Ask the Hippie Shrink: Is This Normal?
and if it's normal, how to I keep it going?
I’m launching a column, Ask the Hippie Shrink. Please send in questions about mental health, psychedelics, mindfulness, and the 1986 New York Mets, to greg AT treewellhealing DOT com.
A friend wrote me with the following question, and with their permission, I’ll share the question and my response.
I just wanted to run something by you. I tried shrooms yesterday for the very first time, believe it or not. And it was, I imagine, a pretty typical experience—pleasingly vivid colors, giddiness, overall good vibes. It was a sensible, first-timer dose. But what intrigues me most is today, the day after. Because while the effects from yesterday are gone, I find myself, like, drained of anxiety as if my perpetually worried self has been extracted from my body. I don't feel buoyant or bouncy or ecstatic. I don't feel plus. I just feel like myself without the anxiety weight. My friends likewise. Is this normal? And, if so, any ideas for replicating this in a lasting way aside from, you know, more shrooms?
[a few things to start with: I appreciate them paying attention to setting: being with friends, rather than alone, taking a ‘sensible, first-timer dose,’ and understanding that ‘more shrooms’ is not the answer.]
Thank you for the question. It sounds like a good, smart first experience. What you are describing is quite normal. What I’ve noticed after some time of working with mushrooms and other similar medicine is that I don’t really ruminate anymore. It’s a lovely free feeling. I'm not saying I never ruminate, but those sort of nagging thoughts aren't as sticky as they used to be.
There isn’t any sure way to prevent those anxious feelings from coming back. What seems to help a lot of folks - whether or not they use psychedelics - is some kind of regular mindfulness practice. Meditation, yoga, etc. It's the most boring answer in the world, I realize, but the 10-15 minutes of meditation I started doing 9 years ago totally changed my life, and this was long before re-engaged with psychedelics.
Do you have a therapist that you work with? It's possible that something in your subconscious shifted -- and this is me just really throwing pasta on the wall -- and with some targeted therapy sessions you might find some clarity. In the world of Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, I consider the anxiety is a protective part, and the mushrooms helped that protector disengage, so you glimpsed your pure, authentic self.
The other thing I think that can be helpful, post trip, is engaging in whatever activities that support these good feelings. For me that's time in nature, playing drums, writing, being with loved ones, being away from media. There are also online integration groups you can stop in on if that feels like a good way to explore what happened.
The anxiety may come back. A foundation of psychedelic medicine is that these substances don't do the work -- they create the conditions for your own healing. Your brain and body did this, and I find that very hopeful.
Your instinct about not doing more shrooms is a good one. Too often people I work with go back to the psychedelic well too often, before they've integrated their experience. You may find, at some point, that you want to experience a targeted psychedelic session with a facilitator or guide. In those cases, you and your facilitator can create an intention around the anxiety, and then do some integration therapy afterward.