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Psychedelics and St. John's Wort

^ i also believe that SJW is an SRI, not MAOI. it appears to be a mild reuptake inhibitor for most monoamines, so it is not selective for serotonin alone.

if you are taking SJW for depression and it seems to be working, I would do a gradual taper for two weeks as the rebound from SRI can be painful and strange. my friend decided to stop a pharm SSRI cold turkey because he wanted to trip on mushrooms, and discontinuation turned him into a slow-moving robot. quite literally, he was moving at 30% speed for a few days. of course, that is just one anecdote of a powerful pharm SSRI, but the idea is the same. your SJW regime is designed to modify your brain chemistry, and you don't want to throw all that down the drain just for an acid trip.

taper slowly and keep a daily journal of how your mind mood and body feel. if you find any negative effects from discontinuation, taper back up to your normal dose and save the LSD in the freezer for a time when you are better able to trip.

good luck, and i hope one day you will be free of depression and daily medications <3
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_John's_Wort#Pharmacodynamic_interactions this is where i read that LSD and SJW are contraindicated. i've read that SJW exhibits properties of both an MAOI and SSRI, but i can't remember where i read that.

i may just hold on to the LSD until a later time. i dont think it's worth it to go back into depression just to have a trip. i guess i'll make my goal to finish this bottle of st john's wort (tapering at the end) and then see how i feel without antidepressants. i really enjoy tripping, and last time i did LSD it helped me recover from depression that was far more severe than what i've had recently. perhaps doing LSD after i've come off of SJW will give me a boost and make me feel better for a long while.
 
Does LSD interact with St John's Wort?

I know from experience that SSRI antidepressants decrease the effects of LSD to an extent. I have also read online that tricyclic and MAOI antidepressants tend to increase LSD's effects. I have not however found anything online about how St John's Wort interacts with LSD or other psychedelics. I've read that St John's wort is a reuptake inhibitor of serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine. Does that mean it will decrease LSD's effects like SSRI's do?
 
PepperSocks said:
Hmmm, Actually it has a bit of both but IME SJW is more SSRI than it is MAOI.

You can still eat whatever you want on it, and it seems to take 2 weeks to get any anti-depressant effect to start (like other SSRIs).

Either way I don't think it's strong enough to block a mushroom trip. Give it a shot; it's certainly not dangerous.
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Interesting. I took SJW before and it didn't help with depression or anxiety but it just made me VERY angry and bitchy to the point where I'd argue with people a lot and start fights.

I've taken a high dose of LSD while on a low dose of prozac I think it was 5 maybe 10mg of the Prozac, but the SSRI did not decrease the effects of the LSD at all, and I had been on the SSRI for awhile and I hadn't just started taking it.

I once ate shrooms with a buddy that was on an SSNRI Effexor and I wasn't on any SSRIs/SSNRIs and he did not trip nearly as hard as I did (I got lots of OEVs and lots of body load), and we both took 1.5g of excellent mushrooms (I had taken the same ones before at 2.0g with another friend and I got a very intense mushroom trip with CEVs/OEVs and ego fragmentation), and I was having a full blown mushroom experience while he just had the effects of a low dose of mushrooms.
 
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When i was a dumbass, around 17 years old or so,
I once ate about... well more the 3/5ths of a bottle of St Johns wort than i consumed an Quarter of mushrooms and i got to say it kicked my ass.

Mind you, i was quite the dumb ass. I had fucking golden flowers and leafs raining down from my celing and crystalizing and dancing all around me, in perfect 3d, as in i could walk around them. If i stared at one spot for long enough
I ended up seeing this face roaming around the fractalized forest i had printed into my celing. It was feminine and... very insanely strong...

I do remember i did black out... or i just have a void in memory when things built in such intensity... basically, i got really mucus in my nose and my eyes were watering alot, and it felt like a halo of water was going around my head, i felt absolutely at peace and perfect, and i have never been able to this day been able to recreate that specific high.

I literally ate a FISTFUL of St Johns wort, cuz i thought MAOI inhibitor durp dee durp, at least i wasn't a complete idiot and took it with mdma, as within this dumbass always existed a somewhat sensible being...

I guess the only way for anyone to really try out is to do it...
but maybe at a more reasonable level...
 
q's concerning interactions with saint john's wort...

i'm trying to figure out if i should refrain from which of the following drugs if i'm on saint john's wort:

- acid
- cactus
- ayahuasca
- DMT (smoked)
- poppy pod tea
- DXM
- 2C-C

my guess is that the only problem would be with ayahuasca (because of the MAOI) and DXM. am i correct, about these two interacting negatively, and the others being fine?
 
if you are "on" st john's wort for a specific reason (depression/bipolar?) then you should probably stay away from all of the above.

are you taking SJW under the advice of a physician or psychiatrist?
 
greenmeanies said:
if you are "on" st john's wort for a specific reason (depression/bipolar?) then you should probably stay away from all of the above.

are you taking SJW under the advice of a physician or psychiatrist?
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i'm taking SJW under my own advice. trust me, though, i've done enough research to not need to get advice from a doc... unless there's something you know that i don't...

i totally hear you about refraining from psychedelics when in a bad place, mentally. however, after extensive bad and good experience with psychedelics, i do believe there are times they can be very helpful still. particularly: great setting like nature, great set (within your general negative period of life, you are feeling relatively good and relaxed), and open mind, and a conservative dosage.

really, i think i know what i'm doing and would love to know about interactions between SJW and those drugs listed :)
 
according to all the reading i've done, SJW works as a mild non-selective reuptake inhibitor of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine.

most people say that the action of SSRIs (increased serotonin at the synapse, leading to reduction of receptor density) directly reduces the effects of classical psychedelics.

additionally, SJW appears to induce the activity of CYP3A4 and CYP2C9, both of which are enzymes responsible for deactivation and elimination of most drugs. compare with quercetin, which is thought to inhibit CYP3A4 and potentiate drugs like codeine and DXM by allowing them to stay in the body longer.

if i were you I would stay FAR FAR AWAY from DXM, ayahuasca, opiates, and any phenethylamines (2c-c and mesc included). acid may not work on you if your serotonin system is actually being effected by the SJW, or you may feel more stimulated effects.

smoked DMT appears to have no contraindications from what i'm reading. it will probably be muted in effect, but don't use that as an excuse to blast 10x the recommended dosage into your brain :) good luck and trip safe
 
actually, something that would be really useful to know how many days in advanced to i need to stop SJW before ayahuasca, and same question with the other drugs...
 
this question seems to come up like twice a week! *thanks for that, this is now merged* :)

since we're still not entirely sure how SJW works (but it appears to be mild SNDRI) we can't give you any real numbers.

how long have you been taking it? can you feel a change since before you started taking it? what kind of dose are you taking?

have you taken any of these in combination with SJW?
 
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