We'd strongly advise anyone seeking a deliberate, significant change in their cognitive function to seek out a licensed professional therapist to develop a targeted treatment selecting the appropriate modalit(ies) that will address the underlying issue (which is rarely as "simple" as it may appear): there is no "one size fits all" approach. Everyone's brain chemistry is unique, and therefore presents unique challenges: and creating a customized treatment plan with the help of a professional is essential. For one person, perhaps a therapist with somatic training is appropriate; for another, perhaps family systems therapist; for another, maybe it's just combining classic CBT with the psychedelic experience.

However, as far as we know, taking SSRIs with psilocybin does not cause serotonin syndrome. Taking way too much MDMA does, as can taking the supplement 5-HTP while on MDMA.

If you're on an SSRI and you don't respond to mushrooms on them, we're not aware of anything you can take to change that, short of doing a controlled taper off your SSRIS and being off them for a little while (which, to be clear, we are not recommending and should be done under the supervision of a medical professional).

SSSRIs are the main pharmacological agent we're aware of that will inhibit your response to psilocybin, but that doesn't mean they're not out there.

As far as boosting the effects of psilocybin, the one thing we know of is thelemon tek method, which you can also do a quick, jankey version of by just throwing some lemon into your mushoom tea.

https://xkcd.com/2030/

With paper ballots as a backup and protected from tampering, it's pretty hard to mess with a competent audit and not get caught.

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So, I have had a interesting life, mainly a lot of trauma. I live in Oregon and if understand correctly it is legal here for medical use. I have tried conventional therapy, and a slew of ssri medication. I do not do well with SSRIs and I'm currently weening myself off of them. My question is, how should I go about telling my doctor that I'm interested in psychedelic therapy? I know there is a stigma with these drugs and in the past I was labeled as a drug seeker by a former doctor. I can't express how bad that made me feel to be labeled as that and pretty much denied treatment. Thank you for the research you have done.

As an electrical engineer and a programmer I'd like to know what should I learn in computer science to increase my knowledge? I'm more into embedded systems and programming.

As a cryptography nerd, I think electronic remote voting for national elections is terrifying. Even the best possible technical solutions can be attacked with trivial workarounds if the users' devices can be compromised, or even substituted. Supply chain security for the hardware involved, handling issuing/registering keypairs and handling lost keypairs, etc. Coercion, targeted denial of service, etc.

Even without the actual election system being hacked, the processes around it can still be compromised. State of the art cryptography doesn't help when the keys are stolen and the inputs were replaced.

I am curious about psychedelic use and its benefits for those with mental illnesses. I have previously recreationally a tiny amount of mushrooms and loved how I felt. There were no visuals or anything during these times. I am currently on SSRIs and tried a higher dose of mushrooms with a guide, worked up to 2 grams and felt nothing. I later learned SSRI could inhibit the ability of the mushrooms and/or can cause serotonin syndrome.

Are there other supplements like GABA or pharmaceuticals that can either boost or inhibit psilocybin?

And while there does seem to be some variation in effects between different mushroom strains, we've not seen anything indicating the difference is so major that it's going to make your microdoses markedly differently.

So how do you change a personality trait with them? For instance stage fright or something simple. How would u use them to achieve a specific goal?

Absolutely. While it absolutely makes sense that the clinical trials are proceeding cautiously, with very strict parameters on who they treat and how they treat them and only changing a few variables at a time, there is a lot of eagerness by the innumerable folks who have not found relief through traditional psychiatry to DIY these protocols now. It's hard not to want to jump in when you've been experiencing so much unrelieved suffering, and you're seeing all these exciting headlines in mainstream news outlets.

For the interactions with SSRIs, there's this handy chart that summarizes some of the (known) issues, along with relevant citations. If you are able to identify a psychedelic-friendly psychiatrist in your area, it's worth it to talk through contraindications and any proposed change or taper to your medications with them. It could prevent further exacerbation of whatever mental health challenges you may have, such as triggering (potentially fatal) Serotonin Storm Syndrome.

As a general rule of thumb, we encourage anyone who is seeking treatment to seek as much professional assistance as they can find while on this path. It's a bit of a wild west out there right now in terms of identifying competent integration specialists who can truly help you on your path - not all of them are adhering to safe sourcing or testing strategies (here's a recent horror story about someone being given meth instead of MDMA for their underground therapy session). Having a professional, licensed person to guide you on your path in preparing and integrating the experience can help you identify any potential issues that may be difficult to identify without that outside set of eyes. We always advise, regardless of known underlying mental health conditions, to start with a low dose, and go slow, with any doses, and slowly titrate up to the desired dose to match your intention over the course of many sessions. This takes time, but will help you carefully evaluate your body's response and find a dose that minimizes negative effects while maximizing benefits. We've got our Safer Psychonaut Dosing Protocol here to minimize risk, and a set & setting checklist to help people create as safe a container as they can for their experience.

And finally: for folks with a genetic predisposition to schizophrenia-type disorders, there is a small but nonzero risk of triggering psychotic episodes, especially at higher doses. We encourage folks with this predisposition to have especial caution when thinking about LSD, psilocybin, and their analogues.

Though honestly, if you're at the 200mg level, variations in potency are unlikely to make a microdose *too strong*, so if you get a bunch of one batch at one time, grind them all up in a coffee grinder to minimize any variability in potency between stems and caps, and store the powder in a sealed mason jar in the fridge, you should be able to get consistent potency for awhile.

I agree with Dr. Carl Hart in his feeling that we need to move on from the term "harm reduction".

A quote from his extraordinary book Drug use for Grownups: "I reflected on the idea of harm reduction. It doesn’t capture the complexity associated with grown-up activities such as love or war or drug use. Instead, it preoccupies us with drug-related harms. And the connection between harms and drug use is reinforced repeatedly through our speech. This connection in turn narrows our associations, conversations, feelings, memories and perceptions about drugs and those who partake. Perhaps even worse, it relegates drug users to an inferior status.

What are you thoughts?

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These are all real issues. Damn you, prohibition! You make sensible science so difficult sometimes!

Also where they ask, they need to get a representative sample to make an accurate prediction

I know. Right now I am doing 200 mg every other day. I plan on staying at that level for at least 6 months before making changes.

My big concern right now is on potency and varying chemistries. I know cannabis can have very different effects depending on the exact strain. I assume that shrooms are similar to that.

Plus, it's my understanding that there is a lot of variation in potency within a strain or even with the same batch

Where I am, I can't consistently get the same strain and there's no chance of having an assay done to gauge potency.

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At a physiological baseline, it takes half a week for your tolerance to LSD and mushrooms to fully reset after a single dose, so that's another factor to consider.

Hey, thanks for pointing out the difference in these two kinds of emergencies. I think having some sort of "field guide" is a very good idea, but I can't help finding the version you have provided very unclear and hard to navigate. There's a couple of things that I didn't get straightaway, and I'm sober at home and not out on a festival with someone on a bad trip near freaking me out.

On page one, you say: "Check for basics. Are they 10-20 breaths per minute."
That's not only very weird grammar, it's especially useless because you don't even tell me what to do with the info that "they are 20 breaths". Also, what are "arousal techniques"? You are talking to festival goers I assume, not medical professionals (because then you would not explain that regular breath is a vital sign)?

I think it would be helpful to say something like "First of all, make sure that people are physically safe. If one of these conditions is not met, you may have a medical emergency on hand, and you should get help". Give clear guidance.

Also, the drawing of a person in recovery position is not under the paragraph mentioning the recovery position, but under the CPR paragraph. That's just bad layout, and hard to navigate.

The second page suffers from some serious layout issues, too. Example: "Sitting, not guiding. You are the anchor..." should be one bullet point, not two. Press Shift-Enter for line breaks without starting a new list item.

The text could be more explanatory. Be not attached to the outcome. What is that supposed to mean? A short headline with a short instruction would be more helpful than some shorthand. For example:
"Talk through, not down.
A bad trip lasts as long as it does, you can't 'talk somebody down' or 'steer them in the right way'. Be supportive, be their anchor rather than trying to be their steering wheel"

"Breathing" on its own is also super unhelpful...

And lastly, the font you chose is fairly hard to read.

Sorry to rip your flyer apart like that, but I think it can be super helpful to people out their to have good information, hope the feedback can help in some way.

Keep up the good work!!

Hey, if it works for you, suppose that's better than nothing. While we cannot speak to your individual biology, your anhedonia might respond better to different microdosing protocols, which are easy to find online

Thank you.

FWIW; I think I'm seeing a small improvement in certain specific symptoms of depression, but no effect on the anhedonia.

Was the Cyber Ninjas audit a risk limiting audit? If not, why?