ANXIETY | +70 articles

[mr peabody]

Treating severe anxiety with psilocybin

by Christopher Blunt | UNILAD

"My anxiety developed when I was diagnosed with epilepsy 11 years ago," explained Nick, as he led me to a mushroom picking hotspot in Yorkshire.

"But I never really recognised my problem until I got knocked off my bike two years ago. I had 15 staples in my head and was hospitalised for three days. That brought it to the forefront. I realised I had quite a bad anxiety problem."

Nick, 29, is part of a growing subculture of people who are self-medicating their mental health issues with psilocybin, while risking up to seven years in prison. With his tightly knotted hiking boots, army-green waterproof jacket and large rucksack, he looks like any other early morning rambler.

"I first tried magic mushrooms with a couple of friends 8 years ago. Years later I read Professor Nutt's book Drugs Without the Hot Air and was interested to learn about the links between psilocybin, anxiety and depression. After reading that book I decided to start foraging for mushrooms myself."

"In my own experience, it does have a positive effect on anxiety. As soon as I 'come down,' any thoughts of anxiety that are going through my mind immediately evaporate. It just goes in an instant - melts away. The feeling of wellbeing lasts a month or two until something triggers the negative thoughts again."

"After searching online, I knew what I was looking for, I managed to find a couple of local fields that I forage on when the season comes. During the off-season I have to find other avenues to get hold of mushrooms, including ordering them online or buying ones grown indoors. But nothing beats the romance of finding my own. Psychedelics are something I've grown to respect, so I mainly leave it to the season as I don't want to overdo it and it lose the effect."

"I think they have a great potential for naturally treating mental health issues without using synthetic drugs, which invariably come with a string of nasty side effects."

"We're looking at is a largely unexplored technology that set the psychiatry world ablaze in the 1950s, aborted by widespread recreational abuse, the reaction of the media and its confluence with the Vietnam war," argues David Nichols, a Purdue University pharmacologist, in an article for the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

James Rucker, a leading psychiatrist at Kings College London, recently spoke out against the law surrounding psychedelic drugs, which he believes is hampering research into their prospective medicinal benefits. On psilocybin and LSD, he said he believes the Government should downgrade their unnecessarily restrictive class-A, citing that they were extensively used and researched in clinical psychiatry before their prohibition in 1967.

In 2012, researchers battled through reams of red tape as the result of the negative connotations surrounding the drug, and were eventually able to test the psychoactive effects of magic mushrooms.

The team's study, published in British Journal of Psychiatry, found volunteers given psilocybin experienced cues to vividly remember really positive events in their lives, such as their wedding day or the birth of their child.

It does seem there is little evidence that psilocybin is unsafe in a controlled setting, and even less evidence that it has addictive potential - or is even habitual at all - but plenty of evidence that suggests its prospective therapeutic benefits.

Taking that into account, isn't it time that we let go of old prejudices and loosen the laws surrounding psilocybin in medical research? I say yes. Mental health is one of the most important issues of our times; we should be pouring funding into studies on how to treat it, instead of hampering the scientists.

The human race has reaped the benefits of psychedelic mushrooms for millennia ever since they grew in the Elysian fields of Greece, yet we still know very little about how they work.

It seems that until we wise up, people like Nick, an otherwise totally law abiding citizen, will continue to break the law.

https://www.unilad.co.uk/featured/we...gic-mushrooms/​

 

[mr peabody]

We spoke with a guy who treats his severe anxiety with magic mushrooms

by Christopher Blunt | UNILAD | 4 Oct 2015

“My anxiety developed when I was diagnosed with epilepsy eleven years ago,” explained Nick*, as he led me on a nature trail to a mushroom picking hotspot in Yorkshire.

“But I never really recognised my problem until I got knocked off my bike two years ago. I had 15 staples in my head and was hospitalised for three days. That brought it to the forefront. I realised I had quite a bad anxiety problem.”

Nick, 29, forms part of a growing subculture of people who are self-medicating their mental health issues with psilocybin – the naturally occurring psychedelic compound within magic mushrooms – while risking up to seven years in prison. With his tightly knotted hiking boots, army-green waterproof jacket and large rucksack, he looks like any other early morning rambler.

Nick’s Story

“I first tried magic mushrooms with a couple of friends eight years ago. Years later I read Professor Nutt’s book Drugs Without the Hot Air and was interested to learn about the links between psilocybin, anxiety and depression. After reading that book I decided to start foraging for mushrooms myself."

“From my own experience, it does have a positive effect on anxiety. As soon as I ‘come down’ off the mushrooms, any thoughts of anxiety that are going through my mind immediately evaporate. It just goes in an instant… melts away. The feeling of wellbeing lasts a month or two until something, usually an epileptic fit, will trigger off the negative thoughts again."

“After doing some research online, so I knew what I was looking for, I managed to find a couple of local fields that I forage on when the season comes."

“During the off-season I have had to find other avenues to get hold of mushrooms, including ordering them online or buying ones grown indoors. But for me nothing beats the romance of picking my own medication. Psychedelics are something that I’ve grown to respect, so I mainly leave it to the season, as I don’t want to overdo it and it lose the effect."

“I think they have a great potential for naturally treating mental health issues without using synthetic drugs, which invariably come with a string of nasty side effects.”

Mushrooms and The Media

“What we’re looking at is a largely unexplored technology for brain science — it was discovered in the 1940s, set the psychiatry world ablaze in the 1950s, and was aborted by widespread recreational abuse, the reaction of the media and its confluence with the Vietnam war,” argues David Nichols, a Purdue University pharmacologist, in an article for the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

James Rucker, a leading psychiatrist at King’s College London, recently spoke out against the law surrounding psychedelic drugs, which he believes is hampering research into their prospective medicinal benefits. On psilocybin and LSD, he said he believes the Government should ‘downgrade their unnecessarily restrictive class-A’, citing that they were ‘extensively used and researched in clinical psychiatry’ before their prohibition in 1967.

A profoundly spiritual event

One of the first studies in 40 years into the therapeutic effects of psilocybin was conducted by Roland Griffiths, of Johns Hopkins University in the US, and more than half of participants said the experience was among ‘the most significant of their lives’. The 2008 study, which was published in Journal of Psychopharmacology, took a sample of 36 participants who had never used the drug before. Six were given a placebo drug and the rest 30 milligrams of pure psilocybin.

The volunteers in the psilocybin condition widely reported positive experiences — repeatedly described as a ‘sense of unity’. The experience was generally described as a profound spiritual event. Fourteen months after the clinical trial, over half of the participants in the psilocybin condition reported substantial increases in life satisfaction and positive behaviour. No negative experiences were noted whatsoever.

Concern over triggering pre-existing psychosis

Despite these findings shedding some much needed light on the topic, it’s useful to note that generalising these findings across society would be difficult due to the small sample and the fact that prospective volunteers with personal or family histories of psychotic disorders were disqualified from taking part. In an accompanying article, Griffiths acknowledges that while being physiologically non-toxic and non-addictive, users of psilocybin may experience short-term stress and panic or trigger pre-existing psychosis.

There is little evidence that psilocybin is unsafe in a controlled setting, and even less evidence that it has addictive potential – or is even habitual at all – but plenty of evidence that suggests its prospective therapeutic benefits.

Taking that into account, isn’t it time that we let go of old prejudices and loosen the laws surrounding psilocybin in medical research? I say yes. Mental health is one of the most important issues of our times; we should be pouring funding into studies on how to treat it, instead of hampering the scientists.

The human race have reaped the rewards of the these psychoactive mushrooms for millennia, since they grew in the Elysian fields of Greece, yet we still know very little about how they work, or how they can benefit us. It seems that until we wise up, people like Nick, an otherwise totally law abiding citizen, will continue to break the law.

https://www.unilad.co.uk/featured/w...eats-his-severe-anxiety-with-magic-mushrooms/​

 

[mr peabody]

How I freed myself from anxiety with iboga

reset.me

About 7 months ago I developed anxiety. It started off with a feeling of tightness in my head and soon developed into panic attacks. I was feeling like a prisoner inside my own mind. I was so hard and unpleasant to live that I was having suicidal thoughts. The anxiety persisted, and I was walking around so hyped all the time I started suffering from hypervigilance. I would see distortions and trails in my vision and I would hear buzzing and beeping sounds, and I somehow managed to convince myself that it was the beginning of schizophrenia. I started worrying that I would lose my job and all my friends and end up in a mental asylum.

At some point I set myself a goal to become free from anxiety no matter how long it would take or how hard it would be to achieve this goal.

After reading about Aubrey Marcus? experience with iboga I decided that I owe it to myself to give it a try. I did some research and decided on an ibogaine facilitator in Thailand. After making contact with him, I was asked to provide a bit of information about myself and the reasons for wanting to do ibogaine. I also had to go and do an ECG and a blood test to prove that my heart and liver were healthy.

My clinic constantly checked my blood pressure, breathing and heart rate. They explained what to expect for the next 24 hours and I took a test dose to make sure my body did not have any adverse reactions to ibogaine. When the test dose was fine, I took the flood dose which consisted of 8 large capsules and lied down in my bed with a towel over my eyes to help with the light sensitivity that was to come.

About an hour later I noticed the ibogaine coming on when I started hearing mechanical sounds. It sounded like a drill or a whipper snipper outside of the hotel room. For the next 8 hours I experienced seeing geometric patterns similar to those that you would see on Ayahusca. I was expecting to feel extremely noxious after reading dozens of peoples testimonials about ibogaine but the feeling never came. At times I would notice how weak and how slow my heart beat was and how shallow my breathing was. I remember thinking to myself: "My body is in such a weak state right now that I wouldn't be surprised if I don't get through this experience."

Late into the night I started having extremely vivid visions. They were as real as reality itself. So realistic that I completely forgot I was on ibogaine. All of the visions had a cartoony look to them. I remember seeing beautiful lightning bolts and gorgeous flowers and thinking to myself: I've never seen anything more beautiful in my life.? There were two medieval beings who were helping me process childhood traumas and told me some things about my future. In hindsight, after having time to reflect on this experience I believe the visions were a way for my subconscious mind to communicate with me to tell me where I went wrong and what I needed to do to fix it.

After 20 hours the sun began to rise and the visions wore off, they were so real that I was convinced that I actually experienced them in the physical realm. When they said I would be left on on my own for a couple of hours I was feeling scared because I was afraid to be left alone with the beings that I had encountered. Soon after this I got up to go to the toilet for the first time in 20 hours or so. Once I got up I started feeling noxious and immediately purged. The after taste of purging ibogaine was very sour however it was not anywhere near as foul as the taste of purging ayahuasca.

A few hours later, I had a shower and was back in bed as I was feeling very weak. Sasha came over and we had a discussion about what had occurred over the past 24 hours. He told me it would be normal to feel depressed over the next 2 days and that I might have trouble sleeping. He gave me a bunch of vitamins to help regulate the brain chemistry and to assist with sleep. I felt no depression at all, and there was no trace of anxiety. For the next 4 days I mostly rested in my hotel room. When I went outside I would experience a whistling sound in my ears and a feeling of as though there was an aura around me. Sasha told me this was normal after taking ibogaine. I did not get much sleep but when I did sleep I had extremely vivid dreams.

After I returned home I started noticing the anxiety slowly coming back but I didn't worry. I started reading books and watching videos on the power of the subconscious mind and positive thinking. It's been two and a half months since my ibogaine journey and my anxiety is barely noticeable and I fully believe that being anxiety free is a reality with an imminent arrival. I feel extremely motivated to be the best me I can, and to pursue all my dreams and goals until they become a reality. Taking ibogaine was a very powerful experience which shifted my outlook on life in a positive direction. Having 12 previous ayahuasca ceremonies to compare to my ibogaine journey I feel that ibogaine should be in its own category of psychedelics. I feel it was a much more effective and powerful tool for my problems. It was such a direct experience, I felt like I went deep inside my subconscious.

I am cognizant of always saturating my mind with positive thoughts and my outlook for the future is very positive. I know that everything is going to be just fine. The 24-hour trip was nowhere near as arduous as I expected, and I would recommend ibogaine to anyone that needs a positive shift in their life.

http://reset.me/personal-story/perso...ty-with-iboga/​

 

[mr peabody]

Ketamine and anxiety

reset.me | 7 Apr 2016

Approximately 1/3 to 1/2 of patients with generalized Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) do not experience adequate clinical benefit from current evidence-based treatment for SAD.

This includes treatment with conventional approaches such as SSRIs or venlafaxine, and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Failure of anxiety relief in patients with SAD is a source of substantial morbidity, distress, and decreases in quality of life.

Symptoms

Feelings of shyness or discomfort in certain situations aren’t necessarily signs of social anxiety disorder, particularly in children. Comfort levels in social situations vary, depending on the individual’s personality traits and life experiences. Some people are naturally reserved and others are more outgoing.

In contrast to everyday nervousness, social anxiety disorder includes fear, anxiety and avoidance that interferes with your daily routine, work, school or other activities.

Emotional and behavioral symptoms

Signs and symptoms of social anxiety disorder can include persistent:

• Fear of situations in which you may be judged
• Worrying about embarrassing or humiliating yourself
• Concern that you’ll offend someone
• Intense fear of interacting or talking with strangers
• Fear that others will notice that you look anxious

• Fear of physical symptoms that may cause you embarrassment, such as blushing, sweating, trembling or having a shaky voice
• Avoiding doing things or speaking to people out of fear of embarrassment
• Avoiding situations where you might be the center of attention
• Having anxiety in anticipation of a feared activity or event
• Spending time after a social situation analyzing your performance and identifying flaws in your interactions
• Expecting the worst possible consequences from a negative experience during a social situation

For children, anxiety about interacting with adults or peers may be shown by crying, having temper tantrums, clinging to parents or refusing to speak in social situations.

Performance type of social anxiety disorder is when you experience intense fear and anxiety only during speaking or performing in public, but not in other types of social situations.

Physical symptoms

Physical signs and symptoms can sometimes accompany social anxiety disorder and may include:

• Fast heartbeat
• Upset stomach or nausea
• Trouble catching your breath
• Dizziness or lightheadedness
• Confusion or feeling “out of body”
• Diarrhea
• Muscle tension

Avoiding normal social situations

Common, everyday experiences that may be hard to endure when you have social anxiety disorder include, for example:

• Using a public restroom
• Interacting with strangers
• Eating in front of others
• Making eye contact
• Initiating conversations
• Dating
• Attending parties or social gatherings
• Going to work or school
• Entering a room in which people are already seated
• Returning items to a store

Social anxiety disorder symptoms can change over time. They may flare up if you’re facing a lot of stress or demands. Although avoiding anxiety-producing situations may make you feel better in the short term, your anxiety is likely to persist over the long term if you don’t get treatment.

Ketamine

Converging lines of evidence from neuroimaging and pharmacological studies support the importance of glutamate abnormalities in the pathogenesis of SAD. In a previously conducted clinical study, an elevated glutamate to creatinine ratio was found in the anterior cingulate cortex of SAD patients when compared to healthy controls. Elevated brain glutamine levels have also been demonstrated in patients with SAD. Moreover, nonclinical rodent studies have established a strong link between glutamate regulation and anxiety.

Ketamine is a potent antagonist of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, a major type of glutamate receptor in the brain. Ketamine is routinely used for anesthetic induction because of its dissociative properties. However in research studies and in some physician accounts of off-label clinical use, ketamine is an effective treatment for reducing symptoms of depressive and anxiety disorders. In multiple controlled clinical studies, ketamine has produced a rapid antidepressant effect in unipolar and bipolar depression. Ketamine’s anti-depressant effects peak 1-3 days following infusion and is observed long after ketamine has been metabolized and excreted by the body and after ketamine’s sedative and dissociative effects have dissipated.

The results of several clinical studies suggest that ketamine may also have significant anxiolytic effects. Patients with major depressive disorder given a single ketamine infusion have shown strong and significant reductions in comorbid anxiety symptoms. A trial including 11 depressed patients demonstrated a significant reduction in anxiety symptoms (Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A)) following ketamine infusion. This improvement is supported by one of the earlier placebo-controlled trials of ketamine which demonstrated that the psychic anxiety item was one of 4 (out of 21) items on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D) demonstrating significant improvement after ketamine infusion.

https://www.ivketamine.com/anxiety/​

 

[mr peabody]

Here's what MDMA did for my anxiety that meds couldn't

by Suzannah Weiss | VICE | May 24 2018

"I don’t have an opinion on what anyone else should do, but numbing the fear was not the answer for me."

I was 17 when I was first prescribed Prozac for anxiety. I had an eating disorder at the time, and a psychiatrist thought it might reduce my self-starvation and self-induced vomiting. It didn’t do much, and I ended up a year later in residential treatment, where a psychiatrist increased my dosage.

That’s when I started feeling the effects—both wanted and unwanted. I began making enough progress with my eating disorder recovery to leave treatment and go to college. But I also got really tired all the time despite sleeping ten hours a night, and always felt like my brain was in a fog. The bad times weren’t as bad, but the good times weren’t as good. A new psychiatrist switched me to Zoloft, but I felt no difference.

When I was 24, I went off Zoloft almost accidentally. I’d moved to a new city and didn’t find a new psychiatrist in time to get it refilled. Once I got through a few days without it, I decided to see if I could make it longer. Mental health professionals don’t recommend this; they recommend tapering off gradually—and I can see why. I was constantly irritable. But I also felt more energetic, more alert, more awake, and more alive. I didn’t want to go back.

A lot changed during those first few months off Zoloft. My abundance of energy led me to get involved in everything from rock climbing to psychology classes. My newfound angst helped me realize I wasn’t satisfied with my 9 to 5 office job, which marked the beginning of my writing career. Within six months, I’d become a full-time freelance writer, amazing people by writing an absurd number of articles (my record is 18 in one day), often taking two or three remote jobs with the exact same hours and working so quickly nobody knew my attention was divided. I thrived off this challenge, fueled by a frantic fear of not living up to my potential. My anxiety was my secret weapon, I realized. It came from the same source as my drive.

The flip side of this energy surge was that I was getting increasingly obsessive. Within two years of going off meds, I was compulsively working more than 15 hours a day, saving money to the point of foregoing meals and doctors’ appointments, and making myself throw up almost daily. Behind my facade of perfection and success, I secretly prayed something would save me from myself, but I didn’t know what could.

I’ll be forever grateful that around that time, I was invited on a work trip to the music festival EDC Vegas, where a new friend casually mentioned that she had molly. I’d recently read about a small but impressive study in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, which found that 83 percent of PTSD patients who received MDMA-assisted therapy were symptom-free after a year. I also read that studies were underway to treat social anxiety and the anxiety associated with life-threatening illnesses using MDMA.

My knowledge of MDMA’s therapeutic potential sparked my curiosity, and I asked my new friend if I could try it. On a rooftop overlooking the festival, she put a small amount in my hand (I don’t know how much, but she deemed it a “microdose”), and I felt it almost immediately. That night became my own unsupervised therapy session of sorts as I explained to her that workaholism, disordered eating, and compulsive saving were all the same: ways to feel good about myself. In that moment, though, I had self-esteem without any of those things. I saw I didn’t need them.

The next day, I dropped a client that had been mistreating me and decided to use my newfound free time to join a friend on a trip to Ibiza. On my first night there, I took my first non-micro dose of MDMA in the form of half an ecstasy pill. With confidence I didn’t normally possess, I approached the guy who’s now my boyfriend, and I spent the rest of the trip with him. On the plane ride home—my serotonin levels likely still elevated from rolling three nights in a row—I had an epiphany: All the perceived limitations in my life were self-imposed. I decided there and then to leave my New York apartment, travel, and pursue this new love interest, despite the fact that he lived in Germany.

I didn’t use MDMA again for the rest of the summer, but it was as if the effects remained. I still worked a ton—but out of enthusiasm rather than nervousness—and the work was punctuated with travel, dates, and adventures. I began spending money on myself, and I stopped making myself throw up. While SSRIs had decreased the overall intensity of my emotions, my experience with MDMA had preserved the intensity of my fear and shame—but added equally intense excitement and happiness.

It’s not unusual for a single psychedelic experience to have long-lasting effects on someone with anxiety, says James Giordano, professor of neurology and biochemistry at Georgetown University Medical Center. “Psychedelics tend to take the brain's default network offline, which allows for a reset in the pattern of neurological activations of specific nodes and networks,” he explains. Or, to put it in more understandable terms, “Think of an old record vinyl. Think of the needle being stuck on one track and playing one tune. Psychedelics lift off the stylus and put it back down so it can play other tunes.”

Over the course of the following two years, I used MDMA a few more times and gained similar benefits from magic mushrooms and ayahuasca. I should mention that this wasn’t at all a risk-free decision. Overuse or misuse of MDMA can lead to sleep problems, urinary problems, and in severe cases, cognitive impairment. Overdosing on psychedelics can put you at risk for serotonin syndrome, and long-term overuse of hallucinogens can lead to trip flashbacks. You can also do dangerous things when you’re under the influence of a drug, since you may lose touch with reality.

In the clinical settings where psychedelics are being tested for therapeutic use, these risks are lower because the drugs’ dose and purity, along with your environment, are controlled. Unfortunately, these settings weren’t accessible to me, and like many people, I took risks to gain the mental health benefits of these substances.

And the benefits felt plentiful. Psychedelics put me in touch with a more compassionate, open-hearted side of myself that I’d muted over the years. Before discovering them, I didn’t even know I had that side. I was narrowly focused on success and money, and looked out for myself above all else. It was on ayahuasca that I realized this attitude came from fear—and that this fear came from societal and familial influences. I realized I was not born anxious. Separating my anxiety from myself has helped me not give into it.

"This is another way psychedelics may help some people with anxiety: by making unconscious thoughts and feelings conscious so that we can see what thought patterns are standing in our way," says Giordano. “Once you reset the default network and you begin to engage a distinct pattern of cognition, that pattern can also be somewhat more receptive and responsive to certain aspects of emotion that were not being processed on the conscious level.”

Life inside my head isn't always easy. But ultimately I saw myself faced with two options: Numbing the fear, or building up the joy and love that are even greater than the fear. I don’t have an opinion on what anyone else should do, but numbing the fear was not the answer for me—because I ended up numbing everything else along with it.

If I’d never found psychedelics, I probably would have either remained trapped within my own compulsions, driven by fear of inadequacy, or gone back to medication that muted these feelings without really addressing their roots. I would have stayed asleep. Now, I’m awake. To everything. The good and the bad. And I want to feel it all.

https://tonic.vice.com/en_us/articl...n-he-treated-his-autism-symptoms-with-shrooms​

 

[mr peabody]

Microdosing might help ease anxiety and sharpen focus

by Blake Eligh, University of Toronto

A new study that examines how and why people microdose and the reported effects of the practice. According to study co-author Thomas Anderson, it is the first study of its kind.

Anderson is a PhD candidate and cognitive neuroscientist with the Regulatory and Affective Dynamics (RAD) Lab of psychology professor Norman Farb. His main research focuses on attention and meta-awareness, however, Anderson's interest in the study of microdosing was inspired by a professional literature review group where he noticed there were plenty of anecdotal reports but a dearth of scientific research into the practice.

"There's currently a renaissance going on in psychedelic research with pilot trials and promising studies of full-dose MDMA (ecstasy) use for post-traumatic stress disorder and of psilocybin use within healthy populations or to treat depression and end-of-life anxiety," Anderson says. "There hasn't been the same research focus on microdosing. We didn't have answers to the most basic epidemiological questions—who is doing this and what are they doing?"

In 2017, Anderson launched a collaborative investigation with Rotem Petranker, a graduate student studying social psychology with York University's Department of Psychology, UTSC psychology student Le-Ahn Dinh-Williams and a team of psychiatrists from Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Anderson and Petranker targeted microdosing communities on reddit and other social media channels with an anonymous online survey that queried participants about the quantity and frequency of their psychedelic use, reasons for microdosing, effect on mood, focus and creativity, and the benefits and drawbacks of the practice. The survey, which ran from September to November 2017, drew more than 1,390 initial responses, with 909 respondents completing all questions. Two-thirds of the group were currently practicing microdosers, or had some past experience. "We wanted to ensure the results produced a good basis for future psychedelic science," Anderson says.

The data yielded interesting results, including important information about how much of the drug participants were taking, which had previously been unknown. "Typical doses aren't well established," Anderson says. "We think it's about 10 mcg or one-tenth of an LSD tab, or 0.2 grams of dried mushrooms. Those amounts are close to what participants reported in our data." The data also revealed information about frequency of use. Most of the microdosers reported taking the drug once every three days, while a small group microdosed once a week.

Qualitative data from the survey revealed that microdosers reported positive effects of the practice including migraine reduction, improved focus and productivity, and better connection with others. In quantitative results, microdosers scored lower than non-microdosing respondents on negative emotionality and dysfunctional attitude.

Microdosing respondents also reported a number of drawbacks. "The most prevalently reported drawback was not an outcome of microdosing, but instead dealt with illegality, stigma and substance unreliability," Anderson says. "Users engage in black market criminalized activities to obtain psychedelics. If you're buying what your dealer says is LSD, it could very well be something else." Anderson adds a standard caveat about safety. "We wouldn't suggest that people microdose, but if they are going to, they should use Erlich reagent (a drug testing solution) to ensure they are not getting something other than LSD."

Dose accuracy was another issue. "With microdoses, there should be no 'trip' and no hallucinations," Anderson says. "The idea is to enhance something about one's daily activities, but it can be very difficult to divide a 2-cm square of LSD blotting paper into 10 equal doses. The LSD might not be evenly distributed on the square and a microdoser could accidentally 'trip' by taking too much or not take enough."

Anderson and Petranker recently presented their findings at the "Beyond Psychedelics" conference in Prague, which drew researchers, physicians, mental health practitioners, policy makers, and technology and business participants from around the globe. The team will publish results from the survey in three upcoming research papers that will cover the survey results, psychiatric diagnosis analysis, and the benefits and drawbacks of microdosing.

"The goal of the study was to create a foundation that could support future work in this area, so I'm really excited about what these results can offer future research," Anderson says. "The benefits and drawbacks data will help ensure we can ask meaningful questions about what participants are reporting. Our future research will involve running lab-based randomized-control trials where psychedelics are administered in controlled environments. This will help us to better characterize the therapeutic and cognitive-enhancing effects of psychedelics in very small doses."

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-...y-sharpen.html​

 

[mr peabody]

5-MeO-DMT may rapidly improve anxiety

by Michelle Lyon | April 6, 2019

Anxiety and depression are considered among the most debilitating medical conditions of our times. Both have the power to strip an individual of their vitality, physical health and every essence of what it means to be a joyful human being. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 300 million people worldwide suffer from depression. It’s also the world’s leading cause of disability. Suicide rates have skyrocketed an astounding 30% since year 2000 despite the fact that the use of prescription antidepressants has gone up an alarming 400%.

Researchers at John Hopkins may have discovered a fast-acting treatment for the millions of sufferers of mental health disorders. A new study has founf that use of the synthetic psychedelic 5-methocy-N,-N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT) appears to be analogous with improvements in self-reported depression and anxiety when given in a ceremonial setting with guidance and support before, during and after taking it.

Of the 362 adults surveyed, approximately 80% reported improvements in anxiety and depression following one 5-MeO-DMT ceremony. Participants on average were given doses of 5mg to more than 15mg of vaporized 5-MeO-DMT, depending on their prior psychedelic experience.

Most of the people in the study attended the ceremonies for spiritual purposes. The psychological improvements were an unintended benefit of the intensely profound mystical experiences- 73% regarded their first 5-MeO-DMT experience as among the top 5 or single most meaningful experience of their lives.

The authors of the study believe the short duration of psychedelic effects, 30-90 minutes, makes 5-MeO-DMT a more favorable and practical psychedelic to be consumed during psychotherapy sessions. “Research has shown that psychedelics given alongside psychotherapy help people with depression and anxiety. However, psychedelic sessions usually require 7—8 hours per session because psychedelics typically have a long duration of action,” states Alan K. Davis, Ph.D., postdoctoral research fellow in the Behavioral Research Unit, at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

5-MeO-DMT is found naturally in high concentrations within the venom of the Colorado River Toad (Bufo alvarius). Scientists have been able to produce it synthetically in a lab. The synthetic version was used for this study. Prior research by Davis has shown the substance has a low risk for adverse health consequences.

5-MeO-DMT is by far the most potent of all psychedelic medicines. Users find that they completely disassociate from their body and the ego is completely dissolved. For this reason, consuming the medicine should not be taken lightly. As was done in the study, it is advisable to use 5-MeO-DMT with a guide, along with integrative therapy before and after the ceremony. Intention and set/setting are imperative to gain the most profound healing from all psychedelics.

Current findings on the positive benefits of this psychedelic are rather impressive and justify the need for future study. “It is important to examine the short and long-term effects of 5-MeO-DMT, which may enhance mood in general or may be particularly mood enhancing for those individuals experiencing clinically significant negative mood,” says Davis. “Regardless, this research is in its infancy and further investigation is warranted in healthy volunteers.”

Study: 5-MeO-DMT May Rapidly Improve Anxiety and Depression - Reset.me

Anxiety and depression are considered one of the most debilitating medical conditions of our times. Both have the power to strip an individual of their vitality, physical health and every essence of what it means to be a joyful human being. The World Health Organization estimates that more than...

reset.me

 

[mr peabody]

Treating anxiety with CBD

The biggest challenge I’ve found with CBD is finding the right dosage. Kicking my SSRIs and opioids to the curb was the best decision I’ve made in years!

The NCBI study states that: “We found that existing preclinical evidence strongly supports CBD as a treatment for generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, OCD and PTSD when administered acutely.”

My recommendation is to start low, and move slowly, and give CBD the chance to work. It’s not THC, it doesn’t hit you immediately.

Chad Waldman

-----

At a certain dose, CBD can help people control or even reduce the levels of stress they experience. CBD has been proven to help people handle all different kinds of emotional conditions including anxiety, fear and stress. CBD is able to control these emotions by focusing on the certain role of neurotransmitters called monoamines which are the transmitters responsible for releasing vital hormones such as dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine, which all play an important role in helping control anxiety levels.

Chris Van Dusen

-----

If you are in a situation where you can consume THC with CBD, I suggest a 1:1 or 1:2 ratio with all the other cannabinoids still intact. What some people do is take CBD during the day so they can function, and a combination of THC/CBD in the evening.

Andrew Havens

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I have been using CBD oil for over two years now. I usually vape my CBD oil for fast absorption in my body. I usually take CBD for my anxiety. I have social anxiety, I get nervous around customers, I get panic attacks as well. But since I am using the CBD oil, my anxiety is at bay. I would say CBD + THC both are best for pain relief.

Andrew Flit

-----

I have personally experienced so much relief with my CBD oil for my severe anxiety. I’ve been able to cut way back on my prescription medication and I hope to be completely off here in another month or so. One thing I would caution is that not all CBD oils are the same. While some may work for a time they tend to level out. Make sure you are getting one that is water soluble since our bodies are made mostly of water. There are a few companies out there that have engineered their oils to mix with the body.

Kathy Poole​

 

[mr peabody]

Psychedelics shown to relieve anxiety

MAPS

Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News highlights recent breakthroughs in psychedelic research, noting that studies into the therapeutic potential of LSD, MDMA, ayahuasca, and psilocybin have reached a level of prominence unseen in decades. In it, Brad Burge of MAPS speaks about the fading taboo surrounding psychedelic, how MAPS’ psychedelic research is funded entirely by donations, and how further research into psychedelic-assisted therapy may reveal beneficial uses for treating PTSD and other medical conditions.

In a widely publicized study released earlier this month, a research team led by Peter Gasser, M.D., of the Medical Office for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy in Solothurn, Switzerland, found that of 12 patients with life-threatening illnesses, all eight receiving the drug showed statistically significant reductions in standard anxiety measures. The study, published in The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, was the first in 40 years to evaluate LSD’s safety and efficacy as an adjunct to psychotherapy.

“When administered safely in a methodically rigorous medically supervised psychotherapeutic setting, LSD can reduce anxiety, suggesting that larger controlled studies are warranted,” Dr. Gasser and colleagues concluded.

Before treatment, patients received two preparatory psychotherapy sessions including discussion of their health, history, mindset, personality, and social and emotional situations. “This is an absolutely important part of the treatment,” Dr. Gasser told GEN. “Building up a confidential relationship is the basis of psychedelic therapy.”

Four patients taking much weaker LSD dosages showed about the same anxiety levels, though Dr. Gasser cautioned the sample size was too small for generalization.

“What the minimum dosage for psychotherapeutic effectiveness is we don’t know exactly. The threshold dose is between 20 and 50 mcg, and I guess that the minimum dose for psychotherapy is about 100 mcg. 200 mcg, the dose of our study, is supposed to be a medium-high dose,” Dr. Gasser said.

"A follow-up study assessing interviews and anxiety testing after 12 months will soon be published," he added.

Brad Burge, a spokesman for MAPS, told GEN the study not only shattered a longstanding taboo but launched a new era of research into LSD-assisted psychotherapy. “The breakthrough is that this is the first double-blind, placebo-controlled study administering LSD in humans,” Burge said.

“This is the first completed study of LSD that was explicitly designed to help develop LSD into a legal prescription treatment.”

Dr. Gasser’s study isn’t the first to link LSD to a medical benefit. Two years ago Teri S. Krebs, Ph.D., and Pal-Orjan Johanssen, Ph.D., both of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, concluded a single dose of LSD helped reduce alcohol abuse as early as one month afterward, and most often two and six months afterward. The findings, published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, followed a review of six clinical trials with a combined 536 participants.

“We need further data on whether subgroups of individuals exist for whom LSD presents an increased beneficial effect or risk for adverse events. Future clinical trials could combine a range of doses of LSD with current evidence-based alcohol relapse prevention treatments,” Drs. Krebs and Johanssen concluded in the study. “As an alternative to LSD, it may be worthwhile to evaluate shorter-acting psychedelics, such as mescaline, psilocybin, or dimethyltryptamine.”

Psilocybin has come under review in a handful of studies for its benefits in calming users—especially military members with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Last year in the Journal of Experimental Brain Research, researchers observed that mice injected with a range of psilocybin doses acquired a robust conditioned fear response—while mice with lower doses extinguished their conditioning significantly faster than mice treated with higher doses or saline. The study noted that psilocybin’s ability to extinguish fear conditioning may be affected by its actions at sites other than the hippocampus—such as the amygdala, known to mediate the perception of fear. Also, psilocybin is not purely selective for 5-HT2A receptors.

https://maps.org/news/media/5000-psychedelics-shown-to-relieve-anxiety​

 

[mr peabody]

Treating anxiety with psychedelics

Many people find their day-to-day experience of life is filled with anxiety, limiting the activities they do and the enjoyment they have in life. Psychedelics like mushrooms and LSD have been used for decades to treat anxiety disorders and to reduce anxiety levels.

For some, these substances seem to directly alleviate feelings of anxiety, even at very low doses. For others, psychedelics help them explore the root causes of their anxieties and find peace with them, a new touchstone for letting go of anxiety.

This description may sound abstract to someone suffering from anxiety. The healing process can be a little difficult to convey. Recent clinical research has shown dramatic reductions in anxiety even after a single psychedelic experience. Psilocybin enables patients facing the anxiety of terminal illness to embrace their fate and find peace with their loved ones.

Here is one woman's story of being treated with mushrooms as she was facing death, described in a New York Times article:

Norbert Litzinger remembers picking up his wife from the medical center after her first session and seeing that this deeply distressed woman was now "glowing from the inside out." Before she died, she described her psilocybin experience on video:

"I felt this lump of emotions welling up . . almost like an entity," Sakuda said. "I started to cry . . Everything was concentrated and came welling up and then . . it started to dissipate, and I started to look at it differently . . I began to realize that all of this negative fear and guilt was such a hindrance . . to making the most of and enjoying the healthy time that I'm having." Sakuda went on to explain that, under the influence of the psilocybin, she "came to a very visceral understanding that there was a present, a now," and that it was hers to have.

What is so remarkable is that even a single dose of a psychedelic substance can create long lasting changes, reducing anxiety, depression, and creating more emotional openness. LSD, MDMA, and psilocybin have all been studied for anxiety reduction. Remember that a psychedelic experience can sometimes produce anxiety or can focus the mind on sources of anxiety, as part of the process of addressing the root causes. Starting with small doses and following all the safety guidelines can help reduce anxiety.

http://howtousepsychedelics.org/anxiety/​

 

[mr peabody]

Ibogaine rescued me from overwhelming anxiety

By Holly Stein

For the last 12 years I've battled with general anxiety and have taken a variety of pharmaceuticals (which either didn't help, made me feel better but disconnected, or left me feeling worse than before as soon as I stopped taking them). I've been to hundreds of hours of therapy and spent countless hours reading self-help books.

I had ups and downs over the years, and after a steady improvement I weaned off an anti-depressant and anti-anxiety medication with the support of my psychiatrist in January of 2012. In July 2013, I had my first panic attack since I was 18, and after that my anxiety escalated tremendously. It felt like everything started to make me panic, and I started to slowly lose my confidence and ability to function. From suffering and feeling massive anxiety throughout my whole wedding day, to panicking on chair lifts snowboarding and developing anxiety on airplanes and boats, I started to lose the ability to do things I enjoyed. Worse yet, everyday normal things started to fall apart, from getting in elevators, not being able to be a passenger in a car, being scared of getting sick after eating, and much more. I felt like the walls were closing in on me. I was physically and mentally sick with anxiety all of the time.

I've had multiple weddings where I've sat outside an elevator for 10 minutes trying to will myself to get in, only to end up carrying my emergency kits up and down many flights of stairs. Nothing helped, and the anxiety led me to an onslaught of severe depression and dependency on my husband. I felt like the only thing I was good at was faking it. There was rarely a day that went by that I didn't crawl into a ball in my bedroom and sob uncontrollably from depression. But as soon as I was in front of other people, at work, I could lock it up and put on the best fake smile around, which only made me feel worse.

I developed an extreme identity of self-loathing and was unable to control my emotions. I took every comment personally and blamed myself for everything that happened. About once a week someone would tell me to eat a cheeseburger or that I was too skinny, and while I would laugh it off, it left me feeling crushed and insecure that people thought I was ugly. I knew things were starting to unravel pretty badly when I started having suicidal thoughts. It got so bad that I had to ask my husband to get the gun out of the house because I really didn't know what I was capable of when I was in those dark moments. However, rationally and logically, I knew everything. I knew to be positive, and to not say the word can't, and all of the most important tools to change these horrific mental habits, but I somehow lacked the ability to convert them into usable feelings and thoughts. And I knew I wasn't a quitter.

During months of research I learned that psychedelics have an unbelievable success rate in curing anxiety, depression, PTSD and other mental struggles when used in the correct setting. I followed people like Amber Lyon and Aubrey Marcus and I discovered the medicine, iboga, the bark of a root from Africa that has been used medicinally for hundreds, if not thousands of years. I then found a retreat overseas and researched and talked to them for months before booking a psycho-spiritual session with them.

From the moment I arrived, I could feel the medicine was working on me. During my stay I did two sessions with iboga, which we call journeys. They last about 10 hours each. The results were nothing short of life-saving. From the two journeys I had, I experienced visions that showed me where all of my anxiety, depression, insecurity, and self-loathing stemmed from when I was 9 years old. It showed me that I was beautiful, that I loved myself, and that I had everything I needed to overcome all of my struggles and fears, and that I could do it. It let me take all of the knowledge that I had and finally convert it into usable emotions and thoughts. Iboga is not a magic plant that solves all of your problems, but rather a tool that gives you the insight to conquer your demons. It was by far the toughest week I have ever gone through, but it was the most rewarding, life-changing weeks of my life and I would do it over a million times.

So many of us battle with insecurity, anxiety, and depression, and we bury them deep inside as not to show weakness. I know, I was the best at it. Many people reading this will probably think, No way, she always seemed so happy. If I can inspire just one person to keep going, or inspire one person to try iboga, or inspire just one person to know they are not alone, that is more than I could ever ask for. Also, for those not suffering, please try to keep in mind that everyone is on their own path in life, doing the best they can, so be kind, and do your best to reserve judgment. What you see on the surface may not be the whole story. One kind comment can give someone the encouragement to keep going, while one hurtful comment can spiral someones entire day into depression. It's happened to me a lot.

Lastly, I want to thank my husband, for all of the support and love he provided me through what was the darkest year of my life, which I know caused him tremendous pain at times as well. I also want to thank the providers at the retreat. You guys literally saved my life, and I will be forever grateful. I consider you all a part of my family, and you will all be forever in my heart. You guys know more about me than some of my closest friends, and I know I will never be able to repay you for what you've done for me. Know that I will be thinking of you often.

So, while 2014 was the worst year of my life, I can finally see that you can't appreciate the good without the bad. I feel as if I've been to mental hell and back, and know that 2015 will bring (and already has), strength, love, inner-beauty, and the ability to conquer all challenges that come my way.

For the first time in my life I can say that I am genuinely happy and it feels incredible! I have finally found the meaning of life.

Iboga Rescued Me From Overwhelming Anxiety And The Darkest Year Of My Life - Reset.me

I followed people like Amber Lyon and Aubrey Marcus and discovered the medicine, Iboga, which is the bark of a root from Africa that has been used medicinally for hundreds, if not thousands of years.

reset.me

 

[mr peabody]

Anxiety might be treated by regulating gut bacteria

Neuroscience News | May 26, 2019

A new meta-analysis study reports regulating intestinal microbiota is more than 50% effective at helping to reduce anxiety.

People who experience anxiety symptoms might be helped by taking steps to regulate the microorganisms in their gut using probiotic and non-probiotic food and supplements, suggests a review of studies published today in the journal General Psychiatry.

Anxiety symptoms are common in people with mental diseases and a variety of physical disorders, especially in disorders that are related to stress.

Previous studies have shown that as many as a third of people will be affected by anxiety symptoms during their lifetime.

Increasingly, research has indicated that gut microbiota — the trillions of microorganisms in the gut which perform important functions in the immune system and metabolism by providing essential inflammatory mediators, nutrients and vitamins — can help regulate brain function through something called the “gut-brain axis.”

Recent research also suggests that mental disorders could be treated by regulating the intestinal microbiota, but there is no specific evidence to support this.

Therefore a team of researchers from the Shanghai Mental Health Center at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine set out to investigate if there was evidence to support improvement of anxiety symptoms by regulating intestinal microbiota.

They reviewed 21 studies that had looked at 1,503 people collectively.

Of the 21 studies, 14 had chosen probiotics as interventions to regulate intestinal microbiota (IRIFs), and seven chose non-probiotic ways, such as adjusting daily diets.

Probiotics are living organisms found naturally in some foods that are also known as “good” or “friendly” bacteria because they fight against harmful bacteria and prevent them from settling in the gut.

The researchers found that probiotic supplements in seven studies within their analysis contained only one kind of probiotic, two studies used a product that contained two kinds of probiotics, and the supplements used in the other five studies included at least three kinds.

Overall, 11 of the 21 studies showed a positive effect on anxiety symptoms by regulating intestinal microbiota, meaning that more than half (52 percent of the studies showed this approach to be effective, although some studies that had used this approach did not find it worked.

Of the 14 studies that had used probiotics as the intervention, more than a third (36 percent found them to be effective in reducing anxiety symptoms, while six of the remaining seven studies that had used non-probiotics as interventions found those to be effective — a 86% rate of effectiveness.

Some studies had used both the IRIF (interventions to regulate intestinal microbiota) approach and treatment as usual.

In the five studies that used treatment as usual and IRIF as interventions, only studies that had conducted non-probiotic ways got positive results, that showed a reduction in anxiety symptoms.

Non-probiotic interventions were also more effective in the studies that used IRIF alone. In those studies only using IRIF, 80% were effective when using non-probiotic interventions, while only 45% were found to be effective when using probiotic ways.

The authors say one reason that non-probiotic interventions were significantly more effective than probiotic interventions was possible due to the fact that changing diet (a diverse energy source) could have more of an impact on gut bacteria growth than introducing specific types of bacteria in a probiotic supplement.

Also, because some studies had involved introducing different types of probiotics, these could have fought against each other to work effectively, and many of the intervention times used might have been too short to significantly increase the abundance of the imported bacteria.

Most of the studies did not report serious adverse events, and only four studies reported mild adverse effects such as dry mouth and diarrhoea.

This is an observational study, and as such, cannot establish a cause. Indeed, the authors acknowledge some limitations, such as differences in study design, subjects, interventions and measurements, making the data unsuitable for further analysis.

Nevertheless, they say the overall quality of the 21 studies included was high.

The researchers conclude: “We find that more than half of the studies included showed it was positive to treat anxiety symptoms by regulation of intestinal microbiota.

“There are two kinds of interventions (probiotic and non-probiotic interventions) to regulate intestinal microbiota, and it should be highlighted that the non-probiotic interventions were more effective than the probiotic interventions. More studies are needed to clarify this conclusion since we still cannot run meta-analysis so far.”

They also suggest that, in addition to the use of psychiatric drugs for treatment, “we can also consider regulating intestinal flora to alleviate anxiety symptoms.”

Anxiety might be alleviated by regulating gut bacteria - Neuroscience News

A new meta-analysis study reports regulating intestinal microbiota is more than 50% effective at helping to reduce anxiety. Non-probiotic interventions were more effective than probiotic interventions at helping to relieve symptoms.

neurosciencenews.com

 

[mr peabody]

Treating severe anxiety with psilocybin

by Christopher Blunt | UNILAD | 4 Oct 2015

"My anxiety developed when I was diagnosed with epilepsy 11 years ago," explained Nick, as he led me on a Sunday morning nature trail to a mushroom picking hotspot in Yorkshire.

"But I never really recognised my problem until I got knocked off my bike two years ago. I had 15 staples in my head and was hospitalised for three days. That brought it to the forefront. I realised I had quite a bad anxiety problem."

Nick, 29, is part of a growing subculture of people who are self-medicating their mental health issues with psilocybin, while risking up to seven years in prison. With his tightly knotted hiking boots, army-green waterproof jacket and large rucksack, he looks like any other early morning rambler.

"I first tried magic mushrooms with a couple of friends 8 years ago. Years later I read Professor Nutt's book Drugs Without the Hot Air and was interested to learn about the links between psilocybin, anxiety and depression. After reading that book I decided to start foraging for mushrooms myself."

"In my own experience, it does have a positive effect on anxiety. As soon as I 'come down,' any thoughts of anxiety that are going through my mind immediately evaporate. It just goes in an instant - melts away. The feeling of wellbeing lasts a month or two until something triggers the negative thoughts again."

"After searching online, I knew what I was looking for, I managed to find a couple of local fields that I forage on when the season comes. During the off-season I have to find other avenues to get hold of mushrooms, including ordering them online or buying ones grown indoors. But nothing beats the romance of finding my own. Psychedelics are something I've grown to respect, so I mainly leave it to the season as I don't want to overdo it and it lose the effect."

"I think they have a great potential for naturally treating mental health issues without using synthetic drugs, which invariably come with a string of nasty side effects."

"We're looking at is a largely unexplored technology that set the psychiatry world ablaze in the 1950s, aborted by widespread recreational abuse, the reaction of the media and its confluence with the Vietnam war," argues David Nichols, a Purdue University pharmacologist, in an article for the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

James Rucker, a leading psychiatrist at Kings College London, recently spoke out against the law surrounding psychedelic drugs, which he believes is hampering research into their prospective medicinal benefits. On psilocybin and LSD, he said he believes the Government should downgrade their unnecessarily restrictive class-A, citing that they were extensively used and researched in clinical psychiatry before their prohibition in 1967.

In 2012, researchers battled through reams of red tape as the result of the negative connotations surrounding the drug, and were eventually able to test the psychoactive effects of magic mushrooms.

The team's study, published in British Journal of Psychiatry, found volunteers given psilocybin experienced cues to vividly remember really positive events in their lives, such as their wedding day or the birth of their child.

It does seem there is little evidence that psilocybin is unsafe in a controlled setting, and even less evidence that it has addictive potential - or is even habitual at all - but plenty of evidence that suggests its prospective therapeutic benefits.

Taking that into account, isn't it time that we let go of old prejudices and loosen the laws surrounding psilocybin in medical research? I say yes. Mental health is one of the most important issues of our times; we should be pouring funding into studies on how to treat it, instead of hampering the scientists.

The human race has reaped the benefits of psychedelic mushrooms for millennia ever since they grew in the Elysian fields of Greece, yet we still know very little about how they work.

It seems that until we wise up, people like Nick, an otherwise totally law abiding citizen, will continue to break the law.

https://www.unilad.co.uk/featured/we...gic-mushrooms/​

 

[mr peabody]

Combating anxiety with nootropic supplements

by Wade Hurley | June 6, 2019

For millennia, we just followed animals around. We worked in tribes to hunt, fish, plant, harvest, build shelter, and handle every other material need as a unit – for the most part. Then, the agricultural and industrial revolutions happened, and the last one percent of human existence until now became a whirlwind of technological breakthroughs. The result? Forty million of us are diagnosed with anxiety and/or depression, and that’s just in the United States, according to recent statistics.

We sit in cubicles and work all day so we can provide for our families. No more mud between the toes, no more building shelters, no more community collaboration! Psychologists believe that anxiety and depression are so prevalent now because the human brain, having acclimatized to a nomadic/pastoral existence, is unable to handle the rigors of modern life. Where many of us turn to risky prescription drugs to bridge this gap, there is another option: nootropics.

Nootropics: What and How?

The term “nootropic” refers to a class of natural and synthetic substances used to enhance one or more of our mental faculties; concentration, alertness, mood, memory, cognition, and so forth. Nootropics can take the form of pills, powders, herbal teas, and other forms of food. When used properly, some nootropics can ameliorate anxiety symptoms significantly.

Okay, you may be saying, but how? How does a nootropic fight anxiety and improve mental performance? There are several mechanisms by which these substances can reap their benefits. Some nootropics stimulate receptors in the brain that allow for important functions, like memory or sleep. Other nootropics can mimic the action of neurotransmitters (chemical messengers) that promote calmness and de-stimulation. Additionally, some nootropics can improve blood supply to the brain and combat the harmful processes introduced by free radical exposure.

Five nootropics for anxiety

Alright, let’s talk specifics. As mentioned, there are many natural and synthetic nootropics, most of which are available as over-the-counter supplements for different uses. The following is a brief review of five very popular nootropics that are used to reduce anxiety, stress, depression, and enhance overall mental wellness.

BACOPA MONNIERI

This herb, from several continents around the world, is as plentiful as it is powerful. Bacopa monnieri is an herbal nootropic and adaptogen that has long been used in traditional medicine to reduce anxiety and stress, improve memory, and boost cognitive performance. Beyond traditional belief, there is plenty of scientific evidence to back up these claims.

LEMON BALM

Lemon balm is a mint-like herb with numerous health benefits, but it is mostly known for its sedative and calming effect. People take Lemon balm to reduce anxiety, and to help them sleep. Although more commonly used as a sleep aid than a nootropic, some studies have shown it may help improve aspects of cognitive function.

Lemon balm can be taken in capsule or powder form, or better, you can sip on a nice cup of savory tea made from its leaves, whether fresh or dried.

LION'S MANE MUSHROOM

This mushroom has been around for thousands of years, and it lately became a very popular supplement revered for its memory-boosting, brain-protecting, and anxiety-fighting benefits. Lion’s mane may help protect from age-related cognitive decline and in fighting off brain damage caused by Alzheimer’s disease.

PHENIBUT

If herbal remedies aren’t doing the trick for you, you may want to consider one of the more potent synthetic nootropics, and of those, phenibut tops the list when it comes to mitigating anxiety. Phenibut is an analogue of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA, which is primarily responsible for calming your brain and helping you relax.

Phenibut works very well with no significant side effects when used properly. Phenibut is not regulated by the FDA, and it is usually bought from online stores in the form of nootropic powder or capsules.

SULBUTIAMINE

Fatigue and anxiety have an interesting relationship that neuropsychologists are still exploring. Sulbutiamine, a derivative of vitamin B1, is a synthetic nutritional supplement that is used to reduce fatigue and improve mental energy and performance. Sulbutiamine may help anxiety sufferers restore healthy energy levels and improve other anxiety symptoms.

Combating Modern-Day Anxiety with Nootropic Supplements - Baltimore Post-Examiner

 

[mr peabody]

How to use nootropics to boost your confidence and reduce your anxiety*

from Nootralize | Psychology Today | Dec 11 2019

Boost your confidence, reduce your anxiety, and improve your verbal fluency.

A couple of weeks ago I had a pizza. A couple of hours after that meal I was on a walk listening to an audiobook, as I often am. I met a couple walking their dog, nothing out of the ordinary. In the part of Sweden where I stayed, people tend to say "Hi" to each other, so I said "Hi", and so did the couple.

Contrary to what I had experienced every time for the past couple of weeks of the summer when saying "Hi" to people walking by, this time I became really anxious to not seem weird. I had this feeling flowing through my mind that impaired my performance. Instead of getting a 10-second mood boost from smiling when saying "Hi", I had a 5-second low-level panic attack prior to the verbal output. I didn’t know these people and don’t care what they think about me if I consciously think about it.

I used to be like this all the time. I believe poor sleep, poor nutrition, relatively poor exercise, and no mindfulness were the big inhibitors of feeling well in social interactions with people I didn’t know during my childhood.

I’m not saying traumatic experiences or the actual sequence of actions that the interaction consists of don’t matter. I’m saying that the experience is biochemically dependent. If you just had a pizza, or another meal that your psyche doesn’t respond well to, you may overthink the word "Hi". If you’re in ketosis, you may want to get to know these people you’ve never met before.


This is the Nootralize team: Maximilian Paju, David Rönnlid, and Johan Fröb

Which nootropics to use for social interactions

Note: I use selfhacked.com and examine.com to get a quick overview of a compound and find studies on it.

Uridine Monophosphate

Science: UMP, as this nootropic is called, may be able to reduce symptoms of depression. It can probably also enhance memory and learning.

“Uridine promotes the birth of new neurons and the generation of new synapses, especially in combination with brain nutrients like choline and DHA. Human studies have yet to confirm these findings, but animal studies are very promising.” -Selfhacked

My use: In my opinion, the scientifically proven benefits of UMP with use over time are not the interesting ones. Instead, I use it as a nootropic for social interactions where I want to perform cognitively and in my communication. I don’t use this on a schedule, I use it when the occasion calls for it.

UMP amps up my verbal fluency to superhuman levels. It is still beyond me how well this works. I take 100 mg if I want to make sure not to stumble on words, way below the 1000–2000 mg per day dosages that were used in clinical trials. Using UMP for verbal fluency makes me able to speak several sentences in a row without taking a breath or stop to remember what to say. Having great verbal fluency, in turn, boosts my confidence in social interactions.

UMP potently removes brain fog in my experience.

I also sometimes use UMP for motivation, it starts working for me at 200 mg for this, which is the max I ever use because I don’t get better results with more.

My assessment is that uridine monophosphate has no risk for addiction and that there’s only a low risk for side-effects.

Ashwagandha

Science: Ashwagandha quite reliably reduces anxiety and stress. The herb induces a state of calm, probably through lowering cortisol levels.

“300 mg of an ashwagandha extract (“full spectrum”) for 60 days in persons with chronic mental stress was able to improve all tested parameters and reduced serum cortisol by 27.9%.”

My assessment is that Ashwagandha has no risk for addiction and that there’s only a low risk for side effects.

My use: I use .75 ml Ashwagandha from a tincture every day before I go to bed. It’s part of my daily nootropic stack. I find it gives me a slight boost in cognition, which I attribute to lower stress. I experience no side effects from Ashwagandha. I don’t use it specifically for social interactions, but I think I get a positive effect on my social interactions from Ashwagandha through improved sleep. I’ve tried using it for social interactions specifically and it does reduce my social anxiety slightly, though it is hard to tell because it is almost at zero pretty much all the time.

L-Theanine

Science: L-theanine can prevent spikes in blood pressure and the magnitude of stress responses. There’s a high level of evidence for L-theanine improving relaxation, and some evidence for it reducing anxiety as well as improving attention and sleep quality.

My assessment is that L-theanine has no risk for addiction and that there’s only a low risk for side effects.

My use: I use 50–400 mg every evening to improve my sleep. I experience no side effects from L-theanine. I don’t use it specifically for social interactions, but I think I get a positive effect on my social interactions from L-theanine through improved sleep. I know it can help reduce social anxiety for me if I’m in a stressed state of mind.

Curcumin with Piperine

Science: The main nootropic benefits of curcumin and piperine will be experienced after several weeks of use. Then, it can reduce inflammation, anxiety, and depression. It has a lot of other benefits for mental and bodily health, such as cancer and pain prevention.

Piperine increases curcumin blood absorption by 2,000%.

My use: I use 300 mg curcumin with 3 mg piperine every morning to improve my mood, anxiety, and level of inflammation over the long term. I experience no side effects from curcumin or piperine. I don’t use the combination specifically for social interactions, but I think I get a positive effect on my social interactions over the long term from the various subtle improvements in mental and bodily health markers.

My judgment is that curcumin with piperine has no risk for addiction and that there’s only a low risk for any side effects.

Note: There are many other nootropics that can help you with performance and well-being in social contexts through reduced anxiety and increased cognitive proficiency. I’ve chosen the ones with a very low-risk profile that can still have a significant positive impact on your social interactions.

That’s how I use nootropics for improving well-being and performance while interacting with people.

I hope this can help you help yourself and others.

*From the article here :

How to Use Nootropics for Social Interactions

Boost your confidence, reduce your anxiety, and improve your verbal fluency.

www.psychologytoday.com

 

[mr peabody]

Therapy didn't help my anxiety, so I turned to psychedelics

by Sulaiman Hakemy | Toronto Life | July 30, 2018

I am in some kind of hole, I told my therapist. I was trying to work out what was happening to my mind. Months of traumas - family issues, the violent death of a friend, the implosion of my relationship, had, like a slow poison, seeped into my life until I felt paralyzed. I was trapped in a loop of discursive, self-critical thought. I am a freelance journalist, but I found myself unable to take on new assignments and, inexplicably, unwilling to invoice for finished work. After our session, my therapist eyed me with indifference and handed me forty photocopied pages on cognitive behavioral therapy as he shuffled me out the door. I got the sense that approach was going nowhere.

I had researched meditation, exercise, dietary changes and other ways to prevent myself from slipping further down the hole. But the most intriguing method I came across was psychedelic drugs, which had, in recent studies, shown great efficacy in treating depression, anxiety and PTSD. My underwhelming experience with therapy had left me with the kind of hopelessness that breeds desire for radical solutions. I opened my laptop and googled Toronto psychedelic drugs.

6 weeks later, on a Sunday in February, I was lying on the floor of a woman's apartment in the east end, wrapped in a Mexican blanket and weeping uncontrollably. I'd met the woman a few hours earlier. She was a shaman, a spiritual healer who practices South American plant medicine. In her pre-shamanic life, she suffered from a severe drug addiction, was homeless and hadn't spoken with her family for a decade. Eventually, she made her way to South America, where she trained in the shamanic arts, conducting ceremonies using a psychedelic tea called ayahuasca.

The author Michael Pollan, in his recent book on psychedelics, describes the concept of ego dissolution, which is an often-reported and now scientifically supported effect of potent psychedelics. Scientists at Imperial College London have observed that activity in the brains Default Mode Network, the system responsible for building a sense of self and reflecting on the self's nature, can drop dramatically during a psychedelic trip. The default mode network is vital to healthy neural function, acting as the brains central coordinator. But its also a real son of a bitch, the devil on your shoulder, the author of hopelessness and self-blame. Conditions like anxiety and depression can be associated with a default mode network run amok and, according to proponents of psychedelic treatments, a little dissolution of the ego can be a good thing.

The shaman said she had personally synthesized the medicine I was about to take, DMT. She produced a glass pipe and explained that I was to take five hits. "On number three, you'll tell me you've had enough, and I'll tell you to keep going," she said. If you have ever been close to blackout drunk and seen the world spin uncontrollably around you, then you know what the third hit of DMT is like. The shaman guided the pipe to my mouth for the fourth and then fifth hits, and suddenly I was laid out on my back.

Everything turned black, as though I was watching a blank screen, except that there was no me watching. The blackness was just there, happening. I was vaguely aware of the self, but only insofar as I knew that I was aware at all. Then a pool of green, red and yellow fire appeared, swirling around what looked to be a medieval helmet.

This was taking place within the confines of my brain, yet it was completely involuntary - decisive, overwhelming subjugation of the ego. I started to feel some sense of self again, in the form of two distinct emotions: I was in awe of the fire and terrified of the helmet. I felt I would fall into it and that I was going to die. The image shattered. The pieces re-emerged as a pattern of purple and black shields, then disappeared. Soon, I was aware of the shamans hand on my arm, and I realized that I had been weeping. Respira, she whispered. Breathe.

She was fascinated by what I told her about the helmet and shields. Like all of our emotions, anxiety is a chemical effect in the brain, one that likely evolved over millennia because it served a purpose in our survival. It was a kind of armor, meant to protect us. But when the mind surrenders control, anxiety can become a cage. The helmet made some sense.

Sitting under the fluorescence of the 501 streetcar on my way back home, I thought more about the helmet and how it had shattered before it could take me. Perhaps my anxieties could shatter, too, if I could manage to observe them from the outside. These are realizations that don't require DMT or shamans, of course. But the trip brought shape and clarity to what I had been feeling. I cant say that the fear and the panic have vanished. Sometimes they wake me up early in the morning, or accompany unexpected moments of disappointment or failure. But they seem more brittle now, with obvious cracks through which I can see a world that is a little lighter.

https://torontolife.com/city/life/th...wers-expected/​

 

[mr peabody]

Iboga found to cure depression, anxiety and PTSD

Psychedelic Times

Ibogaine is a powerful psychedelic from West Africa that has been in use for centuries in traditional healing ceremonies. It can be used in its traditional form from the root bark of the plant (known as iboga), or in the laboratory-isolated form of ibogaine which only contains the central psychoactive substance (known as ibogaine). Today iboga is best known for its miraculous ability to cure or drastically reduce addiction to substances like alcohol, crack cocaine, and heroin in a single treatment. It can also help people overcome addiction to prescription opiates such as morphine, methadone, Vicodin, Percocet, and OxyContin.

While this may sound too good to be true, scores of personal testimonies and clinical research is backing up this claim, and iboga treatment centers are popping up all over the world specializing in treating addiction, post traumatic stress, and mood disorders. Iboga is renowned for its ability to cure addiction by revealing the fragmented pieces of a person’s past and personality over the course of a long, intense, and ultimately cathartic psychedelic experience. After finishing iboga treatment, patients report a feeling of rebirth that allows them to see the world in a totally new light and leave behind their old destructive patterns of behavior for good.

One fascinating common experience that many people report in iboga treatment is the ability to see your life played out in front of you on a series of 3-dimensional screens that you can zoom into and out of. The “spirit” of the iboga plant is often present during this process, lovingly but authoritatively guiding the person to see the lessons that are in front of them- how they have been out of balance, how their behavior has hurt others, and where they can improve their capacity for joy, wholeness, and health.

With so many reported cases of incredible success with iboga treatment, western doctors and scientists are taking note and performing clinical studies to better understand how iboga works. According to doctor C.M. Anderson of Harvard Medical school, iboga has “unique neuropharmacological and psychobiological properties” that make it particularly conducive to treating chemical dependency. Iboga has a profound ability to guide people through a journey of self-reconciliation that is often at the heart of addictive behaviors and other disorders. With proper integration of this experience and supervised aftercare such as with a recovery coach, these transformative experiences can have a permanent positive effect on a person’s life.

While many undergo ibogaine therapy for serious drug addiction, this treatment can also trigger recoveries from many other psychological issues including depression, anxiety, and trauma. The drug’s deeply personal and illuminating nature also allows patients to let go of different types of patterns not related to drug use that may be equally difficult for them to break. This is especially life changing for victims of chronic depression, anxiety disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which often cause such intense emotional stress that recovery seems impossible. For people who suffer from these terrible chronic afflictions, iboga offers a bright ray of hope backed by hundreds of years of traditional use, many thousands of successful anecdotal cases, and more and more scientific validation.

https://psychedelictimes.com/learn-more-iboga​

 

[mr peabody]

Research shows that drinking Matcha tea can reduce anxiety

Neuroscience News | July 9, 2019

Many different countries have a tea culture, and Japanese Matcha tea is growing in popularity around the world. In Japan, Matcha has a long history of being used for various medicinal purposes. It has been suspected to have various beneficial effects on health, but relatively little scientific evidence supported that claim. Now, a group of Japanese researchers from Kumamoto University has shown that anxious behavior in mice is reduced after consuming Matcha powder or Matcha extract. Its calming effects appear to be due to mechanisms that activate dopamine D1 receptors and serotonin 5-HT1A receptors, both of which are closely related to anxious behavior.

Matcha is the finely ground powder of new leaves from shade-grown (90% shade) Camellia sinensis green tea bushes. The tea (and food flavoring) is enjoyed around the world. In Japan, historical medicinal uses for Matcha included helping people relax, preventing obesity, and treatment of skin conditions. The researchers, therefore, sought to determine its various beneficial effects.

The “elevated plus maze” test is an elevated, plus-shaped, narrow platform with two walled arms that provide safety for the test subject, typically a mouse. It is used as an anxiety test for rodents with the idea that animals experiencing higher anxiety will spend more time in safer walled-off areas. Using this test, researchers found that mouse anxiety was reduced after consuming Matcha powder or Matcha extract. In addition, when the anxiolytic activity of different Matcha extracts was evaluated, a stronger effect was found with the extract derived using 80% ethanol in comparison to the extract derived from only hot water. In other words, a poorly water-soluble Matcha component has stronger anxiolytic effects than a component that is easily soluble in water. A behavioral pharmacological analysis further revealed that Matcha and Matcha extracts reduce anxiety by activating dopamine D1 and serotonin 5-HT1A receptors.

“Although further epidemiological research is necessary, the results of our study show that Matcha, which has been used as a medicinal agent for many years, may be quite beneficial to the human body,” said study leader, Dr. Yuki Kurauchi. “We hope that our research into Matcha can lead to health benefits worldwide.”

Research shows that drinking Matcha tea can reduce anxiety - Neuroscience News

Matcha tea can help reduce anxiety, a new study reports. Mice given Match extract showed a reduction in anxious behaviors. The calming effects are a result of Matcha activating dopamine and serotonin receptors.

neurosciencenews.com

 

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Chronic, intermittent microdoses of DMT have positive effects on mood and anxiety*

Cameron, Benson, DeFelice, Fiehn, Olson (2019)

Drugs capable of ameliorating symptoms of depression and anxiety while also improving cognitive function and sociability are highly desirable. Anecdotal reports have suggested that serotonergic psychedelics administered in low doses on a chronic, intermittent schedule, so-called “microdosing”, might produce beneficial effects on mood, anxiety, cognition, and social interaction. Here, we test this hypothesis by subjecting male and female Sprague Dawley rats to behavioral testing following the chronic, intermittent administration of low doses of the psychedelic DMT. The behavioral and cellular effects of this dosing regimen were distinct from those induced following a single high dose of the drug. We found that chronic, intermittent, low doses of DMT produced an antidepressant-like phenotype and enhanced fear extinction learning without impacting working memory or social interaction. Additionally, male rats treated with DMT on this schedule gained a significant amount of body weight during the course of the study. Taken together, our results suggest that psychedelic microdosing may alleviate symptoms of mood and anxiety disorders, though the potential hazards of this practice warrant further investigation.

Mood and anxiety disorders are among the leading causes of disability worldwide, and antidepressants remain one of the most highly prescribed medications in the United States. Current therapeutic strategies for treating these disorders are slow-acting and prove to be ineffective for many patients. Thus, there is a critical need to develop new treatment strategies for these disorders.

Serotonergic psychedelics, such as LSD, psilocybin, and DMT have a long history of use as experimental therapeutics in the clinic for treating depression, anxiety, and substance use disorder. However, it is unclear whether hallucinogenic doses of these drugs are required for them to produce therapeutic effects. Psychedelic microdosing—the practice of administering sub-hallucinogenic doses of psychedelic compounds on a chronic, intermittent schedule—is rapidly gaining popularity due to its alleged antidepressant and anxiolytic effects. Despite the prevalence of psychedelic microdosing, there are essentially no peer-reviewed studies that have investigated the potential benefits and risks of this practice.

Psychedelics are potent psychoplastogens, and their effects on neural plasticity have been invoked to explain their long-lasting behavioral effects related to mood and anxiety. Previously, we observed that even a low dose of DMT caused changes in the frequency and amplitude of spontaneous excitatory postsynaptic currents in the prefrontal cortex of rats that lasted long after the drug had been cleared from the body. Therefore, we hypothesized that administration of this low dose on a chronic, intermittent schedule might impact behaviors relevant to mood and anxiety that involve the PFC.

Here, we demonstrate that chronic (∼2 months), intermittent (every third day), low (1 mg/kg) doses of DMT facilitate fear extinction learning and reduce immobility in the forced swim test without producing the anxiogenic-like effects characteristic of a high dose (10 mg/kg). However, the former dosing regimen also significantly increases bodyweight in male rats. Taken together, the data presented here suggest that sub-hallucinogenic doses of psychedelic compounds might possess value for treating and/or preventing mood and anxiety disorders. Despite the therapeutic potential of psychedelic microdosing, this practice is not without risks, and future studies need to better define the potential for negative neurobiological or metabolic repercussions.

*From the article here :
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acschemneuro.8b00692 ​

 

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Psilocybin investigated for its anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) properties

Neuroscientifically Challenged

Recently, psilocybin received recognition as a potential treatment for anxiety. A pilot study conducted explored the ability of psilocybin to reduce anxiety in individuals with advanced stage cancer. Although a small study and exploratory in nature, it suggested that psilocybin could have some benefit in reducing anxiety and improving mood in patients with a terminal illness.

In a study due to be published soon in Biological Psychiatry, a research group in Switzerland explored a potential mechanism for reduced anxiety after psilocybin administration. The authors, Kraehenmann et al., administered psilocybin or placebo to a group of participants. Then, they monitored the participants' brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while the subjects completed a task that generally increases activation in an area of the brain called the amygdala. The task involved viewing a series of pictures; half of the pictures presented negative stimuli like a car accident, and the other half presented neutral pictures like everyday objects or scenes from daily life.

The amygdala is an almond-shaped collection of nuclei in the temporal lobe (there are actually two amygdalae--one in each hemisphere). Increased activity in the amygdala has been associated with emotional reactions, and especially with fear and anxiety. Hyperactivity in the amygdala has also been observed in depressed patients, and treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) has been found to reduce that hyperactivity. This suggests that increased activity in the amygdala may also play a role in symptoms of depression.

Kraehenmann et al. found that psilocybin administration improved mood and decreased anxiety. But the study also offered some insight into what might be causing that reduction in anxiety. After taking psilocybin (as compared to placebo), activity in the right amygdala was reduced while viewing negative images, and activity in the left amygdala was decreased in response to both negative and neutral images.

Psilocybin is thought to act as an agonist at serotonin receptors, meaning it increases serotonin transmission. Thus, it may be that antidepressants like SSRIs that act on serotonin--at least as part of their mechanism--have something in common with psilocybin. And, it suggests that perhaps psilocybin should continue to be investigated for its antidepressant and anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) properties.

https://www.neuroscientificallychall...d-the-amygdala​