telepathetic
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2010
- Messages
- 2,278
I definitely think there is something to be said about threshold doses of psychedelics being beneficial for depression without a "trip". This is what I considers microdosing tbh
I've long suspected this.
Personally my experience with micro dosing is:
1. took too little, no effect
2. took too much now I'm slightly tripping
I never really enjoyed it myself and always scoffed at microdosing as it might fuck with my tolerance on my trip next weekend
Somehow I seem to having dedicated my life to the exploration of such topics, I just need it to accept, and the harder part, find a place/position where it might be helpful in whatever way - these things are notoriously closed walls for people with real experiences.@plumbus-nine
it sounds like you have a pretty good handle on 'depression'. I think tripping out of the loops is helpful, and can be part of a practice that de-emphasizes the intensity context and presence, enabling a brighter continuity with adequate context and presence.
when I am with someone who is caught up in loops, they seem very locked into a self context, very present but only in the loop as it were. Mostly they do not want to exit that presence and continuity - and cannot imagine it lighter or connected to other issues than the looping ones.
It could be autism or something along those lines. Its pretty common for people on the autism spectrum (we all are but some are further along than others) to get stuck in negative feedback loops. I did some research on developmental issues like autism a while ago and the course I took talked specifically about people with autism getting stucked in rigid patterns of thinking/behaviour. Past experiences affect people with autism more than those lesser on the spectrum and this is, again, related to how "sticky" the patterns of thinking/behaving are. So that could explain the natural predisposition to find yourself refreshing one negative thought loop with another. It may not be specific to the trip or anything related. It may be how by default you process experiences and how said experiences dovetail with another setting up an infinite loop. Breaking free of this is hard because, well, autism isnt something you can rid yourself of like depression, anxiety, psychotic episodes etc. I think people find this hard to accept and partly why could be down to them not having had a diagnosis or even be aware there is differences in how they act, think, feel etc compared to others. I say this because I experience similiar things tripping or not and my family has the genetic predisposition to autism. Something much bigger is afoot for me I feel and coming of age (grand old age of under 35) has made me see that. I blamed depression, anxiety, psychotic breaks, drugs, abuse, keeping bad company etc. All those do play a role but there is something behind this still. A genetic/biological component that exists before all and any social/cultural factors. Pretty much everyone in my family is on the spectrum and when I say that, I mean considerably more than your "normal" neurotypical person, some within the family who are way higher than others in the family. Half are extremely high functioning and intelligent, the other half are extremely low functioning and intellectually impaired. I havent seen one of them not go through the same rumination, self doubt, negative thought loops and consequently some form of self deprecation. I dont think any of them have even tried psychedelics like me yet they exhibit the same experiences.Somehow I seem to having dedicated my life to the exploration of such topics, I just need it to accept, and the harder part, find a place/position where it might be helpful in whatever way - these things are notoriously closed walls for people with real experiences.
Yeah, loops. Any time I escape one, only find myself in the next one, which might also be a new iteration of the previous one - I've only been completely free during brief periods of so-called intoxication with mostly dissociatives, before I got addicted to pharms and opioids. But this freedom, my first encounter was a stupid mid-dose-range DXM experiment as a teen, think even while in a psych ward but an open one - this freedom, it is not just the mother of all addiction, I call it life itself and I crave it like nothing else in remote comparison. Freedom. It seems like a fork in the personal pathway, where you either decide to take the blue or the red pill, and only the blue one can be taken repeatedly. But I never understood how people can choose that one. Quite some seem to be that way.
But also I was ever since I can remember somebody who was ... different. I don't know that, probably will never know for sure, have had much too less exchange with fellow people yet, but looking at society and everyday life I'm pretty fucking sure that.. something's off. I need to constantly question what I'm doing, where I'm doing that, etc.. like I am my own observer. This was present before any drug, but it get lost whilst in depressive loops.
They wanted to put me into special schools for 'gifted' people, and money was the reason against. Dunno what would have happened, my life was fucked seriously by that decision but bad thought way to go, need stay focused in here right & now..
Need to find my creativity again, I don't wanna believe that I did damage with drug use, not lasting one, the brain's too plastic for that but currently something new is off, and I don't like that one.. Somehow I suspect psychedelics might be the missing link, seeing all the stuff about neurogenesis and new synapses etc.pp. from 5ht2a agonism. Maybe not, but this is what I'm trying to figure out before it's too late..
![]()
Well, if the shoe fits...I can't say that I can relate to much about the hipsters, but I'm suspicious about such a holier than thou attitude; and also about discarding everything about a group of persons because of their chosen fashion or style.
But that's not really what the advocates say microdosing is, is it? People are talking about taking sub-threshold doses as a kind of nootropic, among other things. It is not really that implausible that this would happen (and it is not a new idea: see "Hofmann Cocktail") but it's also a situation that is ripe for placebo effects. @plumbus-nine is right that studies need to have an active placebo. This is a serious problem in psychedelic research because you're kind of either tripping or you are not but in the case of microdosing it wouldn't be that hard, just giving something that is vaguely psychoactive as a placebo.I definitely think there is something to be said about threshold doses of psychedelics being beneficial for depression without a "trip". This is what I considers microdosing tbh
well the thing is, we all have unsatisfactoriness as the basic backdrop to all consciousness, however, if what you are doing in the moment - what you are experiencing and how you are responding to that - overrides the basic backdrop and provides some balance in your life.@pupnik, you're so right in that - unsatisfactoriness describes my freaking life. I've been bored for as long as I can remember, and this is like being 3 years old and having strange CEVs - possibly induced by cough syrup but that's not for sure.
I've escaped several times, but failed to navigate life completely all alone without anybody understanding me or being close to me or having had the even most basic social training (I was being isolated the first 7 years and then thrown into a ward full of seriously crazy kids) and those pretending to 'care' instead controlling... got some money, saved it, lost it when my first and only ex threw me out to street after 9 years.. now I'm here and off. Another escape loop again?
Sorry for a pretty short summarum, I've just wrote a quite lengthy text, sth which before opiods wouldn't have induced the slightest exhaustion, but now I'm exhausted and off it all the time.. I guess it's my body calling but I'm absolutely unsure.
Psychedelic capitalism.Well, if the shoe fits...
But that's not really what the advocates say microdosing is, is it? People are talking about taking sub-threshold doses as a kind of nootropic, among other things. It is not really that implausible that this would happen (and it is not a new idea: see "Hofmann Cocktail") but it's also a situation that is ripe for placebo effects. @plumbus-nine is right that studies need to have an active placebo. This is a serious problem in psychedelic research because you're kind of either tripping or you are not but in the case of microdosing it wouldn't be that hard, just giving something that is vaguely psychoactive as a placebo.
Bottom line is we need more research. But the hipsters, Rogan fans, TED Talkers, "I Am Very Smart" Rick and Morty fans, and Silicon Valley types that are out there promoting microdosing invoke a deep sense of disgust in me and that makes me suspicious of whatever they are hawking and that's a heuristic that has served me well so far tbh.