I think it's too common a sentiment that psychoactive substances like cannabis and psilocybin are harmless and in fact are good for mental health. I've had adverse mental reactions to both and I would caution people with family history of anxiety.
Usually you'll be back to normal the next day, but will have had a memorable experience, and sometimes mushrooms produce long-term relief from depression.
I'm definitely not an expert with this, but it seems to me it is often a good idea to take a chance with some carefully chosen drugs.
I think this is very much a YMMV situation. I certainly don't recommend it as the only solution. It has been useful to me as a medicine, though, in the same way I might take a cough suppressant during a serious cold.
Note that the negative effects of cannabis on depression aren’t immediately obvious, as the drug itself makes users temporarily feel better. As such, people tend to associate cannabis with an immediate improvement of symptoms, yet can’t quite pinpoint the long-term downward trend in their depressive symptoms that occurs due to long-term changes of repeated consumption. There is also some concerning evidence to suggest that traditional depression treatments are less effective when someone is consuming cannabis.
One of my good friends is a professional therapist who is very open about her own personal cannabis use. However, she says she spends much of her professional time convincing depression patients to stop consuming cannabis, with positive results for those who can follow through.
Eventually, he was so angry that he blanked out. He told me he found himself in a hyper lucid state, but in absolute darkness and in a state of pure dread.
He felt the presense of millions of dead egos that were "roaming" like zombies in this strange environment. Some were screaming like their skin was being pulled from their body, some were tormenting others. A total nighmarish trip.
He was so shocked by this experience that he stop smoking pot that very evening and never touched it again.
If you can barely manage anxiety on your own, weed is is a force multiplier for your fears.
However, I’d be willing to try again in the future as it becomes more available in vape form and try micro dosing it. The smallest hits to see if I can get a modest calmness.
Low doses (5mg of edible or under, for me) have been amazing for my sleep and (very relatedly) anxiety.
The effect of 10mg of same (yes, I know, that's lightweight amounts still) on an empty stomach were... very different. I can definitely see how that would induce anxiety. The disconnectedness and extreme short-term-memory forgetfulness was certainly alarming. I felt about as impaired as when I've been pretty damn drunk, but with a much stronger memory-related effect.
Luckily, just going to sleep much earlier than I'd intended solved the problem. Unlike with alcohol, I woke up the next day feeling great, and had, surprisingly, excellent recall of the sequence of events the night before, despite in-the-moment having great difficulty remembering why I was where I was, even.
YMMV, obviously, but now I know to treat an evening with higher doses (should I try that again) as rather less medicinal than a low-dose evening.
That's a really good point. I commented elsewhere in this thread, similar experience to you with small doses. I always make sure to take the stuff with food.
Edit: Carbon Monoxide, not Carbon Dioxide. And some additions since this is a tad controversial.
Here is one source - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3340105/
Marijuana inhaled is bad for your body. End of story. Let's not pretend like it's some panacea that the government doesn't want us to know about. It shouldn't be illegal, but a lot of people on here lie to themselves that somehow the harmful effects of CO aren't bad just because it's marijuana. I feel like there is some major cognitive dissonance among pot smokers equivalent to religious people that get upset when you say there is no god.
So no, it's not harmless, but it is in fact less harmful, which is why people keep telling you that.
Also, there's plenty of other options for ingesting THC these days.
That being said, pot simply has a lot less stuff in it than tobacco smoke. Also, almost no one is smoking a pack of day of joints.
Fortunately there are other alternatives too, like sugar free candies.
Meanwhile, it's super easy to pick up a pack of cigarettes and suck down 5-10 of them in an evening.
Sometimes it feels like people who don't smoke really have to justify it hard. All these justifications they come up with which really aren't even an issue. Maybe they're afraid of it, and don't want to admit it... If you don't wanna smoke it, don't smoke it. There's nothing wrong with that. But some of the reasons I read to not smoke weed are ridiculous.
There is also the risk of getting an illegal cannabis cartridge tainted with Vitamin E, which can be avoided completely if one is lucky enough to live under a medicinal or recreational regime.
It can't be said that vaping is completely harmless, but it's safe to say that responsible blends are orders of magnitude less harmful than inhaling smoke.
There are also vaporizers that use dry plant material directly without liquids, e.g. from Storz&Bickel, Arizer, Pax, etc.
I think you'd get a similar reaction if you said "bikes and motorcycles both have two wheels, thus riding one has all the same risks and dangers as the other". Obviously you'd be right, you can split your skull on either, but you don't go 70+MPH on both.
people talk about set and setting + harm reduction over and over again.
If you’re gonna do a drug and be reckless you’re gonna have a bad time.