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Comment by uoaei | Hacker News Reader

> We know that the microdosing also turned into macrodosing on a lot of occasions.

It's pretty easy to slip into this. I don't have a good answer for solving this but criminalization is definitely a bad answer, so we will have to find a way to discourage such tendencies. It may be that it is mostly or entirely a cultural thing in which case public understanding of the drug is a prerequisite, so I'm glad more are starting to learn about it as a result of decriminalization and legalization.

I hope she can find some way to be comfortable again.

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Could this be the manifestation of an overdose? I'm not a medical professional, but this got me curious what the "LD99" would be for avoiding this (not literally lethal, but long term dibilitation), or if it's statistically unclear?

It's very very unclear. One person can hit heroic doses (200-1000 micrograms of LSD or equivalent of mushrooms) and be completely fine afterwards, another can have a small, usually safe dose and have long-term issues. There are studies done to detect who will be susceptible to this, but there is no clear answer yet (aside from people with family history of bipolar or schizophrenia).

More likely too frequent use. Psychedelics twist reality, doing them too often definitely leaves a mark. Eventually you have trouble telling what's real and what's not even when you're sober.

This thread found me at the perfect time I swear. A friend of mine just gave me a huge amount of shrooms. I've always been excited about microdosing, so I tried my first .4 grams the other day and felt a great layer of good vibes that day. I was going to increase the dose, knowing it's not really microdosing and figuring I could do this on a regular basis. I'm now taking this thread as a sign to slow my roll.

For what it's worth, from my understanding, you've got a lot of room before that even hits what's considered a "normal" recreational dose -- which I think is around 3.5g of dried psilocybin. Broadly speaking, if you don't have a history of bipolar / schizophrenia, it sounds like you'd be pretty safe from lasting consequences. Separately, "bad trips" mostly seem to happen when you go towards higher than normal doses, as you lose conscious control of your thoughts...

I've had a bad trip once where I took too much, but I realize it was because of the amount I took. Do you microdose daily?

I don't, sorry. I know people who do, but I don't have direct personal experience with doing so. None of them had any negative outcomes from it with occasional larger doses, but as far as I know none of them went too extreme on those doses.

over a year ago, on this platform, you were praising how amazing elon was. do you still think so?

Dude, you're obsessed with Elon. Give it a break.

elon is a massive problem. people need to know.

The guy who did the most to transition the world to EVs, created a global internet satellite network, and gave us reusable rockets is a massive problem.

And what have you done for us?

Yeah I'm not arguing shrooms should be illegal. I don't think they're any worse than pot, and actually are the one drug I think everyone should do.

But I think there are some serious risks to heavy, prolonged use that probably aren't well-studied or understood. Also for all I know her problems stem from the acid and not the shrooms.

They are certainly an order of magnitude more powerful than pot. You can fairly easily have a psychologically very difficult experience at larger doses.

I’m all for people trying them but the effects shouldn’t be underestimated. I’ve had powerful feelings of anxiety, love, euphoria, mania or sadness on different times. Very different from pot which has a pretty uniform and predictable effect on me.

You can fairly easily have a very difficult experience with pot too. I have way worse and stronger experiences with pot than with mushrooms/LSD.

Cannabis is quite a powerful drug for many. A lot more powerful than most "hard drugs" like stimulants, empatogens, opioids or sedatives, which don't "mind fuck" at all unless you do them days on end or ridiculous dosages.

Comparing high dose THC to light-moderate dose shrooms/acid isn't a totally straight comparison.

No one is getting ego-death and dimensional transcendence from ripping dabs of THC concentrate all night. Just lots of paranoia and distress.

'ego-death and dimensional transcendence' and 'lots of paranoia and distress' just sound like different framings of what could be remarkably similar psychic states.

Having been in both, they are worlds apart. Sure, those descriptors might be tossed around, but that's a short commming of English to properly convey experiences.

Its distressing to spill your coffee. It's also distressing to have your house burn down. The difference is large.

Nothing wrong with experiences like what are called ego-death and dimensional transcendence if it doesn't involve paranoia or distress. Especially with dissociatives these are often the goal, and are quite pleasant.

The THC induced paranoia and distress are usually due to effects like time-dilation, memory impairment, depersonalization, thought loops etc, which I'd put into more or less same category as you get from psychedelics or dissociatives.

Plenty of bad trips with quite low doses of THC too: https://erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=70884

I think the "hardness" of different drugs, especially in how strong the effect is, is mostly a cultural and legal artifact that doesn't really correlate that much with the actual experience.

This is exactly my experience. I almost never smoke weed, and only do when I'm in a comfortable place and among friends. Shrooms is more of a mid-level body/sensory experience for me, whereas pot is a deep dark journey into the recesses of my psyche.

High doses of THC and/or its different natural analogues can induce psychedelic experiences.

> Also for all I know her problems stem from the acid and not the shrooms.

Acid also stimulates dopamine receptors, so this could be similar to amphetamine psychosis.

What about risks of prolonged incarceration? Especially in US prison?

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