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Comment by cyrusaf | Hacker News Reader

I think it has to do a lot with moderation. If someone is going to take full doses of psychedelics multiple times per week, I have no doubt in my mind that they could go through serious mental health issues. But that is not to say that occasional use is very safe. In fact, occasional use can be extremely helpful to many people.

I'm curious as to what the effect of frequent micro-dosing is...

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Anecdata: I've seen a handful of people, including myself, take significant doses of LSD, or mushrooms, over a period of up to 4 days, either in an intentionally controlled environment or at multi-day music festivals. Despite taking increasingly large quantities the effects rapidly diminish after the initial dose, and it typically becomes increasingly difficult to even want to continue dosing because you can take more for pretty much no affect. Looking at a handful of trips on the third day and thinking "Why?" and putting them back in your pocket.

Even spacing the doses out to 'multiple times per week' results in rapidly diminishing returns.

I don't personally know of anyone who's life has become messed up because of the types of experiences described above. Some have gone on to 'settle down', have kids, etc. many of us had full time jobs and still do, or finished degrees.

Amphetamine and MDMA, on the other hand, can rapidly turn peoples lives upside down, all the while they think they're being rational people.

Would it be a good idea for everyone to start taking psychedelics? I'm not convinced that's an experiment I want anything to do with, I'm not sure it would scale well. Having said that, alcohol causes, or is a factor in, so much mayhem...

If someone is going to take full doses of psychedelics multiple times per week, I have no doubt in my mind that they could go through serious mental health issues.

Why? There is nothing in the report to support that viewpoint, and quite a few points that contradict it to some extent.

Because you brain needs a rest from that flood of information. You'll go mad just as you'll go mad if you stop sleeping.

The brain is extremely active while you sleep. The brain never rests. It is always active. The question is how active is it under different situations. The brain can't tell if the information it is receiving is from a real visual experience or a psychedelic. I'm sure stress does more damage than a psychedelic experience and we experience that daily in business/startups et al.

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