Magic Mushrooms

Introduction

Behaviors

The historical mind-altering effects of psilocybin or "magic" mushroom, is described as a voyage to the spirit world. These hallucinogenic effects are similar to those of LSD, however, it is two hundred times less potent and also has a shorter duration time. Distortion of the perception of an actual object may happen. Different colors and or patterns may be seen. Sounds, taste, and texture may also be distorted. Feelings and emotions may intensify; they say that those with past psychotic episodes or some mental illness should stay away from psilocybin.

Physical Symptoms Short/Long Term

Researchers have assessed potential long-term changes after psilocybin in the context of a controlled study, finding that 2 months after drug administration, participants were more likely to report positive attitudes toward life and increased satisfaction and friends noticed small positive life changes after psilocybin and very few negative life changes. Recently, several investigators have examined or are in the process of examining Psilocybin as a treatment for specific mental and neurological disorders. These include anxiety arising from diagnosis with advanced stage cancer, interruption of cluster headache cycles or periods, and treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Results for the investigation of psilocybin in people with OCD are now published, while studies of advanced-stage cancer are still underway. A study of psilocybin in people with cluster headache is planned and has not yet occurred.

Treatment

Addiction treatment centers understand that Magic Mushrooms is not an addictive drug. It is generally accepted notion amount treatment professionals that the addiction, whether physical or psychological, is the problem, not the specific substance.

Gender Statistics

Some recent local UK surveys have found 12 -15 % of 16 year olds claiming to have used magic mushrooms at least once. Young people in Scotland and Wales are more likely to have taken them. In Scotland for example, one in five 16 years olds will have typically tried them. Overall, it appears that somewhere around 3-10% of people under 40 in the United States, Britain, and Canada report having tried psilocybin mushrooms, with numbers higher for people 20-30 years old.

Culture Statistics

Cultures from the tropics to the arctic have used plants to induce states of detachment from reality and to precipitate "visions" thought to provide mystical insight. Psilocybin (4 phosphoryloxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine) is obtained from certain types of mushrooms that are native to tropical and subtropical regions of South America, Mexico, and the United States. These mushrooms typically contain less than 0.5