Help! Mushrooms to help a friend

[damagedatbirth]

Hi, I am new to this site and have searched about my query. I have not found anything to help thus far, or anything that matches my specific question so my apologies if this has been asked before.

I want to help my friend who is struggling with alcoholism. They currently take Olanzapine (anti psychotic) and Venlafaxine (SNRI anti depressant). I want to know if magic mushrooms will help them on their journey of kicking alcohol or whether the combination of all 3 could potentially be dangerous (I say 3 as they do not drink daily but instead go on binges). Would it be safe to micro dose mushrooms on the 2 types of meds they are currently on? I am not sure of the dosage of current meds but really want some initial guidance on whether or not it would be beneficial for them to go down the route of self psychedelic treatment.

Any help would be much appreciated and apologies again if this specific question has been asked before, if it has, links to any helpful threads/websites would be really helpful as I really want to help my friend.

Thankyou.

 

[foodcrisis]

anti-depressants and anti-psychotics usually will stop a person from tripping.

this is the first site i went to to see if SNRI anti depressants are any different, and it says it takes like three months for some of them to get out of the system so a person can trip again properly if i'm reading correctly https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37291890/

i've never heard of any danger from going off anti-psychotics or anti-depressants and tripping, but as a teen my friend used to abuse risperdal and drink infrequently. he wasn't doing this the day he tripped, but he took an 1/8th of shrooms and ended up passing out. he fells straight to the ground and almost hit his head on a table. there was some stress during the trip that might've just caused him to be in a bad place, but i always wondered if it had something to do with abusing risperdal in the weeks before. he'd take like a handful of pills and drink and then go days with out taking the pills though. it could've just been because he had a rare form of schizophrenia too. supposedly he had water on his brain as a baby that had something to do with his schizophrenia and that's not common, so maybe it had nothing to do with the pills at all.

i'd note there is some risk going off anti-depressants and anti-psychotics cause there is always the chance the person is getting helped by them and things can get different when you stop taking them, esspecially when dosing shrooms.. shrooms have a good reputation with helping anxiety and depression, but sometimes they can bring out depression IMO... i've thought about the world on shrooms and ended up crying for months afterward.. it can be therapuetic, but i think there is some risk in people getting down and not enjoying themselves... if the person really needs anti-psychotics too, shrooms can cause some people to start thinking irrationally too...

 

[foodcrisis]

if this person really wants to try shrooms. i would test being off the medication for like at least a year to see if they can handle themselves just with out the pills alone... tripping can bring some people's problems out. i might say i don't even recommend it with the meds the person is on, but no one can really be certain.

 

[Juicewrldfan]

Need to taper the meds. Please don’t cold turkey. Going off the meds CT is a bad idea because the mental health issues can return full force. Especially if they have bipolar disorder. Mania is a risk. Or more severe depression.

And microdosing is as proven ineffective for mushrooms verses full trips. Full trips is where the successful studies are leaning. I’m not googling the studies right now to post them. And I admittedly, haven’t been following the research since last year.

I will say they were helpful for me but I have a therapist who has had psychedelic training help reintegrate my experience which is critical with full trips imo.

Unfortunately I do not think they should use the psilocybin mushrooms without a medical setting. But it’s not my call. Just know the risk is not good depending on the diagnosis. I didn’t see the mental health diagnosis. Do you mind sharing? Is it MDD with psychotic features? Would make sense based on the meds. Then you are risking causing psychosis. Why is he on the AP?

 

[damagedatbirth]

Thanks so much for the replies to my question. Sorry its taken me so long to reply. My initial thought was to see if microdosing would be an option while they are still on AD and AP. I didn't want to suggest a full on trip as I imagine they would either A, not feel it at all and B, it could make their issues worse. They are currently on Olanzapine 10mg and Venlofaxine 225mg. After another conversation with my friend and relaying the info provided here, they have decided not to go down the mushroom route. I really do wish there was some way I could help them but at least they are in therapy and AA meetings. Thanks again for the replies. Really do appreciate it.