Kava definitely works, but it takes a bit of experimentation and shopping around before you have your first really good experience with it. I tried it a few times around '06 and wrote it off completely as something that tasted horrible and didn't do much, if anything. But then recently I gave it another try, having read about kavalactones and how many are needed even for a threshold experience (a lot more than anything you can buy in a health food store, that's for sure!). But I took a heavy dose a few months ago and definitely noticed a feeling of well-being and happiness, and then had a good night of sleep afterward. I did notice some annoying side-effects, though, and something of a "kavangover." I then tried a different preparation and it was more of the good and less of the bad. I imagine that ordering some of the stuff from the South Pacific that really gives you the bang for your buck would lead to a much better and "pure" kava experience, and it's something I plan to do down the road. The kava high does not last that long, and it's not all that intense, so one who is used to intense recreational drugs might find this one a bit too tame. It's something that has to be respected for what it is, which is a traditional beverage that can be taken daily to help one calm down and transition into sleep-mode after a long day, and can be done on a regular basis without turning one into an out-of-control addict. So ya, if you're going to try kava, do some research and order some top-of-the-line kava and take the time to prepare it right. It's worth it in the end. Just whatever you do, don't take 60 capsules bought in a health-food store to try and get as many kavalactones in you at once. This might give you some fleeting euphoria, but you're going to get a mighty stomach ache as well!
As for the other supplements and your comment about it all being too mild, well I think that if you mix them all together you'll find that the parts as a whole will definitely come together with the strength of a benzo or a few drinks. Only it will feel much better the next day, and it's something that can be done on a regular basis and won't really hurt your body or get you addicted. Sure, it's not going to be that intense, but it is calming and once you get into the habit of doing it daily, you do kind of mellow out as a person, and it gives you something to look forward to after a long day or work, school or whatever you do. As well, I find the whole idea of getting into herbs and natural therapies to be in and of itself rather therapeutic, and the idea of getting to know what grows on the planet and respecting these things for what calming effects they do give us is something that gives us this mature calming effect. Those things I listed are just a starting point, as the most well-known herbs out there for these effects. But trying a little bit of this, or a little bit of that can be a lot of fun when you know that the things you're dabbling with aren't that serious and things aren't going to go wrong if you don't happen to like a particular thing. For me, the idea of coming home each night and mixing and matching different herbs in a tea is much more gentle on me than going to the bottle shop and sampling different beers, or ordering exotic benzos off of the net and doing the whole "benzo rotation" thing. My personal anxiety doesn't like the idea that the thing I'm taking for anxiety will actually give me more anxiety in the long-run, or that the medication that is treating the anxiety will, cyclically, start to create the anxiety that it's treating. Alcohol and benzos will do this, but herbs won't. So I just feel a lot calmer about the whole effort, if you know what I mean.
For me, I like to keep benzos around for nights when I just cannot otherwise sleep. When I get worked up about something, I have a lot of non-drug ways of calming myself down and stopping panic attacks, but I still do suffer from insomnia related to stress and anxiety. And this makes things worse for me the next day, because I always get anxious when I am tired (and am chugging coffee to stay awake, which makes me even more anxious). Benzos help me regulate my sleep schedule, and I try and strictly keep them for this use only. I understand what you mean about "as needed" turning into "all the time," and this really does come down to self-control. I can see your argument for a strict schedule and why this will help you not overdo it. To this, all I can really say is "good luck." I tried this time and time again with opiates and each time I broke the schedule, rewrote it to allow me to take them just a bit more often, and eventually was using daily. Like opiates, benzos are physically and psychologically addictive, so you gotta be strong enough to tell yourself NO when you feel like it could be getting out of control.
Like for me, if I say that I can use a substance once a week - let's say on Friday night - I can use every Friday for a few weeks and not get physically addicted, but what happens is that I spend the other six days wishing it was Friday again. So the quality of my life goes downhill, not because I'm physically addicted and acting like a classical drug-addict, but because I'm torturing myself wishing for that day to come faster, and my week soon turns into one fun day and six sub-par days. I'll then tell myself that I can use another drug on one of those six days, and pretty soon I'm getting high on X each monday, Y each Tuesday, Z each Wednesday, and so on. I'm a poly-drug addict, even if not physically addicted to anything, and my life still very much revolves around drugs and using them to calm my anxious mind. This is how I am, I dunno about you. But for me, I have to use them "as needed" because the schedules drive me crazy at the end of the day way more than the self-control of "as needed" does.
For cannabis, I haven't smoked in a very long time due to legal restraints. But I used to love MJ, especially indicas. Again, this is TDS so we cannot really suggest drugs on people without being doctors, but MJ never did anything too bad for me other than making me a bit more introverted. So ya, perhaps with the topic of your thread origianlly being social anxiety, and me saying that cannabis made me introverted and had me keeping to myself a lot, it probably wasn't the best thing for my social skills, now that I think about it. But it's also a very safe drug and didn't, over time, screw my mind and body up like alcohol, stimulants or opiates did. Cannabis did wonders for my creativity, made me very interested in learning new things, helped me sleep, helped me eat, helped me work out, helped me be a more caring and loving person, and it also tasted really good! So I definitely think that it can help a person keep a good balance in life, and it can satisfy a desire to "get fucked up" and at the same time won't turn your life upside-down like a lot of other things can.
As for low-dose psilocybin, I always liked threshold doses. I found them to be a lot more euphoric than regular doses. I used to love to take a threshold dose and then listen to music or take walks around the city at night. Those times were beautiful and I do hope that I can do them again sometime. In fact, I feel like I've had enough deep mushroom experiences and would be fine with threshold ones for the rest of my life. I don't know about doing them all of the time, as I feel like it might lose its novelty and I respect mushroom way too much to do this to them. But I could see myself doing them in low does as much as once per week. To be completely honest with you, years ago I stuck to cannabis and mushrooms with the occasional MDMA, and really trying out a lot of different herbs, and I was much happier than I am now. Due to some legal events and relocating to an area where I cannot find many psychedelics, I've kind of turned over to some bad drugs and it's really affected my mind, body and soul for the worst. But I would love to get back to that old place once again, because it definitely is the way to go, if you are going to choose using medicines/drugs over being sober.
I think the benefit of low-dose mushrooms on a regular basis is that they help me see what really matters in life and what is synthetic happiness and fake positive energy created by a screwed up society. Mushrooms show me, for example, just how much better taking a stroll at night down by the river is than sitting in front of a television and watching violent shows while drinking beer and text-messaging meaningless stuff to people. It also helps me stay in close contact with my 5 senses, and how it really is as simple as properly stimulating those senses each day in order to feel good and stay happy. Good food, being around art (or making it), playing or listening to instruments, having a comfortable bed. On a really basic level, these are the types of pleasures that we seek, and I try and remember that it does not need to be as complicated as society wants us to think the stimulation needs to be. Our planet just as it is provides us with amazing sensual entertainment, but a lot of people pass this over. Like when I used to trip a lot, I could tell you the exact time of the sunrise and the sunset each day. Why? Because I was always watching it. Nowadays, with so much stupid shit being crammed into too little free hours I have, I couldn't even guess those things within 20 minutes. And that's sad, and it's something that I don't forget when I have that close connection to my planet. And these are the kinds of things I like to bring up in conversation with new people. Granted a lot of those people think I am a fucking madman, but at the same time it's great when someone chimes in that she/he has felt or thought the same way at times, and it really does help me know from an early time when I met someone who is going to become a great friend.