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Microdosing: the solution all your problems

Meet the women who regularly microdose psychedelics

Three women struggling with mental health issues shared their life-changing experiences with microdosing.

One woman, Amber, was so depressed that everything felt dull and uninteresting, until she started microdosing. “When I microdosed for the first time I found myself noticing the beauty of the things around me again,” she says. She explains that microdosing is “akin to a child-like wonder” and makes her feel “more positive, open-minded and creative but still completely functional and sober”.

Bea finds that microdosing three times per week acts as a natural mood booster and study aid, brings her mental clarity, and helps her organize her life. She says she’s now able to be her true, stable self and is no longer the “people-pleasing, anxious version” of herself.

Chelsea says that microdosing allows her to “stay fully present” and is the only tool that helps her focus her busy mind, but the biggest shift was in her anxiety. “For over fifteen years, I had severe anxiety, but through microdosing, I could sit with and deliberate my fears. I now rarely suffer with it, and if I do, it’s fleeting,” she shares.

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Curing ‘suicide headaches’ with 3 doses of shrooms

Psychedelics Could Be a Medical Game-Changer—So I Tried Them for My Debilitating Headaches

Inspired by recent research on psychedelics, a journalist resorted to shrooms to ease her debilitating cluster headaches (which are often called “suicide headaches” because they’re supposedly more painful than childbirth, gunshot wounds, and kidney stones). She finally found relief that common migraine medications couldn’t provide her after taking 3 small doses of magic mushroom tea, 5 days apart. “Two months have now passed without my having a single headache.” A Yale neurologist explains that the chemical structure of psilocybin is similar to melatonin and triptans, which are often used to treat headaches, but the effect is longer-lasting.

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How Daniel Carcillo changed his life with psilocybin

Wesana Health Announces Definitive Agreement to Acquire PsyTech Inc.

Former Chicago Blackhawks player Daniel Carcillo was battling a severe case of traumatic brain injury (TBI) after enduring hundreds of fights throughout his NHL career. He suffered from several related side effects such as slurred speech, headaches, memory issues, insomnia, impulsive behaviour, sensitivity to light, and depression. Carcillo admits that he spent three weeks creating a plan to take his own life before magic mushrooms turned his life around. After taking a single 4g dose of shrooms, he said “I am cured, for sure, of TBI and any related symptoms. 100%.”

The experience led Carcillo to found Wesana Health (WESA), an organization focused on psychedelic treatments for traumatic brain injury and mental health disorders. This week, Wesana Health acquired PsyTech Inc., a psychedelic therapy firm in Toronto, to help accelerate the company’s growth. The deal provides Wesana with a clinical software-as-a-service platform that integrates wearable biometric technologies and will increase the number of clinics from 2 to 12 within the next year.

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Psilocybin relieves veteran from a decade of trauma

Opinion: I was traumatized by my time in Afghanistan and Iraq. Psychedelic therapy changed my life.

Juliana Mercer, a former U.S. Marine felt like she was “drowning in suppressed grief” after witnessing tragedies in Iraq and Afghanistan and losing fellow veterans to suicide. She says that a single session of psilocybin allowed her to release all the accumulated grief overnight. “I accidentally found relief and a glimpse of my authentic joyful self through the recreational use of psychedelics.” Now she urges California legislators to vote yes on the SB 519 bill that would decriminalize psychedelics.

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Patient overcomes childhood trauma through psilocybin therapy, easing her anxiety and fear of death

B.C. health researchers harness the ‘magic’ of psychedelic mushrooms

After beating cancer, Mona Strelaeff suffered from crippling depression and anxiety rooted in childhood trauma and a fear of death. She tried several anti-depressants with extreme side effects before receiving approval for psilocybin-assisted therapy. The experience allowed her to come to terms with childhood demons. “When [the doctor] gave me the treatment and I came out of it in a place of peace,” she said. “My anxiety was basically gone. And to this day I still feel at peace. I’m not afraid of death.”

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Mom finds relief from post-partum depression through microdosing

Using Psychedelic Plants as Medicine – A New Solution for Mental Health Disorders

After having her second child, Melissa Lavasani became so severely depressed that she could barely function. She finally found relief through microdosing psilocybin. “It was as if I was blind and deaf and could see colors and hear again. The quality of my life vastly improved”. She explained that there are no hallucinogenic effects with microdosing, rather “a feeling of empowerment” in which she felt well-rested and in control of her emotions.

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Why access to psilocybin therapy is still limited despite proven effectiveness

Why Is Ottawa Stalling Proven Magic Mushroom Therapy for the Dying?

After two psilocybin-assisted therapy sessions, a terminal cancer patient, Thomas Hartle, says that “ I can’t emphasize enough how much of my life it has given back. Even months later, it’s much easier for me to be able to clear my head of those useless, anxious thoughts.” While many patients like Hartle are having great success with psilocybin therapy, Canada’s bureaucratic application process is limiting the number of patients who can access it, with 119 exemption applications awaiting review. In order to administer psilocybin therapy effectively, it is crucial that medical professionals experience the drug for themselves, yet only 19 medical professionals have been granted access to it. CEO of TheraPsil, Spencer Hawkswell, says Health Canada is pushing for clinical trials before granting more exemptions, but these trials are incredibly labour-intensive, have strict criteria, and cost millions. Dr. Pam Kryskow of the Canadian Psychedelic Association is advocating to include psychedelic therapy as a palliative care option under Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying legislation, which would allow terminal patients access to psilocybin without going through the slow application process. Krysow believes “that given their safety profile, given their efficacy, given how cheap they are… at this point it’s unethical to not be doing this.”

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A counsellor’s experience with psilocybin-assisted therapy

A clinical counsellor describes his legal trip on magic mushrooms

A registered clinical counsellor, Dave Phillips, went on a mushroom trip for research purposes and said it was “the most powerful personal experience I’ve ever had in my life” and that it gave him “the most overwhelming sense of being loved”. During the six-hour trip which was guided by an expertly-curated playlist, Phillips was able to connect with his father and son who both passed away, and saw himself as an embryo. Phillips said that experiencing psilocybin gave him an understanding of how to respond effectively when patients undergo the treatment. He believes that the treatment is effective because it “opens up the connectivity power of the brain” so that the brain can solve its own problems. Although the experience was overwhelming, he believes that there are no bad trips, only challenging ones.

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Mike Tyson claims psilocybin mushrooms saved him from suicide

Mike Tyson says psychedelics saved his life, now he hopes they can change the world

After battling internal struggles that led him to the brink of suicide, Mike Tyson says he feels better than ever since using psilocybin for mental and spiritual exploration. Tyson is partnering with Wesana Health to bring awareness to the benefits of psilocybin, as he believes that it is an “amazing medicine” that should be accessible to the world because it could create “a more empathetic and just society”. Former NHL player Daniel Carcillo also participated in psilocybin treatment and claims that he is 100% cured of traumatic brain injury and related symptoms such as slurred speech, headaches, insomnia, anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation.

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Investor became a billionaire after a psilocybin trip lead him to a new investment strategy

How Taking Magic Mushrooms Led To A Billion Dollar Fortune

After abstaining from drugs for decades, a German investor, Christian Angermayer, went on a life-changing mushroom trip that left him with profound insights and even made him understand Bitcoin. It was then that Angermayer decided to make radical changes to his investment strategy by focusing on things he’s passionate about.

During a second transformative mushroom trip, Angermayer had the idea to commercialize psychedelics, which led him to make an angel investment in Compass Pathways, a biotech company focused on psychedelic therapy. His stake in Compass Pathways is now worth $2 billion and he manages over $2.5 billion in assets.

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