five senses
- A calming, relaxed feeling
- Increased visual acuity — objects often become animated or even alive if only momentarily
- A sense of being one with the environment
- Increased sound clarity
Users have reported both "good trips" as well as "bad trips." On the former trip, the user experiences pleasant and enjoyable sensations. On the latter trip, paranoia, anxiety, and terrifying thoughts can all occur for the user.
Long-Term Effects
A psilocybin mushroom user may experience these long-term effects:
- "Flashbacks," in which a person experiences an episode of a past hallucination long after the drug has worn off
- For many, using shrooms even just once have produced positive mental effects, including a personal conviction of philosophical enlightenment, a heightened sense of reality and of one's own identity, and a feeling of closeness and oneness with life and nature
Dangerous or Not?
Shrooms are generally not dangerous except in cases in which the user endures a bad trip, and this is primarily mental more than physical. Shrooms cause neither addiction nor physical dependence. We at AllTreatment do not support or advocate the use of any illegal drug, but we especially advise against taking shrooms if you have mental problems, are feeling depressed, are pregnant, are alone, or are taking other drugs at the same time.
Resources
- http://brown.edu/Student_Services/Health_Services/Health_Education/alcohol,_tobacco,_&_other_drugs/psilocybin.php
- http://www.cesar.umd.edu/cesar/drugs/psilocybin.asp
- Photos: (1) (2)
All Treatment does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See additional information.
