Junkie

(Note: You may be surprised to learn that I am not a doctor. Nor am I a researcher. I don’t read much research, beyond the Cliff’s Notes version in the Abstract. So, don’t trust what I’m telling you here.)

 

            We may have found the secret: mushrooms. After watching “Fantastic Fungi” and “How to Change Your Mind” on Netflix, we decided to give them a try.

 

            We found a source for psilocybin from a good friend who experienced what is called a “journey” by taking a significant dose, which she says changed her life in totally positive ways. She had this experience with two people, one a health care professional, at her side. We decided to “micro-dose” our psilocybin, which we can do without professional support at our side. The suggested schedule is 4 days with one tablet a day, then 3 days off. Or maybe the other way around.

 

            To provide some context, I will provide you with a brief summary of my experience with recreational drugs: zilch. The closest I came was walking around the Ann Arbor Blues Festival in the 60s, and getting what I imagined to be a “contact high,” though it might have been the music. I discovered coffee about the same time, and bourbon shortly after. That’s it. One more thing: I enjoy listening to Bob Dylan “Everybody Must Get Stoned.”

 

            I was a little nervous because of my late brother John’s unfortunate experience with drugs and mental illness, but I was reassured by the “micro” part of “micro-dose.” Besides, I usually keep my lid screwed on pretty tight, and the psilocybin might help me open up a bit. Kim said that this was her hope for me. She was looking for some pain and inflammation relief, along with mood enhancement, plus whatever surprises came her way.

 

            We are now about three weeks in, and the results have been good in a “micro” sort of way. We have not experienced anything like euphoria, which is fine, but Kim says I have loosened up and talk more openly – but only a little. In fact, we both talk more than we used to, which is often a good thing. We’ve both experienced a general sense of well-being, though we usually felt that way before the pills. But now it comes as we are flooded with news about war and politics along with some promising news about our housing quest. So, it’s hard to know what to attribute to the micro-dose, and what is a product of life itself. We have been energetically decorating and redecorating a condo that we don’t (yet) own.

 

            You know how some drugs become “gateway drugs”? Well, we learned that a mushroom called lion’s mane is good for cognition and memory, and it can help prevent dementia and help the brain recover from a stroke. (See my Note above.) It also helps with mood – though this may be because a successful fight against dementia is enough to improve any person’s mood. (I do recall an interview with an old Frenchman who was asked his secret for living so long. “Poor memory. I forget about all those people who wronged me in the past.”) So, we ordered some lion’s mane and started taking it daily about a week ago. I can’t really tell if it’s working, but I did remember all the words to some songs I haven’t heard for years, and I remember the name of the movie we watched last night. I take mine by adding ½ teaspoon of the powder to a glass of water. The only problem here is that I can’t remember where I put the little ½ teaspoon thing, to measure the right amount. But I do remember what we had for breakfast.

 

Now, if any of you are medical professionals or researchers, please correct any misinformation.