Community member Edo shares with us how microdosing psychedelics led to an unexpectedly wide range of improvements in his life – both mentally and physically. He summarizes his journey to date as follows: “It was a long search, but after some ups and downs it led to a reduction of medication use and an increased quality of life.”
Inflammatory diseases
My microdosing story is mainly a medical story. I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when I was 28. When I was 36 I also got scleroderma (systemic sclerosis). A rare form of rheumatism in which, in short, the skin and everything that has connective tissue, hardens. With some bad luck, the disease quickly escalates into the lungs and heart. I turned out to have an atypical form, the cause of the inflammation could not be found. I was lucky that the disease developed slowly. In a few years my skin hardened, and movement became more difficult. At a certain point, the complaints became such that I had to take immune-suppressing medication. This stopped further deterioration.
Initial research
At first microdosing psychedelics caught my eye, because I experienced a leak in my intelligence and creativity. (Later I found out that a link is suspected between scleroderma and Alzheimer’s disease.) It would also be nice to do something about my age old problems with concentration and recurring depressions. My first concern was if I could combine it with the medication I was taking. This had become quite a collection by now. I inject insuline daily, I take immunosuppressants, pills for the thyroid and an antacid. But in my search for articles about that, I stumbled upon an article that talked about the healing effects of psychedelics on atheroscleroses, arthritis, psoriasis, type 2 diabetes, depression and Alzheimer’s disease. Multiple diseases that are related to scleroderma. The results were very promising. It was suspected that psychedelics could prevent inflammation, and possibly even repair damage already done.
A difficult choice
I bought ALD52 which was still legal during that time [an LSD analogue similar to 1p-LSD and 1cp-LSD, MDI], but after that I remained in doubt for a long time. I worried most about whether I dared to tinker with my immune system myself; I have a chronic variant now, what if I turn it into an escalating variant. I’m not a scientist and my medical-scientific English is poor at best. I found it difficult to decide wether I would be doing the right thing. Contact with my doctors, however, yielded little. The studies were conducted by experimental pharmacists and too little was known about the subject. No one dared to say anything specific about it. Doctors become very cautious when there is no scientific consensus. Rightly so, you don’t want a gambler for a doctor, but for an individual patient everything then comes to a standstill. If scientific consensus is reached in 20 years’ time, it won’t be of much use to me. An aside: Online, via written consultations, it is easier to contact a doctor these days, but I found that when it comes to these kinds of questions, it’s better to consult in direct contact. I suspect that doctors will talk more freely. In the end, those conversations boiled down to this; there is no evidence that psychedelics can improve your situation, but there is also no evidence that it will make the problems worse. In the meantime I strongly suspected that microdosing LSD could help me. Not only to get my thinking back on track, but perhaps even to suppress the scleroderma.
Experiments and results
It was now almost a year later and I dared to start my first experiment. Under the guidance of a coach of Microdosing Institute, I took the lowest recommended dose of ALD52, twice within one week. I didn’t really notice it that much. Only visually it looked like windows had been washed again after a long time, similar to the CBD oil I took a year earlier. But in the next two weeks, the skin on my arms started to loosen and my joints became more flexible. I could handle the chaos of our young family better, I managed to concentrate for a longer period of time and I even dared to jump on a trampoline with my stiff body without the fear of breaking in half. And this after only two microdoses. That I wanted more of. If I was going to continue with this it would be good to get some new ALD52, since I had it laying around for almost a year. Unfortunately, in the meantime, ALD52 had been declared illegal and was no longer available. I then opted for 1P-LSD. This time no drops, but a quarter of a blotter, the lowest recommended dose. Again I took the microdose twice within one week. I felt pressure on my eyes and I had energy, but it felt a bit artificial. My vision was very clear and the colours became more intense. As if it was the photographic ‘golden hour’ all day long. I felt good, but my eyes needed rest.
Panic
A week later I had an appointment with my immunologist. This was the first meeting with a new doctor who had yet to get to know my skin. (I know, I could have timed my experiments better) This doctor was a lot less enthusiastic about my skin than I was. During the conversation there was a very serious, dark mood and I was suddenly not so sure of my own observations. On the drive home, I suddenly felt my face tighten and my shoulders and arms harden. Never before had I experienced such a rapid aggravation of my disease. In the days that followed, panic set in. All fearful thoughts raced through me. Had I given my immune system too hard a blow and had the escalation started? Within a week I felt like I was wearing a shirt way too tight. Till two weeks later I had panic attacks and every now and then the colours became more intense again. Two weeks after the last microdose, the colours became so intense during a bike ride that I became anxious. It lasted for up to three weeks that, especially during dinner, everything around me turned a deep orange. It’s speculation, but it may have taken this long because I swallowed the quarter blotter the second time I took one, maybe some of it got stuck. Apparently I react very strongly to low doses and I had a three weeks long sort-of semi-trip. Fortunately, in the weeks that followed, the skin softened and I got calm. In the end the result was that I was more flexible and my skin was far softer than before this whole adventure.
Psychosomatic symptoms
Although this was a very bad mistake, it did teach me a lot. Because my body suddenly changed so much after a very unpleasant visit to the doctor, it seems that my problems are partly psychosomatic. The ALD52 enhanced this effect. In this case it worked negatively, but I know it could also work in my favor.
The journey goes on
I had experienced anxious moments, but the positive changes in my body were such that, two months later, I wanted to try again with my old drops. The problem was that I found myself drifting back into depression. Because the last time my mindset was so influential on the result, I decided to wait. A month later I was ready to start. Over a period of two months, I took four drops once a week. In the beginning I saw some intense colours again, so I brought it back to three drops. On a microdosing day I sometimes felt restless, but otherwise I didn’t notice much. Little by little, my skin became more flexible. After those two months I took a month off from microdosing and it was during this period that my skin improved even faster. I started to learn more about the world of psychedelics. The ALD52 made me a bit restless. The idea came up to give it a try with XP truffles in combination with Lion’s Mane. Chaga also caught my attention because of its claim that it could balance the immune system.
XP truffles: finally able to sleep well and have more control over the diabetes
For two months I microdosed XP truffles according to the Fadiman protocol. In combination with a daily dose of Lion’s Mane and Chaga. I started with 0.3 grams, the lowest recommended dose of truffles. I tried to increase it twice, but that made me restless again. During those restless days I saw the world in the colours of the ‘golden hour’ again. Another side effect is that I felt some muscle pain in my neck on the microdosing day. I now know how to compensate for the sleepiness after taking the truffles with a drop of extra Lion’s Mane. Or I take them in the evening. And also with the Lion’s Mane and Chaga, I intuitively found out that I needed less than advised. The Lion’s Mane in particular made me hyperactive at the prescribed dose. Almost immediately after the first dose of truffles, I noticed improvements in my life that I wasn’t looking for beforehand.
I have been sleeping badly since I was about 13 years old. Sometimes I managed to maintain a good sleep rhythm for a few days in a row, but often I quickly lost it again. Sleep has always been a battle for me, a battle I mostly lost. When I started with the truffles I immediately slept a lot better. In the past I sometimes needed hours to fall asleep and I also needed multiple hours in the morning to really wake up (Using many cups of coffee). Now I get much more return from my sleep. I fall asleep quickly, I regularly wake up a few minutes before the alarm and really feel refreshed. That has never happened to me since I was a teenager.
In addition, my mental condition has drastically improved. A few years after I was diagnosed with scleroderma, I noticed that I was becoming less witty. In chaotic situations, I quickly became confused. I got annoyed quickly, I was always tired and became depressed for a long time. In bad moments it was like wearing a closed helmet and I was having a hard time connecting with anything that went on outside of my own mind. All this seems to have completely disappeared. (Okay, I still get annoyed sometimes, but that really is to blame on the other person…)
At the time of writing this, excluding one bad day, I am free of depression for eight months. And another unexpected success. My glucose levels calmed down. I can live-monitor the sugar level in my blood. Normally at night the glucose levels looked very messy with a lot of rises and falls. Now suddenly I saw a straight line. Also during the day I kept my glucose levels neatly within the lines. My need for insulin has decreased by about a quarter. I have become more active during the day, so I don’t know whether that decrease is directly or indirectly caused by the microdosing. The functioning of my thyroid has remained unchanged, tests showed no change and the amount of medication has remained the same.
More ‘strange’ improvements
Nowadays I only drink 1 cup of coffee in the morning, I don’t need any more. I think I’ve replaced the coffee with the Lion’s Mane, but the energy I get from that feels much more natural and a not stressed. I have become more relaxed. I get a lot more done in a day than I used to and I no longer constantly have that rushed feeling. Strangely enough, my eyebrows are also coming back, as is the hair on my arm. These had been slowly disappearing in recent years. I suspect the Chaga is at work here. Another unexpected by-catch, a relief from light compulsive behavior. This wasn’t a real big burden in my life, but almost always after I locked the car or the house, I checked to see if it was really locked, sometimes I walked back dozens of meters to check what I already knew. I don’t do this anymore.
Decrease in medication
I can now draw wrinkles across my skin. The hardened skin recedes further and further and my face is slowly returning to its old self. Meanwhile, I have more energy than I have had since childhood. Not hyperactive, but an energy level comparable to a healthy person. My doctor has also seen how much I’ve improved. In consultation, I reduced the immunosuppressants to a third of the original dose. If the improvements continue for another two months, I will stop taking the immunosuppressants completely.
After a month long break from the XP truffles
During this break it became a bit more difficult to keep my glucose levels in order, I use more insulin again and the good sleep also decreased slightly. But both are still way better than what they once were. At the time of writing this there has been no deterioration of my skin, so I am going to stop taking the immunosuppressants altogether. Now I’ll have to see for some time if I really can do without.
Looking back, half way through
It has now been a year since I first took a microdose. I searched for information from various sources, but with that in hands I acted intuitively and above all listened carefully to the feedback from my body. I’ve tried a number of different things, so I can’t always say which one caused which improvement. There is a good chance that one improvement, like a domino, caused the other. It seems that there is a psychosomatic side to my illness. Stress and depression translated directly into physical ailments. And in my life, those two were always just below the surface. The psychedelics have set me on a different path, both physically and mentally. The improvements I am experiencing are so comprehensive that I have come to believe that the psychedelics are tackling the problem at the source.
Edo
The 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. w
