Microdosing psychedelics like psilocybin may enhance your mental health and overall well-being. Here’s how.
What is microdosing?
Microdosing describes using a psychoactive substance at a dose lower than what’s needed for recreational use. With such low amounts, the substance’s effects aren’t felt strongly enough to impair your senses.
With microdosing, approximately 1/10th to 1/20th of a recreational dose is taken, usually with the intention of improving your well-being and enhancing cognitive and emotional processes.
“For dried, well-preserved Psilocybe cubensis mushrooms, a recreational dose might be 1 to 5 grams. So, a microdose might be 1/20th to 1/10th of 1 gram,” Addy explains. “It’s very small, and you need a scale accurate to 0.001 g to measure such a small amount of material.”
Microdosing can also involve participating in multiple dosing sessions.
In addition to psilocybin, you can microdose LSD, MDMA, and other psychedelics, as well.
What does microdosing feel like?
According to Addy, microdosing doesn‘t actually feel like anything — which is ultimately the point.
“On the ‘off days’ — day 2 and 3 when you aren’t taking a microdose, you might feel more focused and productive,” he adds.
On the other hand, higher doses of psilocybin may induce the following experiences:
- visuals or hallucinations
- time and space distortion
- feeling a spiritual or universal connection
The most common way is to microdose every third day for 30 days. “You take a dose in the morning on day 1, nothing for day 2 and 3, and microdose again on day 4,” Addy explains. This is also known as the Fadiman protocol.
Another strategy is the Stamets protocol, named after the famous mycologist Paul Stamets. “[You’d] microdose 4 days in a row then take 3 days off (microdose Monday through Thursday then take a break Friday through Sunday, for example),” says Addy.
With microdosing, the substance you‘re using is typically taken in the morning on an empty stomach or with a light snack.
Addy notes that possessing and using psilocybin mushrooms in the United States is illegal (yes, even in Oregon where it’s recently been decriminalized).
To take psychedelics as safely and legally as possible, you can consider:
- traveling to a location where psychedelics are legal
- joining a clinical trial in the United States
- engaging in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy with a trained professional where it is legal and available
