Magic mushrooms: these are their effects on our mind

If it's natural, it can't be bad, right? Guided by this fallacious reasoning, there are many young people, and not so young, who firmly believe that consuming magic mushrooms will do them more good than harm.

Nothing could be further from the truth, since these mushrooms, which contain psilocybin in uncontrolled doses, are quite dangerous. A bad trip in a brain prone to disorders can have dramatic consequences.

It is true that ancient cultures used hallucinogenic mushrooms for all kinds of purposes, especially of a spiritual and religious nature. There are numerous rituals in Central America where hallucinogens are used to reach altered states of consciousness as a means to achieve certain spiritual goals.

Through the knowledge of these practices we have received part of what we know about hallucinogenic mushrooms as well as mythology and their aura of mysticism. The truth is that if we ignore for a moment all the magical paraphernalia, what we are left with are mushrooms with estimated amounts of psychedelics.

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What do magic mushrooms contain?

The secret ingredient that makes us hallucinate when eating magic mushrooms is psilocybin. It does not exist in a single species of mushroom, but it is a family of more than 200 different species of mushrooms. All of them produce this compound, so that they are grouped under the same category of hallucinogenic mushrooms.

In addition to psilocybin, they contain psilocin and baeocystin, which fulfill the same function, but to a lesser extent.

Properties of psilocybin

Psilocybin is a compound with psychoactive properties. It is a prodrug: a precursor that transforms into psilocin once ingested and metabolized. Once transformed is when it acts on the brain in all its psychedelic splendor.

Acts as a functional agonist of the serotonin since it is similar to this in its structure. In this way, it binds to many of the serotonin receptors, activating the same pathways as serotonin. In addition, it indirectly influences the production of dopamine in the basal ganglia. Coupling at serotonin receptors and dopamine production together account for the hallucinogenic effects.

Metabolism and hallucinogenic mushrooms

Due to their pharmacokinetic properties, mushrooms take between 20 and 90 minutes to be digested, pass through the liver and reach the bloodstream. It is not until then that one notices its effects, which will last between 3 and 6 hours.

It is estimated that the typical recreational dose ranges between 10 and 50 milligrams of psilocybin, and that each gram of magic mushrooms fresh contains one milligram of this compound, while each gram of dehydrated hallucinogenic mushrooms contains 10 milligrams of psilocybin.

However, each person's metabolism is different. Some people are more sensitive than others to this compound and with very little doses they can already have hallucinatory experiences. Because of this and because the amounts of compound in magic mushrooms are estimated, people often ingest more than they should and end up having a hard time.

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Effects of hallucinogenic mushrooms

Although they receive this name because it is the star effect or the one really desired when consumed, there are many effects that occur at the same time.

Let us remember that psilocybin is a non-selective agonist of certain serotonin receptors, so that it will couple indiscriminately in those places where its structure allows it, especially in the frontal cortex involved in thought, mood and perception.

1. Hallucinatory experiences and sensory disturbance

Hallucinations include content of all kinds. These can be of any modality, visual, auditory, sensory, gustatory or olfactory. As in addition to the presence of hallucinations, normal perception itself is sharpened and changed, both properties are mixed. Common objects of mismatched colors can be seen or perceived as shapes distorted, appreciate sounds with greater intensity that in an undisturbed state would not be the object of attention, etc.

Even if most hallucinatory experiences have a positive tone and are lived in a pleasant way, the own state of mind and the state induced by the properties of mushrooms can turn these experiences into a bad trip that will last a long time.

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2. Well-being and openness experiences

Many people, similar to what has been experienced with the MDMA, they open up more and become more creative. It is possible to feel a form of peace and to be in tune with other people and objects accompanied by a need to open up and share this pleasant feeling with others.

3. Relaxation or anxiety

Although these experiences of well-being occur in a state of deep relaxation, this is not always the case. Some people say experiencing abrupt periods of anxiety while traveling with magic mushrooms. These periods can range from a few minutes to occupy the entire psychedelic experience and be extremely unpleasant, so that they break with the magic of hallucinations and turn them into a bad drink from which it is impossible escape.

4. Physiological changes

Physiological changes include sweating, tachycardia, nausea, rapid breathing and dilated pupils. Fortunately, magic mushrooms do not make very drastic changes in physiology and a high dose is not as dangerous in the physical sense as it is with other drugs.

5. Unpleasant effects

Along with hallucinations and disturbances in perception and thinking, other kinds of unwanted effects can occur. One of the most common unpleasant effects is paranoia, that is, the conviction that one is persecuted or the object of some kind of plot. It is a very aversive experience that borders on the psychotic and can be established if it becomes serious enough.

In the long term, the effects of misuse of magic mushrooms can include persistent psychotic symptoms with hallucinations, delusions and persistent thought and emotional disturbances such as major depression or dysthymia.

Although rare, these dramatic consequences are unpredictable. Anyone with sensitivity to hallucinogenic mushrooms, who has not been well informed, who has taken too much dose, who has not been well accompanied or has consumed in an environment Unwelcoming can end up developing this type of paintings that, in addition to being unpleasant, are not usually completely reversible and leave consequences on the personality of the person who uses it. suffers.