I tried microdosing psilocybin for OCD and it worked... but may be triggering hair loss

[worrywart]

I'm not a drug guy. I'll do things like kratom and tianeptine, sure, but anything trippier than that and I feel sleazy. But I'm so sick of my OCD I'm willing to try anything at this point. A few months ago my scrupulosity OCD became more severe than ever, I'm talking extreme guilt making me almost catatonic, so whatever, I ordered three grams of shrooms.

Yes, psilocybe cubensis mushrooms. I've already tried all sorts of meds and supplements for my scrupulosity OCD. I tried inositol for the first time a few months ago and it works so well I wish I had discovered it two decades ago. I take inositol and the voice in my head that's always guilt-tripping me becomes much weaker. It loses its grip on me. Its demands stop feeling like imperatives I absolutely must heed. They now felt like suggestions I can safely ignore.

But the OCD is still there. The effect soon wears off. I have to take inositol throughout the day. The guilt keeps creeping back in. So yes, whatever, I tried the shrooms. Microdoses. And it works. It works beautifully. It's kind of like the effect I get from inositol, but even better. The OCD voice almost disappears. It pretty much dissolves. It becomes a distant, almost wordless sound. When I get the dose right, at any rate. It's kind of inconsistent. But it's beautiful. It really does work.

But I've been losing way more hair than usual ever since I began microdosing shrooms. And when you search reddit for "psilocybe" + "hair loss" quite a few threads turn up. It seems to be a thing. What do you guys think? Any experiences with this? Any proposed mechanism for why this should happen?

 

[LeeLemonoil]

Maybe some enzymatic suicide inhibition thingys going on. Necessary for immune modulation to alleviate the OCC but with different effects in different tissues.

 

[worrywart]

Maybe some enzymatic suicide inhibition thingys going on. Necessary for immune modulation to alleviate the OCC but with different effects in different tissues.

Interesting, sounds plausible. Sucks if true. It does work very well for OCD.

 

[worrywart]

Just to be clear, I don't hear voices. I just have a serious guilt complex. It feels like a voice, in a way. It's these sentences I keep telling myself. "This is wrong and you know it", that kind of thing. Internalized rules. And we're talking morally negligible things here, things for which well-regulated people don't tend to feel guilty, let alone intensely guilty. Things like dropping an empty bag of chips in the wrong bin. Obsession with rules, fear of breaking rules. And with inositol the voice gets weaker, and with microdosing psilocybin it's kind of like the sentences dissolve, my thinking becomes less verbal, and therefore less imperative. I stop thinking so much in terms of commands.

 

[whollygod]

I'm not a drug guy. I'll do things like kratom and tianeptine, sure, but anything trippier than that and I feel sleazy. But I'm so sick of my OCD I'm willing to try anything at this point. A few months ago my scrupulosity OCD became more severe than ever, I'm talking extreme guilt making me almost catatonic, so whatever, I ordered three grams of shrooms.

Yes, psilocybe cubensis mushrooms. I've already tried all sorts of meds and supplements for my scrupulosity OCD. I tried inositol for the first time a few months ago and it works so well I wish I had discovered it two decades ago. I take inositol and the voice in my head that's always guilt-tripping me becomes much weaker. It loses its grip on me. Its demands stop feeling like imperatives I absolutely must heed. They now felt like suggestions I can safely ignore.

But the OCD is still there. The effect soon wears off. I have to take inositol throughout the day. The guilt keeps creeping back in. So yes, whatever, I tried the shrooms. Microdoses. And it works. It works beautifully. It's kind of like the effect I get from inositol, but even better. The OCD voice almost disappears. It pretty much dissolves. It becomes a distant, almost wordless sound. When I get the dose right, at any rate. It's kind of inconsistent. But it's beautiful. It really does work.

But I've been losing way more hair than usual ever since I began microdosing shrooms. And when you search reddit for "psilocybe" + "hair loss" quite a few threads turn up. It seems to be a thing. What do you guys think? Any experiences with this? Any proposed mechanism for why this should happen?

Sorry I don't have any information to offer but am hoping you could share your micro dosing protocol for OCD. It's a major problem as well. Also how much Inositol do you take throughout the day? Thanks!

 

[worrywart]

Sorry I don't have any information to offer but am hoping you could share your micro dosing protocol for OCD. It's a major problem as well. Also how much Inositol do you take throughout the day? Thanks!

I don't have much of a protocol right now, lol. I'm barely getting started. I tried 100 mg at first, which felt slightly trippy throughout the ensuing hours, and then the following two days my OCD was much milder. Then I tried it again, taking between 150 and 200 mg this time, but that made me feel depressed on the following days. Psilocybin seems to amplify your emotions, I had to focus on positive thoughts in order to escape the depressed feeling, which is pretty hard for me to do, but the depression eventually went away. I just took about 150 mg a few hours ago (100 mg and then 50 mg a while later) and I'm feeling pretty good. The effect on OCD is kind of inconsistent for now tbh, my OCD is acting up a bit right now, but hopefully I'll find the sweet spot eventually.

As for inositol, the usual protocol for OCD is 18 g a day, spread throughout the day. Lots of people talk about it on reddit, there are different ways of doing it. This one guy takes only two large doses a day. I space it out a bit more. I don't take 18 g either, around 10 g is already good enough, it's kinda expensive here so I'm trying to stay at a lower dose.

Honestly I'd try inositol first before trying a psychedelic, I'm a bit wary of the potential side-effects of taking a psychedelic substance, but my OCD is so bad I don't care if I fry my brain, it's not working very well anyway. But good luck whatever you choose to do.

Edit: I also take kratom, which is probably interfering with the psilocybin's effect, but I still notice a considerable attenuation of OCD symptoms when I take psilocybin which I never got from kratom alone. Kratom helps with my contamination OCD and mood, but does very little for my scrupulosity OCD.

 

[worrywart]

bump (sorry)

 

[whollygod]

I don't have much of a protocol right now, lol. I'm barely getting started. I tried 100 mg at first, which felt slightly trippy throughout the ensuing hours, and then the following two days my OCD was much milder. Then I tried it again, taking between 150 and 200 mg this time, but that made me feel depressed on the following days. Psilocybin seems to amplify your emotions, I had to focus on positive thoughts in order to escape the depressed feeling, which is pretty hard for me to do, but the depression eventually went away. I just took about 150 mg a few hours ago (100 mg and then 50 mg a while later) and I'm feeling pretty good. The effect on OCD is kind of inconsistent for now tbh, my OCD is acting up a bit right now, but hopefully I'll find the sweet spot eventually.

As for inositol, the usual protocol for OCD is 18 g a day, spread throughout the day. Lots of people talk about it on reddit, there are different ways of doing it. This one guy takes only two large doses a day. I space it out a bit more. I don't take 18 g either, around 10 g is already good enough, it's kinda expensive here so I'm trying to stay at a lower dose.

Honestly I'd try inositol first before trying a psychedelic, I'm a bit wary of the potential side-effects of taking a psychedelic substance, but my OCD is so bad I don't care if I fry my brain, it's not working very well anyway. But good luck whatever you choose to do.

Edit: I also take kratom, which is probably interfering with the psilocybin's effect, but I still notice a considerable attenuation of OCD symptoms when I take psilocybin which I never got from kratom alone. Kratom helps with my contamination OCD and mood, but does very little for my scrupulosity OCD.

Thanks so much. I see I was not taking nearly enough Inositol.

 

[worrywart]

I had hypnagogic hallucinations while falling asleep yesterday. This has also happened to me when taking small doses of codeine before sleep, but the hallucinations this time were a bit more vivid and prolonged. At one point it looked like a full-blown shroom trip, which I've never experienced but have seen depicted in a TV series, a depiction I've seen someone describe as "spot on." It consisted of the walls in my room all lit up by these colorful lights, all the colors in the spectrum, rainbow-like. A numinous, strangely festive atmosphere. I then had a dream a few hours later where someone tells me (or I read it somewhere in the dream?) that at first shrooms users see those lights in their trips and find them nice, but eventually they discover those lights are being beamed by aliens who want to abduct them. I also had some other hallucinations while falling asleep, and there were some other eerie details in the dreams.

Not cool, honestly. I'm only taking these things for the OCD-alleviating effects. I hate hallucinating and dreaming about spooky stuff.

 

[teds]

I had hypnagogic hallucinations while falling asleep yesterday. This has also happened to me when taking small doses of codeine before sleep, but the hallucinations this time were a bit more vivid and prolonged. At one point it looked like a full-blown shroom trip, which I've never experienced but have seen depicted in a TV series, a depiction I've seen someone describe as "spot on." It consisted of the walls in my room all lit up by these colorful lights, all the colors in the spectrum, rainbow-like. A numinous, strangely festive atmosphere. I then had a dream a few hours later where someone tells me (or I read it somewhere in the dream?) that at first shrooms users see those lights in their trips and find them nice, but eventually they discover those lights are being beamed by aliens who want to abduct them. I also had some other hallucinations while falling asleep, and there were some other eerie details in the dreams.

Not cool, honestly. I'm only taking these things for the OCD-alleviating effects. I hate hallucinating and dreaming about spooky stuff.

Mate this sounds not fun. Have you tried therapy? I know it’s probably not super sexy but finding the right therapist might help? Mushrooms affect the psyche.. I think best taken from a fairly stable position. I’m aware they use psilocybin for depression but it isn’t repeated many many times and it’s under the setting of a therapist while you’re in your trip.. anyway, I’d look into that if you feel it might help.

 

[António Marceli]

I'm not a drug guy. I'll do things like kratom and tianeptine, sure, but anything trippier than that and I feel sleazy. But I'm so sick of my OCD I'm willing to try anything at this point. A few months ago my scrupulosity OCD became more severe than ever, I'm talking extreme guilt making me almost catatonic, so whatever, I ordered three grams of shrooms.

Yes, psilocybe cubensis mushrooms. I've already tried all sorts of meds and supplements for my scrupulosity OCD. I tried inositol for the first time a few months ago and it works so well I wish I had discovered it two decades ago. I take inositol and the voice in my head that's always guilt-tripping me becomes much weaker. It loses its grip on me. Its demands stop feeling like imperatives I absolutely must heed. They now felt like suggestions I can safely ignore.

But the OCD is still there. The effect soon wears off. I have to take inositol throughout the day. The guilt keeps creeping back in. So yes, whatever, I tried the shrooms. Microdoses. And it works. It works beautifully. It's kind of like the effect I get from inositol, but even better. The OCD voice almost disappears. It pretty much dissolves. It becomes a distant, almost wordless sound. When I get the dose right, at any rate. It's kind of inconsistent. But it's beautiful. It really does work.

But I've been losing way more hair than usual ever since I began microdosing shrooms. And when you search reddit for "psilocybe" + "hair loss" quite a few threads turn up. It seems to be a thing. What do you guys think? Any experiences with this? Any proposed mechanism for why this should happen?

Hey!
Cypro helped me.
The first week taking 1mg at night just to start and i felt kinda sedated but then it passed.
Now i take 1mg morning and 1mg night
Sometimes i feel like a nootropic effect being more focused.
I am amazed with.
I tried 1cp-lsd for microdose but didnt improved, only got slightly depressed some days.
But my friends loved it.
Microdosing with hallucinogetics has rules.
James Fadiman is the guy if you want to go deeper.
He is studying this since the 70 and came with a protocol
based on is data wich is still collecting from people around the world.
The initial protocol is take one day then 2 days off,repeat.
Take it for a month and stop 15days to a month,restart.
The idea is to start with a low dose and increment slowly.
100mcg seems a lot. It should be a dose with no hallucinating effects. With lsd it was only for me 10mcg but my girlfriend 8mcg
When you start seeing things kinda distorted you took too much.
Reduce. It should be sub perceptional.
But with shrooms maybe something like 50mcg to start maybe less.
Taking everyday is a no from his perspective.
Diet helps.
I only started to be slightly ocd after panic attacks.
So Peats principles are helping, but its a process.
Base CO2 should make a difference so incresing levels
with buteyko might help, i feel better,so maybe there is something
with oxidative metabolismnin the brain and blood circulation.
High dose b1 helped me also.
And i guess androgen levels should be involved.
Excess cortisol probably is involved.
I mentioned diet because i know honest shamans direct people in a special diet before taking ayuasca, and they sing special songs.
And coffe for some reason is a no.
Mindful exercise helps like tai chi,chi gong.

 

[worrywart]

Hey!
Cypro helped me.
The first week taking 1mg at night just to start and i felt kinda sedated but then it passed.
Now i take 1mg morning and 1mg night
Sometimes i feel like a nootropic effect being more focused.
I am amazed with.
I tried 1cp-lsd for microdose but didnt improved, only got slightly depressed some days.
But my friends loved it.
Microdosing with hallucinogetics has rules.
James Fadiman is the guy if you want to go deeper.
He is studying this since the 70 and came with a protocol
based on is data wich is still collecting from people around the world.
The initial protocol is take one day then 2 days off,repeat.
Take it for a month and stop 15days to a month,restart.
The idea is to start with a low dose and increment slowly.
100mcg seems a lot. It should be a dose with no hallucinating effects. With lsd it was only for me 10mcg but my girlfriend 8mcg
When you start seeing things kinda distorted you took too much.
Reduce. It should be sub perceptional.
But with shrooms maybe something like 50mcg to start maybe less.
Taking everyday is a no from his perspective.
Diet helps.
I only started to be slightly ocd after panic attacks.
So Peats principles are helping, but its a process.
Base CO2 should make a difference so incresing levels
with buteyko might help, i feel better,so maybe there is something
with oxidative metabolismnin the brain and blood circulation.
High dose b1 helped me also.
And i guess androgen levels should be involved.
Excess cortisol probably is involved.
I mentioned diet because i know honest shamans direct people in a special diet before taking ayuasca, and they sing special songs.
And coffe for some reason is a no.
Mindful exercise helps like tai chi,chi gong.

Obrigado pela resposta extensa. Fico até encabulado. Hehe.

Cypro doesn't do anything for my OCD. It's a great drug, makes me feel good mentally and my hair looks great when I take it, but for OCD it does nothing. I've been OCD since childhood. Severe OCD, really.

Micrograms, though? No, I'm taking 100 miligrams (or more) of shrooms. It's working ok so far. The anti-OCD effects have worn out a bit, I'll have to adjust the doses I guess.

Bag breathing does mitigate some of my OCD symptoms so I guess you're right about the CO2, and I definitely need to stop drinking coffee. I've been drinking way too much coffee for over two decades now. Cortisol is probably a culprit here.

Good advice all around, thank you.

 

[worrywart]

Mate this sounds not fun. Have you tried therapy? I know it’s probably not super sexy but finding the right therapist might help? Mushrooms affect the psyche.. I think best taken from a fairly stable position. I’m aware they use psilocybin for depression but it isn’t repeated many many times and it’s under the setting of a therapist while you’re in your trip.. anyway, I’d look into that if you feel it might help.

Yeah man I've tried therapy. Years and years of therapy. And it was completely useless. Meanwhile after microdosing shrooms for the first time I could feel my scrupulosity dissolve. I'm not getting hallucinations anymore, either. So I think I'm doing ok. I've had hypnagogic hallucinations and spooky alien dreams before, with no psychedelics involved. Thanks for reaching out though.

 

[António Marceli]

Obrigado pela resposta extensa. Fico até encabulado. Hehe.

Cypro doesn't do anything for my OCD. It's a great drug, makes me feel good mentally and my hair looks great when I take it, but for OCD it does nothing. I've been OCD since childhood. Severe OCD, really.

Micrograms, though? No, I'm taking 100 miligrams (or more) of shrooms. It's working ok so far. The anti-OCD effects have worn out a bit, I'll have to adjust the doses I guess.

Bag breathing does mitigate some of my OCD symptoms so I guess you're right about the CO2, and I definitely need to stop drinking coffee. I've been drinking way too much coffee for over two decades now. Cortisol is probably a culprit here.

Good advice all around, thank you.

Ahah falas português? :)
Raramente encontro quem fale português nos forums em que participo.

I think you should try the fadiman protocol or circle your dose.
I mean, take some days off, the idea is to avoid tolerance.
I know there are people doing kind of weekly retreats with meditation,informative talks about the potential of microdosing in treating or relieving some, should i say, temporarily uncomfortable zeitgeist eheh (just to avoid the word pathology).
In The Netherlands universities are involved in studying microdosing.
Yoga nidra probably could help.
If your scrupulous maybe that could be an advantage say working with your hands doing ceramics or other activity.
Other thing you could to is just to be mindfull of your body and the things around you without naming things,just feeling the sound as sound without preferences,the colors,the weight,with preference,choicelessly aware,and if thougths ocur,wich really areba kind of brain saliva,just watch,notice them and.at the same time notice your body.
It.has to be at the same time, sound,weight,not alternatively. Or the visual field as if you are looking from the back of your head and the sounds as one.
Just pure listening and pure seeing.
This way you step back from time,thoughts are time,and you step into space or atemporal perceiving where thoughts loose their grip and if you are lucky,silence.
Take care bro.

 

[worrywart]

Ahah falas português? :)
Raramente encontro quem fale português nos forums em que participo.

I think you should try the fadiman protocol or circle your dose.
I mean, take some days off, the idea is to avoid tolerance.
I know there are people doing kind of weekly retreats with meditation,informative talks about the potential of microdosing in treating or relieving some, should i say, temporarily uncomfortable zeitgeist eheh (just to avoid the word pathology).
In The Netherlands universities are involved in studying microdosing.
Yoga nidra probably could help.
If your scrupulous maybe that could be an advantage say working with your hands doing ceramics or other activity.
Other thing you could to is just to be mindfull of your body and the things around you without naming things,just feeling the sound as sound without preferences,the colors,the weight,with preference,choicelessly aware,and if thougths ocur,wich really areba kind of brain saliva,just watch,notice them and.at the same time notice your body.
It.has to be at the same time, sound,weight,not alternatively. Or the visual field as if you are looking from the back of your head and the sounds as one.
Just pure listening and pure seeing.
This way you step back from time,thoughts are time,and you step into space or atemporal perceiving where thoughts loose their grip and if you are lucky,silence.
Take care bro.

Good advice again, thank you.
Dosing every day makes tolerance ramp up indeed, as I've just noticed. Taking two-day breaks seems to be the ideal here.
Otherwise, yes, it has already occurred to me that thinking less verbally alleviates my neurotic symptoms. Microdosing seems to help with that.

 

[worrywart]

My verdict so far is that microdosing works pretty well for OCD, and undesirable side-effects are kept to a minimum as long as one doses responsibly. So far so good.

But the hair loss really sucks. I do seem to be losing hair every time I microdose. Hairline hairs, thick ones, the ones that usually I don't shed. It may have something to do with blood pressure. I guess the psilocybe is raising my BP. When I get angry the same thing happens. Raised BP, hairline hairs falling off.

I'll try to take niacinamide and taurine again and start sunbathing again, which usually halt my hairloss when I begin shedding. We'll see.

 

[worrywart]

Insane shedding. I've managed to keep a relatively lush mane this far thanks to Peat. I began shedding in 2012 and began peating shortly thereafter. But right now I'm pretty much losing clumps of hair when I run my hand through it. Pretty cool.

 

[worrywart]

Tolerance rises quite fast with daily dosing. 200 mg on first day will have strong mood-enhancing, anxiety-alleviating effects; on the third day you will need 1 g for the same effect. Hair loss seems to be proportional to dosage. All the more reason for only dosing every third day or so.

I hate to sound vain but my looks are the only thing I have going for me right now, and I look much better with longish hair. If I have to go bald that's fine but I haven't given up yet. Maybe if I only use a small dose every third day and take niacinamide, vit D and taurine (my usual hair loss crisis antidote combo) it will work out. We'll see. I'll probably shave my hair next week but I'll still follow an anti-hair-loss protocol.

Permanent side-effects are reported by some users. Things like permanent visual snow and other visual anomalies. That is one of my worries. But again, my OCD has gotten so bad I don't care anymore. I'll try anything at this point. This feels fairly sustainable for now. Let's see how things go.

 

[António Marceli]

Tolerance rises quite fast with daily dosing. 200 mg on first day will have strong mood-enhancing, anxiety-alleviating effects; on the third day you will need 1 g for the same effect. Hair loss seems to be proportional to dosage. All the more reason for only dosing every third day or so.

I hate to sound vain but my looks are the only thing I have going for me right now, and I look much better with longish hair. If I have to go bald that's fine but I haven't given up yet. Maybe if I only use a small dose every third day and take niacinamide, vit D and taurine (my usual hair loss crisis antidote combo) it will work out. We'll see. I'll probably shave my hair next week but I'll still follow an anti-hair-loss protocol.

Permanent side-effects are reported by some users. Things like permanent visual snow and other visual anomalies. That is one of my worries. But again, my OCD has gotten so bad I don't care anymore. I'll try anything at this point. This feels fairly sustainable for now. Let's see how things go.

I wonder if eating more fish or seafood would support your experience and the sheding thing.
I remember when i was carnivore.eating lots of.meat.almost a kilo per day,my tooth and gum sensitivities disappeared.
As if the perifery of the body got better.
I also met a guy witch cured is multiple sclerosis eating every other day 4kg of lambs meat and in between dry fast and taking lots of sun and doing mild exercise like lifting weights just for tonification not.muscle building. Lambs meat seams to have someething diferent than beef.

 

[worrywart]

Time for an update.

I shaved my head. I seem to lose less hair when my head is shaved. Is this just an illusion? I run my hand through my prickly short hairs and no little short hairs end up in my fingers. I would appreciate feedback from fellow balding lads here.

My verdict so far is that microdosing psilocybin does work for severe OCD, but only during the "high" and the afterglow. The following day I'm back to being a prisoner of my own neuroses, immobilized by guilt. So the solution would be chronic psilocybin consumption, which sounds not very ideal for several reasons:

- It's expensive and tolerance ramps up really really fast.
- It might fry your brain. This is a powerful substance. You can feel the neuronal connections dissolving and rearranging. It feels good and liberating but who knows what would happen if you do it long term.
- The hair loss, of course, which was pretty significant when my hair was longish. Some sort of stress or inflammatory reaction, it would seem. Not negligible. Doing shrooms long term might mean the loss of my hair. I still have pretty much a full head of hair.
- Psilocybine is sort of spiritual. It's a not a mere molecule that tickles your brain. Since I stick to microdoses I haven't experienced anything too spooky or paranormal, but I did get a few spooky and paranormal blips here and there. Vivid hypnagogic hallucinations, spooky dreams, spooky thoughts. You are tapping into the beyond with this stuff.

I wish I could just surgically remove the part of my brain that's responsible for OCD. I'm willing to try abilify at this point. I'll try anything. F%ck OCD. I hope the abilify doesn't make me fat like the cypro always does.