The Integration Station
Unveiling the Healing Power of Psilocybin with Janelle (bluemoodfood)
What about Herstory:
24 Magical Hours for Women in the Plant Medicine & Psychedelic Movement to Share Their Stories
Janelle starts hosting at 7:54, & Speaks About Her Experiences with Psilocybin, & Decriminalization.
Why Am I Here?
Hello, and welcome to our blog! This space was created out of the need to provide information (scientific, anecdotal, and personal) on using Psilocybe Cubensis (Psychedelic, Magic) Mushrooms.
First off, an introduction. Why did we get involved in this space, what is our origin, background, ethics, and mission?
My name is Janelle. I’ve been a user of Entheogens for over 20 years. My first experiences with psilocybin containing mushrooms were purely recreational, but nonetheless, significant. Upon reflecting, I think my initial macrodoses led me to not be as fixated (as a teen) on my image, helped battle self confidence issues and depression.
In 2008 I was faced with a series of ongoing surgeries (on my eyeballs!) and was prescribed opiates to help with the pain management. I did not enjoy how they made me feel, the fact my tolerance to them was tremendous, or that I felt withdrawals when I wouldn’t take them. I sought out an alternative, and got a medical cannabis card in the state of CA, and have been using cannabis ever since to help with pain management, stress, anxiety, and more recently, glaucoma.
In 2017 I decided to shift my retail management path into the WA cannabis industry (instead of working in clothing, a sex shop, and later in the tea industry). I’d had a series of interactions with un-passionate budtenders who made me feel like I had something to offer in that space, and was hired as a budtender. I worked my way into management, and the thing I most enjoyed was the ability to help others find a cannabis product that improved their quality of life. I also became passionate about dispelling misinformation that is abundant surrounding “drugs”. I became passionate about doing anything in my power to help end the war on drugs, as I was becoming more aware of it’s impact on communities of color, it’s racist origins, and lack of science-based facts. I left this job due to safety concerns, but also as a means to care for my son when he was pulled from school in the beginning of Covid.
I’ll save you the story (check the other blog posts) about how I was able to essentially cure my treatment resistant depression and anxiety by using the mushrooms my partner had grown while he was home from a job that shut down during Covid; but witnessing firsthand how powerful of a tool a mushroom that grows naturally around the world (and holds a schedule 1 title- meaning there is no known medical value and high potential for abuse), was astonishing. I needed to help others experience this amount of healing.
My passion to help people, especially in an under-researched area that I have experience in, ultimately led me to form bluemoodfood.com
After a series of unexpected events, my partner and I were looking to leave a bad rental situation, and decided to put our roots down in the state of Michigan. Washtenaw county boasts some of the most forward and progressive entheogen laws in all of the USA, and is also my partners hometown.
I’m humbled that one year into this endeavor, I get people who have been referred to me from doctors, psychologists. People who’ve written me to say we’ve changed their lives, their parents are smiling again, they’ve been able to overcome incredible trauma and loss, give up addictions, improve focus, reduce or eliminate antidepressants, function better at their jobs, in society. It’s why we’re here, and what keeps us going.
Reflections on MACRODOSING
It all begins with an idea.
My first experiences with psilocybin were in my teens. I would eat between 4-9 caps and stems, not weighing anything out. I have fond memories of staring at grass and seeing it grow, euphoria and laugher, making weird and intuitive art, laying in a field and feeling my body was connected to and communicating with trees. There was that one time that I had a “bad trip” due to an emotional situation involving an ex. Oh, and the laser dome Nirvana show that I spent a better part of throwing up.
My partner and I had a trip on our honeymoon, laying on a beach being fascinated by the fire embers. I ate some during the day we went inside of the Devil’s Punchbowl (coastal rock and tide pool area) and fell in love all over again with geology.
I’d never thought of them as anything more than recreational fun.
But then, I found myself at a low point. Covid shutdowns had begun, I was having a terrible situation at work that was unresolved, and overall really questioning my path forward. I was trying to look forward to a weekend camping, aiming to set my stress aside for a weekend. I started eating shrooms in the afternoon and throughout the day and night, just kept eating more.
At first, I had concerns about my partner enjoying his trip, and the sense of worry was messing up my fun time. Eventually, I felt like we were telepathically communicating and I was absorbing his troubles. I laid by the fire, questioning so many things. I was aware of a comfort that came about. A sense that everything would be ok, that I’ve always questioned my path, always had the same types of problems I was facing, that this was nothing new. I felt all my worries start to feel meaningless, my thoughts were so trivial. I felt so small in the universe, but also, so much a part of it. I felt lucky to be able to exist in that moment. Grateful. Afterwards I felt reset, able to continue with a more positive outlook.
Mushrooms have also given me the confidence, courage, and will to continue further down the path of advocating for psychedelics. I was at a point where I felt as nothing was working out, I needed a pivotal change that would benefit myself, and others. I’ve learned it can be incredibly rewarding to feel as if you’re helping others, and gives me a sense of purpose in my life that not many other things do. I’ve spent time volunteering in ways to help end the war on drugs, and look forward to the future of embracing natural medicine.
If I had to speculate or take an educated guess, I think psilocybin works by allowing our brains to move from our defaulted thoughts, and instead be open to other ways of looking at things. The ability to process trauma, accept situations we cannot control, accept the loss of control, and rid ourselves of sometimes untruths we tell ourselves about things, all stand as reasons psychedelic medicine has so much potential to bring wonderful and lasting repair for mental health.
Reflections on MICRODOSING
It all begins with an idea.
My interest in microdosing started specifically after learning of the studies taking place at Johns Hopkins, touting psilocybin to be a breakthrough medicine, effective in treating a multitude of mental health conditions. Having ongoing struggles with moderate depression, I’ve also sought help in treating anxiety, PMDD, and a chain of health complications due to being a type one diabetic my entire life. After deciding to try this for my mental health, I was having trouble in sourcing this option, and decided with my partner, to grow our own.
I tried to microdose while I was on an SNRI (antidepressant), and thought the effects were diminished significantly, and was having other issues with it, so with the help of my doctor, I stopped taking it.
I started off by filling capsules by hand, weighing in at 300mg/.3g each. While I was on the SNRI, this dosage was barely noticeable, but as my body adjusted to not taking it, I found the 300mg dosage was giving me a lot of euphoria. I started with a 5 day on, 2 off schedule. (Great! I like euphoria! It helped my mood a lot, but at times I felt I shouldn’t take it while working as I was feeling more loopy/couldn’t concentrate much). I started reading about things I could add to the capsules, if I started filling them with less of the dosage. I stuck to a microdose of 250mg with added cacao for several months, and really noticed a lot of benefits. My mood seemed brighter, like I was kinda just giddy and happy go lucky for no other reason. I had more energy, it helped me look forward to going to work at my bud tending job, which at times was stressful due to work environment, I’m very empathic and can stick to negative interactions or experiences more than I’d prefer. In my real life am not very outgoing, but felt it was easier to form connections with people.
Beyond that, I found it was much easier to focus on things, to maintain concentration, which has never been very easy for me. It would help me access more creativity if I were to dose on a day where I was working on a creative task.
Although I felt that cognitive behavioral therapy helped me a ton with anxiety and depression, I noticed a large difference in how little things that used to set my anxiety off, we’re easier to shrug off and let go.
For a long time, I would feel incredible on the days I would dose, but my off days were somewhat of a return to baseline, and I found especially in the beginning, were a challenge. But then, something amazing happened. I started to feel really good on the days off, too. This prompted me to start to cut back my schedule, first to 4/3, then 3/2 or 2/1. I started to take capsules more intuitively, like today feels like a good day to take one, or maybe not today as I’ve been taking them a lot lately and could use a day off.
Recently, I took a whole week off. And felt totally ok with that. I’ve since cut back my dosage to 150-200mg most days that I dose, and found the combination with lion’s mane and niacin to be desirable and one I use more often. I truly believe that this regimen has helped to treat my conditions in ways that at least 5 different pharmaceuticals (I’ve tried many!) have not been able to. Overall, I think the difference is that I’m no longer trying to suppress negative feelings, I’m trying to acknowledge them and think of better ways to cope, better ways to think about things.
This isn’t to say I don’t have hard days, moments of self doubt, burdensome guilt, negative self talk, or just straight up sadness. This last year + has been incredibly difficult for so many reasons, and for a long time I felt my depression was largely situational. But we all have bad days. It’s human. And I really think that microdosing has helped me to be a better and more efficient, optimistic and unbreakable human.
And, as a side note, I’ve been an avid cannabis user for years. Cannabis has the downside of building up a tolerance, so it would always be nice to feel the need to smoke less. With regular microdosing, I noticed that smoking started to feel less “necessary”, or more frivolous. I found (slightly-) less of a desire to smoke 24/7. I’ve found that my desire for alcohol has also lowered a lot. I would set out to drink a few beers and find myself stopping after one. Or not even really wanting to drink. Which is awesome! I believe there is a lot of hope in psychedelics used for addiction therapy as well.
Recommendations for MACRODOSING
It all begins with an idea.
For macrodosing, set and setting are important aspects to having a good time. This means you want to be in a place you find comforting, inviting, safe, and around people who you trust.
For me, this usually requires some planning, whether it be waiting for an upcoming camping trip (I love being outside/watching the night sky while tripping), or cleaning my apartment and putting on some soft lighting or chill music, or a familiar or neutral movie. I’ve found if I’m at home and I have a sink full of dishes, laundry scattered, that those small details can mess with my experience.
Be around company that won’t mess with your high, You want to be selective about who you trip with or around and avoid those who would intentionally or unintentionally mess with your experience.
You’ll want to go into it feeling open to however the mushrooms make you feel. I find embracing even any negative aspects (bad nausea, feeling emotionally raw, tears) can help. Accepting the fact that you may feel very different for awhile, being ok with that. Knowing that in a few hours, this experience will fade and you won’t be this high forever, lol. Sometimes I dose by myself, in this case I usually tell someone close to me that I’ll be consuming them. I’ve never had to reach out to anyone for “help” or to certify that I’ll return to normalcy while I’m dosing, but there are resources available for those that feel the need for a trip sitter or are having a hard time processing their experience. -If you encounter emotions that are overwhelming, I try my best to accept them, and in doing so, find comfort from accepting things I cannot control. If you’re looking to use a macrodose for healing, it can help to set an intention or think about the trauma/event/pain, and what you’d like to learn or move on from. During your macrodose, it’s likely your brain will shift from it’s “default” mode, this offers us the ability to think about things in our lives differently.
I find the only times I view it as “a bad trip” had more to do with me not knowing how to manage or control the way I’m feeling. By letting go of expectations about what the experience will bring, I like to let the mushrooms navigate as much as possible.
This also ties in with expectations of “seeing things”. Visual distortions are much more likely and commonplace than hallucinating. Things like trailing lights, walls that “breathe”, neon geometric shapes when I close my eyes are what I’d describe as far as “visuals” go.
Recommendations for MICRODOSING
It all begins with an idea.
Here are some guidelines that can help you get the most benefit from your Microdosing experience. There are many approaches to microdosing, so please only take these as suggestions, and overall, listen to your body!
You’ll experience the most benefit from taking your dosage on an empty stomach, or along with food. If you dose after a meal, the effects may be delayed or diminished . It’s up to you to decide the best time of day to try it, personally I like to take mine in the mid morning because I feel I’m the most productive then.
It’s generally advised that you stick to a schedule for microdosing. Taking a day or more off is important. It allows your tolerance to reset, and gives you the ability to fully embrace the medicine the next time you dose. It gives us a chance to reflect on our experience, a return to baseline. Overtime, noticing these baseline changes can tell you whether microdosing is working for you, and in what ways.
One of the most popular dosing schedules, “The Fadiman Protocol” is where you dose for one day, followed by two days off. This is designed to allow you to observe the effects that microdosing offers, and to compare and distinguish between on, transitional, and off days. It’s recommended to stick to this schedule for 1-2 months, followed by a 2-4 week break.
Mycologist Paul Stamets recommends adding lion’s mane and niacin to your microdose regimen to maximize the positive effects on the brain, often referred to as “The Stamets’ Stack” for four days a week, followed by three days off. He recommends following this schedule for a month, followed by 2-4 weeks off.
The Microdosing Institute recommends an every other day dosing schedule for treating depression, anxiety, adhd, and other health related conditions. They’ve studied using this dosing schedule as a medicinal tool that yielded maximum benefits for treating these conditions.
Or, you can follow a more intuitive dosing schedule, where you choose to dose whenever, taking a day or more off after dosing for any number of days.
I started with 5 days a week followed by 2 off. After a few weeks I began to feel as if I needed it less, so then I stuck to the Stamets’ dosing schedule of 4/3, and some 4/2’s for a few months. Overtime, I cut my dosage down as well. Now, I dose 3 or 2 days on followed by 1 or 2 days off. I recently took a whole week off and have enjoyed having the ability to choose how to handle my mental health with natural medicine. After learning about the recommendation of one day on one day off to best treat a multitude of conditions I had turned to microdosing for, I may alter my dosing schedule once again, so I suppose overall I’ve had success with intuitively dosing.
Your body has ways of telling you your dosage is definitely too high (initial irritability/agitation, tiredness or heavy and emotional are common if this is the case) or maybe a little too high (undesirable amounts of euphoria or feeling stoned or heavy in the body, feeling less functional than normal).
If you aren’t experiencing the benefits you are seeking, you can try changing your dosage. For someone who is just starting out, I recommend reading about psilocybin and deciding what dosage you think is ideal to start with. I suggest starting with the microdose multipack so you can gradually increase your dosage, or decide on set small amount like 50mg or 100mg, starting with one, on the following time you dose, try 2, or even 3. You’re typically looking to find a sweet spot where you feel benefits like increased focus, better mood, energy; without feeling *high or impaired in going about your daily activities. Once you’ve tried them to know how you react, it’s entirely possible to work or drive on days you dose.
What if you try it and you don’t feel any different? I recommend giving yourself a day in between trying a higher dosage to see if that’s a better outcome.
If you’re taking other medicines, they have a potential to interfere or block the effects of microdosing. Common antidepressants (SSRIs/SNRIs) that work by interacting and regulating your serotonin receptors, can often decrease or block benefits of psilocybin. There are other medications that may or may not interfere, I’d say based on feedback I’ve gotten that Wellbutrin and Xanax are suspect to dulling effects as well. Fortunately, adding psilocybin to a regular intake of a SSRI/SNRI isn’t likely to cause serotonin syndrome according to initial studies on the matter, you just may need to take a much higher dosage, or if you’re able to work with your doctor or current care team, work together to decrease your usage of the antidepressant in order to experience how psilocybin alone works on your brain.
Most reading I’ve done suggests to try microdosing without the usage of other mind altering substances, right down to caffeine and cannabis, so you can know how it alone makes you feel. Sometimes the boost in energy can replace your coffee, for example. I’m a huge hypocrite here- I microdose with my coffee AND cannabis in the AM every damn time, but those have been a part of my routine for years and I don’t think affect my affinity for additional entheogenic healing.
Many people enjoy introducing other habits or practices into their microdosing regimen, such as journaling, meditation or breathing practices, positive affirmations, yoga, a change of eating or drinking, or just the agreement to be easy on yourself as you allow the medicine to work.
Overall, it’s not for everyone. Although it’s called magic mushrooms, it can’t magically transform your life, in a lot of cases. Sometimes, just not immediately. But if you commit to making positive changes, as the medicine shows you how to improve your outlook as you choose to prioritize your mental health, healing is possible.