There is evidence that indigenous people in Central America used them for healing and spiritual rituals as far back as 3000 B.C. Scientists began studying psilocybin decades ago, along with related substances like lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), to examine their potential to treat mental illness, including substance use disorders. For Nicholas Levich, Co-Founder of Psychedelic Passage, drunk people feel soberer around heavy drinkers a platform that facilitates psychedelic trip-sitting experiences, psilocybin mushrooms deliver an experience that is essentially antithetical to addiction. Now, there is a new surge of interest in discovering how psilocybin works and its potential to help treat conditions such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), addiction, pain, and neurodegenerative disorders.

Recentresearch highlights psilocybin’s safety profile and low potential for abuse, and in fact, one emerging area of psilocybin research is focused on how the compound can be used to treat different addictions. In other words, psilocybin is more likely to help you kick an addictive habit than get you hooked on a new one. For someone going through a personal crisis or using mushrooms in an unsafe, unsupportive environment, the chances of a “bad trip” increase. If the user has a mental health condition or feels anxious about using the hallucinogen, they face a higher risk of having a bad experience. This article explains how psilocybin works, including the potential effects and risks.

Is psilocybin addictive? Do people experience psilocybin-related withdrawal?

This therapy may work, in part, through its effects on certain personality traits. One small-scale study involving subjects with treatment-resistant depression found that, after engaging in psilocybin therapy, their neuroticism scores decreased while their scores in extraversion, openness, and conscientiousness increased. While psilocybe mushrooms are often sought out for a peaceful high, shrooms have been reported to induce anxiety, frightening hallucinations, paranoia, and confusion in some.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, people can continue to experience flashbacks anywhere from weeks to years after using the hallucinogen. This is a condition called hallucinogen-persisting perception disorder and is rare. The effects of psilocybin vary between people, based on the user’s mental state, personality, and immediate environment. They include altered perception of time and space and intense changes in mood and feeling. According to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), the hallucinogenic effects of psilocybin usually occur within 30 minutes after a person ingests it and last 4–6 hours.

Other NIDA Sites

HPPD can cause alarm, as a person may mistake the symptoms for a brain tumor or stroke. More research is necessary to provide proof, but a few studies suggest that psychedelics may have a few uses relating addiction and recovery to mental health and substance use disorders. Some people may experience “flashbacks” or have an experience where they feel the effects of Psilocybin Mushrooms long after the drug was last used.

1. Some serotonergic hallucinogens are present in nature, including psilocybin, a compound in mushrooms of the genus Psilocybe, or N,N-dimethyltryptamine, a compound in the botanical beverage ayahuasca.
2. This does not mean that shrooms are legal, but that the city is not permitted to “spend resources to impose criminal penalties” on people in possession of the drug.
3. More commonly called flashbacks, HPPD is when people experience the same images or scenes they saw when they were under the influence of a substance.
4. Tolerance also develops quickly with regular use, meaning that with regular use, a person will need more of the drug to achieve the same effect.

All hallucinogens carry the risk of triggering mental and emotional problems and causing accidents while under the influence. Among adolescents, shrooms are frequently taken in combination with alcohol and other drugs, increasing the psychological and physical risks. If its classification is changed, psilocybin mushrooms could then potentially be available by prescription. Magic mushrooms are hallucinogenic drugs, meaning they can cause you to see, hear, and feel sensations that seem real but are not.

And it is also hard to tease apart the effects of psilocybin from those of the cognitive-behavioral therapy in the smoking study, Johnson notes. He and his colleagues at the new center plan to conduct a double-blind, placebo-controlled study—the gold standard for medical investigations—in the future. People have been using mushrooms that contain psilocybin for thousands of years.

Recreational uses

The psilocybin found in shrooms is converted to psilocin in the body and is believed to influence serotonin in the brain, leading to altered and unusual perceptions. Psilocybin mushrooms look like dried ordinary mushrooms with long, slender stems that are whitish-gray and dark brown caps that are light brown or white in the center. Magic mushrooms are often prepared by drying and are eaten by being mixed into food or drinks. Hosted by therapist Amy Morin, LCSW, this episode of The Verywell Mind Podcast, featuring psychologist Brian Pilecki, shares the types of conditions psychedelics might treat, and the best resources to learn more information. A person taking psilocybin may have what’s called a mystical experience, where they enter a dreamlike, euphoric state, perhaps having visions or reliving memories.

Large-scale population surveys of individuals who have tripped with magic mushrooms also yield similar results, finding no association between lifetime psilocybin use and addiction. Psychedelic drugs—once promising research subjects that were decades ago relegated to illicit experimentation in eco sober house review dorm rooms—have been steadily making their way back into the lab for a revamped 21st-century-style look. Scientists are rediscovering what many see as the substances’ astonishing therapeutic potential for a vast range of issues, from depression to drug addiction and acceptance of mortality.

Tolerance is common in many substances and can occur when your body is exposed to a substance even just a few times. Psilocybin is a hallucinogenic chemical in certain mushrooms known as magic mushrooms. Eating mushrooms that contain psilocybin can have a variety of effects, ranging from euphoria to hallucinations.

In the case of drug use, it’s always important to pay attention to any changes in sleep and eating patterns, as well as shifts in mood, personality, and social activities. Other U.S. cities have followed suit, including Santa Cruz in California and Ann Arbor in Michigan. Microdosing involves taking very small amounts of a drug to test its benefits while minimizing unwanted side effects.

Liquid psilocybin is also available, which is the naturally occurring psychedelic drug found in liberty caps. There is no data on the safety of taking psilocybin during pregnancy, for either a mother or a developing baby. People should consult their health provider before taking any drug during pregnancy. Despite their general safety, psychedelics pose a number of risks and dangers, which increase with higher dosages.

The smoking study results are promising, but Johnson says its relatively small size is a limitation. Also, subjects in such studies cannot comprise a completely random sample of the population, because it would be unethical to recruit people without telling them they may be taking a psychedelic drug. Thus, participants tend to be people who are open to this category of experience and, potentially, more apt to believe in its efficacy.

“From my perspective, this is the other reason psilocybin is not addictive—your tolerance builds up so quickly that you’d need to consume 2-3 times the prior day’s dose to experience any effects,” said Levitch. Although current research suggests psilocybin is not addictive, some people may have bad experiences, including feelings of anxiety, paranoia, and short-term psychosis. Because hallucinogenic and other poisonous mushrooms are common in most living environments, people should regularly remove all mushrooms from areas where children are routinely present to prevent accidental consumption.

The drug was given in up to three sessions—one on the target quit date, another two weeks later and a third, optional one eight weeks afterward. The subjects returned to the lab for the next 10 weeks to have their breath and urine tested for evidence of smoking and came back for follow-up meetings six and 12 months after their target quit date. Armed with these promising results, Griffiths and his colleagues turned their attention to other clinical applications. They decided to investigate tobacco addiction—in part because it is much easier to quantify than emotional or spiritual outcomes.