What are Mushrooms?
Magic mushrooms, known for their active ingredient, psilocybin, are hallucinogens that can have severe psychological and physical side-effects. Mushrooms alter a person’s state of mind and consciousness. When consumed, psilocybin breaks down into psilocin and causes hallucinations.
Magic Mushrooms are consumed in different ways, i.e. they can be dried up and then eaten, and could even be brewed into tea. When mushrooms are consumed, a person usually experiences a hallucinogenic “trip” in which senses are altered, e.g. a person experiences severe hallucinations and several users report of “hearing” colors and “visualizing” sounds. Generally, a “mushroom trip” can last between 5-12 hours.
What are the effects?
Magic mushrooms, when used regularly, could lead to addiction and negative psychological side-effects. Mushrooms are particularly dangerous because it is easy to develop tolerance for mushrooms which also builds tolerance for other psychedelics such as LSD, DMT and mescaline. Once a mushroom addiction is developed, a mushroom addict could face following side-effects:
- A false sense of well-being
- Anxiety
- Impaired memory
- Negative reaction to surroundings
- Changes in personality
- Changes in appetite
- Distorted sense of reality
- Irregular heart-beat and hypertension
In addition to the above long-term effects of mushrooms there are some short-term effects of mushrooms which are described as following:
- Changed emotions
- Rapid breathing
- Increased heart rate and blood pressure
- Aggression or violent behavior
- Feeling chills
- Loss of muscle control
- Inability to perform regular functions
- Dilated eyes
If abused in the long-term, a person could feel that he is stuck in a cycle of a distorted sense of reality. Hallucinations might become more common and it might be difficult to separate illusions from reality.
What are the warning signs?
Mushrooms cause a person to hallucinate so if a person is abusing mushrooms it should be easy to tell the warning signs. A mushroom trip is a long trip. It lasts between 5-12 hours, for a person who thinks that he might be developing a mushroom addiction, the range of the trip might decrease to few hours. Since, it’s easy to develop a tolerance for mushrooms.
If you think one of your friends or family members might be on mushrooms then you should attempt to analyze signs such as dilated pupils, erratic thought and behavior, inability to sleep, etc..
What are the withdrawal effects?
When taking mushrooms, the user develops a tolerance against other psychedelic substances and if they are combining mushrooms with other physically harmful drugs then they could experience physical withdrawal symptoms along with psychological symptoms.
Some of the most common withdrawal effects associated with mushrooms are psychological effects such as despair, depression and anxiety. Since, the hallucinogen creates a false sense of well-being, when quitting mushrooms the false sense of well-being also gradually fades which causes extreme psychological distress.
Treatment
Mushrooms are generally taken with other drugs, therefore, in order for a full recovery from mushroom abuse it is necessary to have proper physical and psychological supervision. The first step to recovery is to seek professional help and enroll in a proper facility with experts who help in recovery from mushroom addiction.
If a person is taking mushrooms with other drugs, he/she could experience physical withdrawal effects as well, therefore the first step generally involves a full analysis of what kind of side-effects and withdrawal effects the user could face during the detox process. Then, according to the intensity and frequency of abuse a proper process on the basis of individual need is suggested.
Recovery from mushroom abuse could cause extreme psychological distress, which makes it difficult or users to re-integrate back into the society. Therefore, it is essential to have a support system during the recovery process, so that the person does not develop a habit of drug abuse again.