We are Dax Jackson and Ally Lee of Psychedelic Safety Alliance. We are here to provide scientific, no-BS adult harm reduction education around psychedelics.

How can I prepare my mindset for a psychedelic experience if I have underlying apprehension about it? Does that mean I just shouldn't try?

First thing: it's very reasonable (and arguably, healthy!) to feel apprehension around a psychedelic experience! They can be life changing experiences, and if not approached with the proper gravitas and preparation, can absolutely cause harm instead of help you learn and grow.

In terms of steps you can take, I would first really examine the root of the apprehension. What is it that you are concerned by? Happy to dig into some more detail on this, if we can hear a little more.

We made a checklist for folks to follow that gives a brief walkthrough some of the physical safety questions you might want to ask yourself, to ensure that as a minimum baseline for your experience: https://www.psychedelicsafetyalliance.org/f/safer-psychonaut-dosing-protocol

[deleted]

There will always be worry about taking them. It’s a huge experience. Being nervous is fine

Another thing worth noting is that lower doses are far less likely to produce and overpowering or scary experience. If you're worried about something like this happening but want to try something anyways, try taking a microdose or the lowest possible "threshold" dose indicated by a site like Erowid.org or PsychonautWiki.org. That way, if something unexpected or difficult happens or comes up, you'll be better able to figure out how to respond than if you were in full-blown talking-to-my-ancestors land

Are their groups of people who should NOT take psychedelics? For example those that have health conditions, like schizophrenia, heart defects, or cancer? Can they still partake.

Based on anecdotal evidence, schizophrenia or bipolar disorder can both be exacerbated in some ways by psychedelics, so those folks should steer clear. Ditto if you have a family history of either

We've also had several friends that experienced psychotic episodes triggered by psychedelic use who had no prior diagnosis of significant mental illness and were diagnosed after the fact.

In addition to being scary to watch and life-altering for them, this experience also made us aware of one of the major bummers when it comes to the risks of taking psychedelics: Though it is rare for people with no prior history of mental illness to experience psychotic episodes triggered by psychedelic use, it does happen consistently enough to be a Thing, and there's some degree to which you can't predict whether this will happen to you until you take psychedelics and find out.

People with heart issues should also probably avoid stimulant drugs like MDMA and MDA.

There are also a wide variety of other drugs and medications which can have weird or occasionally harmful interactions with different psychedelics, so it's important to check those as well. The TripSit Combinations Chart is a good place to look for combinations of different recreational drugs, and the Drugs.com Interactions Checker covers interactions between ketamine and many pharmaceutical and over-the-counter medications, but for interactions between most psychedelics and most common prescription meds, there's a lot less information out there.

Do your own research, and if you're not sure, don't do it.

Can you speak a little more to how psychedelics affect bipolar? Is it all psychedelics?

There's not a lot of clinical data on this, so most of it is anecdotal. We've personally seen several people with both diagnosed bipolar and undiagnosed bipolar enter hypomanic states after using LSD, but that's not enough to extrapolate out a general statement about the dozens and dozens of psychedelics out there.

Here's one article that addresses this question in some greater detail:
https://www.lucid.news/are-there-risks-to-using-psychedelics-if-you-have-certain-mental-illnesses/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=are-there-risks-to-using-psychedelics-if-you-have-certain-mental-illnesses

And another:
https://www.crestbd.ca/2022/01/06/bipolar-psychedelics-psilocybin/

How does one go about getting started? How do you find a trustworthy local-ish supplier?

We created this checklist with some questions to help guide safe interactions with dealers in underground markets, and maximize the likelihood of getting a safe, predictable product: https://www.psychedelicsafetyalliance.org/f/dealingwithyourdealer

We try to steer safely within the bounds of the law when it comes to questions about where to find psychedelics, but the place most people start is by connecting with other people who use psychedelics and asking them about their sourcing.

That said, trust in a supplier is not the same as empirical evidence that their product is safe. Any drugs purchased from underground markets should always be tested for impurities and to make sure they are what you were told they are.

The steps you need to take to determine if your drugs are safe can vary depending on which compound we're talking about, but generally wants to include as many of the following testing methods as possible:

Chemical Reagents
Fentanyl Strips
Laboratory Analysis

What common misconception do you see about psychedelics?

So many! That's why we started an organization and just created a 12-hour long psychedelic safety course.

A few common ones we see are:

- I trust my dealer, so his product should be safe
- I don't need to test my drugs on my own
- I don't need to worry too much about drug combinations
- The amount my friend took should be good for me too
- Calling 911 in an emergency is going to get me busted

I think the last point is dangerous information to be spreading. I am a criminal defense attorney in a southern state with "safe haven/good Samaritan" laws and people DO get felony convictions and jail when they or others call 911 for help even with these laws on the books.

Interesting, given that these laws are explicitly intended to prevent that exact thing. We always lean towards seeking medical attention rather than not and have interviewed several emergency medical personnel who've said that they only call police if someone gets violent or is a risk to their own safety.

That said, the medical professionals we talked to were in decidedly liberal states, so I can see where you'd feel concerned about that being a general recommendation given your experience somewhere more conservative. As safety nerds, lean towards increasing the greatest likelihood of health and life, regardless of whether you're incarcerated or not, but that might not be everyone's orientation.

From a legal perspective, what do you think accounts for the discrepancy and how would you fight felony charges in court if they ran counter to Good Samaritan laws in your state?

My states statute requires that the report be made for an individual having an overdose, which "means a life-threatening condition resulting from the consumption or use of a controlled substance, alcohol, or any combination of such substances"

Therefore we've had cases where bystander sees person passed out, calls 911 and it wasn't an overdose. Prosecutor: This shouldn't apply for two reasons: A) Bystander has no medical training and didn't identify this as an overdose on the call so this can't be dismissed under this law. B) Alternatively, medical personnel arrived and determined this was not an overdose. Therefore this law doesn't apply.

Judge:ok

Alternate case, person passes out and hits their head. Prosecutor: well the other person called because of a head wound/bleeding, not an overdose so this law can't apply.

Damn, that sucks. In our most recent safety course, we've gone into great depth with the help of some medical professionals to teach people how to identify an overdose so that mistaken assumptions like this are less likely to occur, so I think the recommendation of calling 911 in doubt is indeed more complex.

A recommendation that one educate onself on appropriate crisis triage skills so you don't accidentally put someone in jail sounds key.

Even then, what do you make of a situation where someone doesn't know whether a person who's passed out is overdosing or not? Is it ethically responsible to advise people to not seek medical attention if they're not sure whether someone needs it? The whole point of Good Samaritan laws is to protect those acting in the interest of health and life, whether or not there are loopholes in the legal system that can be exploited to prevent this, and it's hard to recommend a choice which could result in someone possibly dying for lack of attention just because there are edge cases in some places which could lead to incarceration.

Again, some people would probably prefer to be dead than in jail and it's not up to someone else to decide that for you, but the ethical quandary remains, no?

Others:

- I took "a hit" before, that's how much I should take this time

- I took this dose once and had this experience, I'm going to have the same experience on the same dose this time

- most psychedelics don't have a risk of toxic overdose, thus I don't need to think about any other safety issues

We're happy to answer questions on wide range of topics, including:
- Avoiding dangerous drug combinations

- Safer dosing practices

- Determining whether you, your environment, and the people you're with are conducive for having a safe, beneficial experience

- Testing compounds sourced from underground markets to make sure they are what you think they are

- Determining whether your product contains fentanyl or other harmful adulterants

- Where to find quality, no-BS information about drugs on the internet

- How to triage and respond in a crisis if something goes sideways and you need to get help

- Supporting someone having a difficult journey

- Issues of consent around psychedelics

- How to make sense of psychedelic experiences and integrate them into your life

Ask us anything!

Is it true that taking psychedelics (specifically mushrooms) for consecutive days reduces their effectiveness or your body’s ability to experience their potency?

Yes. Your body begins to develop a tolerance to both mushrooms and LSD after using them once, and if you take either of them more than about 3-4 days in a row, they'll stop working almost entirely unless you take reeeeeally massive doses (which we do not recommend)

This is part of why psilocybin is so interesting from a clinical perspective: they have a uniquely "anti-addictive" property and doesn't form a physiological dependence like many other drugs.

[deleted]

About as you'd expect from a couple drug safety nerds: We think it sucks.

Humans have always used drugs and always will. We think that reliable health and safety information about them should be easy to access.

Are you licensed to give medical advice around dosage and drug interactions?

Nope, and very few people are. That doesn't stop people from taking psychedelics on their own with even less information or awareness than we've amasssed over 35 combined years of studying this topic. We exist to vet publicly available tools and resources, teach people how to find this information on their own, and how to synthesize all of it into usable safety planning steps.

That's why, for purposes of this AMA, we will not provide specific medical advice to individuals advising as to specific dosages. We are not a substitute for your doctor or psychiatrist when it comes to you and your body.

HOWEVER, we know regular, unlicensed people are dosing themselves all the time anyways, and are happy to provide general harm reduction information on considerations around safer dosing practices and potentially harmful drug interactions.

An important note on medical advice with psychedelics is that there is not much by way of licensing - yet - specific to psychedelics. There are some clinical handbooks being developed as the science on the medical use of psychedelics advances, such as the MAPS MDMA Investigator's Brochure.

That said, one of us (Ally) has worked extensively in clinical environments developing hands-on experience navigating these questions for harm reduction purposes.

Medical professionals are not currently trained to give dosage and drug interaction advice around psychedelics, so even your most trusted doctor is probably going to fall short on this one. This means you have to do the research yourself. Fortunately, the information is out there if you know where to look.

PsychonautWiki.org is our favorite place to refer people to look up dosage ranges for different compounds.

For assessing interactions between different recreational drugs, including psychedelics, here's a helpful guide on using the Drug Interactions Checker from TripSit.me:

https://psychedelictimes.com/use-tripsits-guide-drug-combinations-chart/

In short: Only a small handful of licensed professionals in the world are qualified to give these recommendations, and though we have access to some of them, we are not those people.

Our job is to go to the experts and ask them your questions, translate their (often technical, jargon-heavy) answers into plain English, then tell you what they said and how to use that information to make your own choices safer.

Thanks for doing this!

You're welcome!

Not OP, but it's worth noting that (at least in mushrooms), dosage is often a crapshoot. Two stems from the same plant can have wildly different levels. The most effective way to modulate dosage is to take a large amount and make honey with it. Then take a very small dose of that, gauge your reaction, and dose from there accordingly. I don't know if this is the same with other non-processed hallucinogens, but it seems likely.

Variation between mushroom caps and stems is indeed real and too inconsistent to predict. Another method is to grind your mushrooms into powder with a coffee grinder to homogenize them.

Shrooms awakened traumatic childhood memories that I never knew happened to me. Have you ever heard of this?

Yes. The ability of many psychedelics to do this is precisely why they're used for therapeutic purposes.

Hi! I learned there are a lot of people with treatment-resistant PTSD and depression out there who might benefit from psychedelics, and here is a lot of suffering that could potentially be helped. At the same time, it's hard to get into controlled studies, and licensed, prescription-based use of these drugs seems years away still. There are also therapists who "inofficially" treat patients who take small doses of psychedelics and guide them through it, but it's hard to find those of course. Meanwhile, people affected by these disorders are often desperate. Is there a recommendation you could give to those people?

Thanks for doing this, and all your work!

Absolutely - it's an incredible tool when wielded correctly, but widespread, legal clinical usage of some compounds (ex. MDMA) is quite a ways off yet. In the US, the psychedelic assisted psychotherapy that is currently the most widely available (and has the research to back it up) is ketamine assisted psychotherapy. It's a bit of a wild west out there in terms of quality of treatment protocols and coverage by insurers, but accessibility is increasing rapidly. A handful of Kaiser Permanente sites, for example, have started offering it by referral, if you want a sense of how it's entering the mainstream.

Depending on where you're at, legality varies widely - some people have found help by seeking out psychedelic support in clinics in other countries, which is a rapidly growing (and inconsistently regulated) industry. This isn't an accessible option for many who are suffering though, as it is a considerable financial burden to travel for your medical treatment. We are excited that there is such strong momentum pulling us in the direction of more legal options that could be paid for by health insurance.

I'm in Europe, I think it's not very popular here yet. Yes, let's hope for more wide-spread safe options soon. Thank you!!

You're welcome!

Let's say someone was going to take mushrooms no matter what. How much would you say is a safe amount to take for the first time at max? Also, what's the max amount for an experienced user?

Also, if someone wanted a safe, enjoyable mushroom trip, what kind of places would you say are best to do them in?

Albert Hoffman, the guy who first synthesized LSD, was a big fan of taking hallucinogens in nature. We tend to agree, with the caveat that you want to be in a safe natural environment with few hazards that you'd be hard-pressed to avoid while sober.

Here are the recommendations from Erowid.org on psilocybin mushrooms. We advocate taking a microdose to start and working your way up slowly over many sessions to determine how much is good for you. The amount experienced users take can vary widely on the context and we certainly know people who've taken more than the Heavy dosage Erowid lists, though we wouldn't necessarily recommend that to even experienced users without a sober, trained professional holding a safe container for them.

Is it true that psychedelics can have side effects throughout one's life after the first time?

Roommate of mine has mentioned them before, and preached about how he still feels things after years of not taking anything.

It depends on what kinds of effects you're referring to...what sorts of things does your roommate say he feels years later?

In pharmacological terms, "side effects" usually refers to effects that happen *during* a drug experience which are not the "getting high" part, like getting a headache or having your body temperature elevate.

That said, *some* psychedelics under *some* circumstances can have lasting long-term physical effects like damage to the urinary tract from repeated heavy ketamine use, or lasting psycho-emotional effects like the reduction of PTSD symptoms which are being seen in the FDA trials using MDMA you may have heard about.

What are examples of when this does happen

See above comment regarding HPPD; Wikipedia link below

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallucinogen\_persisting\_perception\_disorder#:\~:text=Hallucinogen%20persisting%20perception%20disorder%20(HPPD,a%20previous%20hallucinogenic%20drug%20experience.

Mushrooms and LSD, and the only thing he has described was "whatever you experience your first time you can feel a very toned down version of that years later."

So i am just curious if this is true or not. Seems plausible if maybe someone did too much of any certain drug, but not sure about microdosing for medicinal reasons.

There's not much research on the long-term effects of microdosing yet, so that's still unknown. There is a condition called HPPD in which people experience visual hallucinations for years after taking hallucinogens like mushrooms and LSD, but this is pretty rare and seems to be much more likely when people take higher doses.

Gotcha! Make sense in the higher dose amounts. Thanks for the response!

Happy to help! Please let us know if there's anything else you'd like to know.

To what extent should one expect a "loss of control" over one's actions when taking psychelics? Relatedly, would you recommend being in the presence of another (non-inebriated) person while having a psychedelic experience?

"loss of control" - I'd say this is the most dependent on your dosage range, and the specific substance you took. Higher doses of psychedelics that also have dissociative properties, for example, may result in a complete loss of control - sometime to the point of potentially harming oneself. We have many stories of being first responders in those situations. A very small microdose, by contrast, may result in no perceptible change to your motor function at all. The dose makes the poison!

We absolutely recommend having another person with you while you are having a psychedelic experience, ESPECIALLY if it is a compound you are relatively unfamiliar with, or if you are taking at a higher dosage range. This is often referred to as a "sitter" and there are many excellent resources out there on how to do this well. The most well known is probably the MAPS Manual of Psychedelic Support, which is used as the base for many psychedelic harm reduction support groups: https://maps.org/product/manual-of-psychedelic-support/

Adding in here: we made a quick reference laminate for sitters & other community members who may be uncertain as to whether a psychedelic crisis is psychoemotional or physical in nature, and accessing additional medical support is necessary. (The laminate is meant to supplement a basic first aid/CPR training, and a psychedelic support training such as that offered through Zendo - it's not a replacement for those trainings.) Link through here:

https://www.psychedelicsafetyalliance.org/f/crisislaminate

Is there a good way to change course during a bad trip? I’ve done LSD once and mushrooms three times.

LSD trip was bad because I was dealing with anxieties I thought I’d processed. Not in the “walls are melting and the KoolaAid man wants to eat my brain” way, but just recursive thought patterns around the source of the anxieties. In this case, my narcissist parents. Was around friends I trusted and in a beautiful environment (sand dunes on Lake Michigan) but outside of the giggly come-up and some color trails around stuff couldn’t focus on anything else. If anything it made me realize I needed to put a bigger focus on my mental health and cut myself off from my parents.

First time with mushrooms was the most feel-good I’d been in a long time and that feeling lasted for months afterward. Second I was solo at home, watching Into the Spiderverse and playing video games. It ruled. Popped on the first Ghostbusters and couldn’t make it past the opening scene in the library basement. My then-gf came over after that and everything was pretty chill.

Third time with mushrooms was my first time listening to music on psychedelics, and tripping with my then-GF. Didn’t realize how much that would affect things. “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” by The Beatles came on and it made the vibe so heavy and scary, especially that recursive guitar riff at the end. I was in the kitchen making a cheese and sausage plate and she goes “don’t murder me.” I’ve gotta say, I’m not a violent person at all but her intrusive thought while I was holding a knife scared the shit out of me and really affected the trip. We skipped to the next song (“Here Comes the Sun” felt like it was next up for a reason) put on upbeat poppy music and watched Arrested Development. Was awesome after that. But the intrusive thought was still lingering there.

Tl;dr I suppose is, how can you fight those thoughts or recover from a trip on its way south?

There's an entire field of psychedelic harm reduction devoted to supporting people having difficult experiences. The MAPS Manual of Psychedelic Support covers a lot of the basics.

If you're on your own and fortunate to be at an event that has a dedicated space and trained people to support you through an experience, that's always going to be your best bet.

If you don't have someone right there, the Fireside Project offers free, remote support to people having difficult experiences.

Can teenagers use psychedelics therapeutically and safely with informed parental and/or physician guidance? Why or why not? What is the minimum age recommended for psychedelic therapy?

Well, psychedelic therapy isn't legal yet in most jurisdictions with most of the compounds that folks are interested in taking for therapeutic purposes... so there's no consistent legal age limit. However, (il)legality doesn't always translate into safety.

We do know that the brain keeps growing and developing until age 25 and we don't know how psychedelics may impact that, but there's not a ton of clinical research one way or the other when it comes to adolescents specifically. There's plenty of indigenous cultures that give teenage people psychedelics under supervised contexts, but the existence of a deep cultural context and practice there makes it hard to extrapolate that over to the Western model of psychedelic therapy.

Anecdotally, we both know teenagers who took psychedelics at festivals or in other unsupervised environments, had a great time, and were fine afterwards. We also know teenagers who took psychedelics and had psychotic episodes. We also know adults who've been in both camps as well.

So there are always possible risks and benefits, but there's a lot we don't know. Often, the only way to find out is to take some psychedelics and see, which we neither condone nor condemn; we just acknowledge that it happens.

Negative outcomes with psychedelics are rare, but they do happen and the only way you can minimize them to the highest degree possible is to be careful about things like accurate dosing, avoiding bad drug interactions, and making sure you're not accidentally taking the wrong thing or consuming harmful adulterants.

Even then, there's always going to be some risk; whether you want to take that risk is ultimately up to your own assessment; the important things are to know what all the potential risks are so that you can make an informed decision.

I tried mushrooms twice. I took 1 gm the first time and felt nothing. Second time I took 1.5gm and again nothing. I am prescribed Citalopram and read that could make my ability to experience the benefits from mushrooms. Is this true?

SSRI antidepressants do seem to blunt the effects of many psychedelics, including LSD, mushrooms, and MDMA. This does not mean you should just stop taking your citalopram if you want to take mushrooms, but your experience seems to indicate that standard doses might not work for you.

It's also possible that the mushrooms you took were old and that the psilocybin they contained degraded over time. Doing another experiment with freshly-harvested mushrooms at the same dosage ranges while taking your normal dose of Citalopram would possibly provide some insight into this.

Can proper set and setting ever be attained in a person with a history of a panic disorder?

I miss Lucy immensely but the fear of an lsd intoxicated panic attack has kept me sober about 20 years now.

In case it matters, I have hundreds of trips from my teens and early 20s and never had problems. Not a single bad trip to speak of. Paradoxically, pot was the substance I believe triggered my panic disorder. (First 2 panic attacks occurred in succession after smoking.) I've since "recovered" in the sense I don't require treatment but have a laundry list of triggers I have adapted to avoid. Caffeine/stimulants and sleep deprivation being the primary culprits.

Is this probably an "if you love her, let her go" type of situation? I only have amazing and magical memories of those experiences and while nostalgia is a hell of a drug itself, I genuinely believe my life is less fulfilling now without it.

That's super subjective, so unfortunately don't think there's a way to give a conclusive answer to that. When in doubt, we advise caution and not going there.

Psychedelics are helpful for some people, but they're not ideal for everyone.

Why do you think people are so scared of talking about HPPD?

We can only speak to our personal experience, which has been that a lot of people don't talk about HPPD because it's not common and most people don't even know it's a thing. It's possible that some psychedelic evangelists might not want to talk about it because they have a vested interest in portraying psychedelics as being entirely without risks, but that's pure conjecture on our part.

Are there any guidelines for preventing HPPD ?

As with many things in the psychedelic realm, there's not a ton of research on this. Anecdotally, repeatedly taking high doses over a long period of time seems like it *might* increase the likelihood of someone developing HPPD, but the kinds of studies it would take to prove this would be unethical to conduct.

In general, lower, infrequent doses are safer doses.

Does DMT really make you see beings from another dimension?

So-called "entity contact" is anecdotally reported by a percentage of people who take high doses of DMT.

I skipped to the bottom, so please forgive if you have already answered my question. I have grown my own and taken 4 trips. I had been suffering for depression and have seen how beneficial my mushrooms have been for me.

How can I help others? I vote and do the legal stuff, but is there more that the AverageJoe can do with what we have learned?

Also, what I have read is so good! Keep up the good work!

We've created a bunch of resources you can share with your friends if you want to help make psychedelic culture safer and more beneficial for everyone. Head to our website and we'll send you some more free safety resources!

PsychedelicSafetyAlliance.org

Do yall two do psychedelics?

If so, what are yalls favorites? And how would you defend your ability to do any "credible" research to the people so frightened of drugs they will completely dismiss you and might even try to hurt you if they know you've done them?

If no, why not?

As you've noted, there is such a stigma around people who use psychedelics and other scheduled drugs that we have opted not to comment on whether we engage with them ourselves. What we can say is that we both grew up in communities where there was a lot of psychedelic use and witnessed enough negative consequences of people not knowing what the hell they were doing that we decided to start an organization dedicated to teaching people how to use drugs in a safer, more considered fashion.

We also do not focus much on doing original research. We're aggregators; our job is to learn about the risks and issues most people don't know much about, and consult experts about how to mitigate those risks.

Do you have any recommendations on how to deal with lasting, negative effects from psychedelic use? I wouldn’t say I used excessively but I’m naturally a rather anxious person, and I’m very sure that LSD use has lead to derealization. I’ve had checks to make sure it’s not a different brain issue, but most likely stems from anxiety itself. Over time it feels like it’s almost gotten worse and it can be somewhat debilitating at times, once leading to a panic attack so severe I genuinely thought I needed to go to the hospital. I’ve only found the supplement NAC to help, but after stopping it for around 2 days it seems to come back quite strongly and after reading up on it I’d really like to not take NAC forever… is there anything you would recommend me? I have not taken LSD since the symptoms started, which has been about one and a half years ago. I might do MDMA with minimum 3 months between sessions but have abstained from this as well for a bit now to ensure rest for my brain.

There's not a ton of research we know of on this and our job is not to give medical advice. This one is probably best fielded by a psychiatrist. In the meantime, sounds like you're making a wise choice by not taking more psychedelics.

Do you or the people in this alliance have first hand experience with psychedelics?

Yes, we consult with a wide range of experts in a half-dozen different disciplines related to the topic of psychedelic safety. We're about understanding why things go sideways on psychedelics sometimes and what can be done to prevent those negative outcomes. It's hard to do that without borrowing on the firsthand experience of a lot of people, especially folks like festival first responders who see a lot of rough stuff go down in crisis situations involving psychedelics.

Where to find an fda sponsored study? Seems like the safest (and legal) way.

That would be a great email question for the folks at MAPS.

Alternately, ketamine therapy is legal and available many places in the US, where we're based, so that's another option if you're looking for trained professional supervision and a guarantee that you'll be dosed with pharmaceutically pure product.

What psychedelic compound do you think has the most potential to help mankind and why?

Psilocybin and MDMA were chosen for many of the current clinical trials that are happening because the evidence for their efficacy is so strong. These two seem to be on track to join ketamine as legal tools for therapy and will likely scale soonest, so it's reasonable to assume they'll have the greatest impact.

Are there any psychedelics that are safe to take with a prescribed MAOI?

Options are really limited, as MAOIs have TONS of contraindications with compounds that act on the serotonergic pathways - which most psychedelics do - and therefore run the risk of developing serotonin storm syndrome. Serotonin storm syndrome can have severe, permanent effects that can exacerbate the underlying reason why someone may be taking MAOIs in the first place. There frankly hasn't been a lot of clinical research out there establishing conclusive safety. This lack of safety informtion is noted in the smattering of papers that *are* out there (ex. this one reviewing a variety of antidepressent interactions with ketamine): https://academic.oup.com/ijnp/article/24/10/808/6309481

If someone aren't able to find safety data on a specific psychedelic, we generally advise folks to stay on the side of safety and not go for it: it's better to be overly cautious than totally fucked.

Can a shrooms trip trigger or kickstart a depression?

Not sure. I can't recall ever looking into this question, but now I'm curious

I'm not aware of any specific research or anecdata on this, but that doesn't mean it does or doesn't happen. Google might be more helpful than we are for this question.

[deleted]

Depends which psychedelic and under what conditions. Every psychedelic has a range of different doses you can take, which have different effects and safety profiles. When in doubt, we advocate that people aim for the Minimum Effective Dose (MED), which is the smallest, lightest dose required to produce a desired effect. This is always going to be the safest way to go. For info on dosage ranges for different drugs, Erowid.org or PsychonautWiki.org have a lot of good information. Whenever you are measuring a dose, it's also important to always use some kind of measurement device like a milligram scale; the amount contained in a "hit" of something purchased from underground markets can vary widely.

[deleted]

You're welcome! We have a longer write up on the resource question linked from this page, if it's helpful: https://www.psychedelicsafetyalliance.org/f/psychedelic-safety-resources

I have drug resistant depression and looking into both micro and macro dosing as an alternative. Are you aware of any clinical studies in the MA/NH area?

That's a great email question for the people at MAPS:

https://maps.org/

I’m trying to figure out what you’re on; is it shrooms or LSD?

We do these on our favorite drug ever: caffeine

What's the worst thing that could happen to my mind if I use psychedelics?

This is a pretty subjective question and depends on a lot of variables related to specific individuals and situations. For some predisposed people in some rare circumstances, some psychedelics can lead to psychotic episodes, persisting mental health challenges, or persisting hallucinations. There's also a whole host of health and safety issues related to adulterants in underground products, but to give you a comprehensive answer would take more space than we have here.

Can you use psychedelics if you have a condition like epilepsy? I’ve seen mixed answers

Not a ton of research we're aware of on this. In general, if you have a major medical condition like epilepsy and there's not a ton of conclusive evidence that it's safe for you to take psychedelics, don't.

Is Dax short for something? Daxter?

It's short for Daximillian Henry Charles Augustus Jackson Jr, but just Dax is fine.

Is there any way to test LSD for safety? What the heck would I even test for? I just get it from a friend I trust and there's never been an issue but I guess I should know how if needed.

Yes, you can use a test kit from Dancesafe.org or have it analyzed in a laboratory by an organization like DrugsData.org or Energy Control

Are flashbacks an actual thing?

As mentioned elsewhere, there is a phenomenon called HPPD where people experience persistent hallucinations long after psychedelics leave their systems, but this is fairly uncommon. That said, it does happen and we've met at least one person who experiences it. There's a lot of other dimensions to this question, but we're not fully-versed on all the research surrounding it.

After using LSD do you have to wait while your brain “recharges” all the chemicals or can you just have another dose straight after the first?

You develop a tolerance to LSD after your first dose, which takes a minimum of about 3-4 days to fully reset. That doesn't mean we recommend taking large doses of acid every 3-4 days, but most LSD microdosing protocols we've seen recommend that amount of space.

A second dose of the same strength taken the following day will still likely have some effect, but it will be blunted somewhat.