Many people discover microdosing in the search for relief from depression. In many cases it works very well, in some cases it comes with peaks and valleys – and sometimes not at all. We loved reading Catharima’s report about the significant role microdosing has played in understanding and reducing her depression. A report tothat made us heel happy and optimistic.
Catharina’s experience with microdosing and depression
When psilocybin is used as a treatment for depression, we see two brain areas emerge. In the amygdala, important in emotion regulation, fear and tension decrease. The ‘work-brain’, where functions of different parts of the brain come together, becomes more stable. When the depressive brain clamps down like an oyster, psilocybin brings it back in motion.
I myself have known the ins and outs of depression for 30 years. With SAD (seasonal affected depression) in both summer and winter, the time between episodes felt like gasping for breath.
Now that I’ve been microdosing for a year and a half, I’m sure that I won’t get depressed this winter. When I think about this, which I like to do, I sigh with gratitude and relief. The tide has turned. Something I had thought I would suffer from all my life has taken on a much lighter form. Very deliberately, I am not writing that it is “gone”. The basic wiring that has been passed down in my family for generations has been residing in me like a shadow.
But it is now allowed to be home. Because the medicine plant is working with me. Microdosing helped me embrace that part, connected it and brought it together with everything else. Microdosing keeps me alert – on what I am feeling, how I am presenting. Aware of what energizes me. What drains me. Some relationships or activities that I used to be able to carry on with became unbearable, activities that I ‘liked’ I started to recognize as very inspiring and started to pay more attention to. And most important of all: I sense much sooner when I am at my limit – with a clarity that compels me to intervene.
As I weave hermitry into my life like a pattern in a patchwork quilt, and continually enrich my life with moments where I do breathwork, sit by myself, listen to music, meditate. It helps me avoid three months of being so exhausted that even picking up a letter at the front door is something I MUST do.
Of course it’s obvious that these things help. But the medicine plant keeps me going with a powerful hand. I cannot do anything else. It is impossible to say ‘just a little bit more’, or ‘I can’t cancel that’. Microdosing forces me to take my feelings seriously. And although it might be inconvenient for others, or for myself at times, IT IS LOVE.
Because I am and remain present, I feel, I laugh, I am happy, I am here. All praise and honor to the Medicine Plant Teacher.
Catherine
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*Source: Prof. Dr. Carhartt-Harris, Imperial London Psychedelic Research, Scientific Reports.
Microdosing Institute is not responsible for the content of the experience stories, we cannot verify them for truth, correctness or accuracy. What is described is not necessarily supported by scientific evidence or by doctors or experts. The experiences should in no way be read as advice or recommendations.