Psilocybin mushrooms have a marked ability in helping people confront mental disorders. One of many ailments that the psychedelic mushrooms have shown an impact in treating is obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD.
OCD, characterized by repetitive behaviors like hand washing, counting or perfectionist organizational systems, is the fourth most common outpatient psychiatric problem in the United States. Patients describe their minds as getting stuck on a certain thought or image, compelling them toward time-consuming behaviors even when they know they don’t make any sense.
There are behavioral and therapies and medications aimed at treating OCD, but none are completely effective and most require ongoing care. However, there is evidence that magic mushrooms can be a quick and long-lasting remedy to combat the disorder.
A study by the University of Arizona administered psilocybin to nine subjects who have OCD and no other major disorder. The research, published in 2006 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, showed positive outcomes for all the patients.
Although the study was initially only designed to test the safety of psilocybin for OCD sufferers, it ended up helping them with their disorder as well. “What we saw acutely was a drastic decrease in symptoms,” study leader Dr. Francisco A. Moreno said to NBC News. “The obsessions would really dissolve or reduce drastically for a period of time.”
Psilocybin and other psychedelics have helped people overcome other mental disorders like PTSD and depression, sometimes permanently after only one dose. The research hints that the substance could have a similar effect on OCD.
“Marked decreases in OCD symptoms of variable degrees were observed in all subjects during 1 or more of the testing sessions,” the study noted. “Improvement generally lasted past the 24-hour timepoint.”
“In a controlled clinical environment, psilocybin was safely used in subjects with OCD,” the research concluded, “and was associated with acute reductions in core OCD symptoms in several subjects.”
More research is needed to corroborate and solidify the findings, but anecdotal reports suggest that the treatment works. Comic Adam Strauss has a one man show called Varieties of Religious Experience in which he describes how mushrooms cured his OCD. Religion, exercise, music, medication, yoga, psychotherapy and acupuncture all failed to treat his debilitating condition, but psilocybin “opened me up to a willingness to bow to a greater force,” he said, and finally did the trick.
A narrator in this YouTube video also reports similar success. “My OCD was getting really out of hand and I knew I had to do something, but therapy and SSRIs really weren’t an option for me,” the woman says in the video, “so I decided I was going to try mushrooms.”
She describes feeling pure joy while on the psilocybin trip, then a gradual shift of perspective as the effects of the mushrooms wore off. “The desire to compulse was just kind of gone,” she says. After six months, she felt her symptoms returning so she took another trip. “Mushrooms have been a life-changing experience for me,” she says. “They’re not what I could call a cure, but a good way to manage OCD.”
Weird. I have OCD and the LAST thing I want is to trip. My mind is constantly assaulted with warped perspectives, doubts and fears. I find it hard enough to deal with my brain while sober. I YEARN for simple pure peace-of-mind and simple grounded sane clarity. To not have my obsessions spike my fear responses, or to twist my brain into a vicious cycle of (in that moment) genuine terror, that bad things WILL happen.
I want freedom from OCD more than anything in the universe, but I’m so petrified of my malfunctioning mind I dunno how desperate I’d have to get to take a hit of psilocybin and risk the trip.
Everyone has heard/seen/experienced a bad trip after all, and right now at least I can say I’m surviving. A often miserable and thoroughly demoralizing survival but it’s all I’ve got. :/
I’d recommend giving it a shot. Face your fears and go for a shroom trip. It sounds to me like you aren’t doing too well at the moment so there’s nothing to lose.
I think it’s pretty much a myth. Perhaps strong Acid makes people hallucinate. Though shrooms and truffles are very mild and natural and clean feeling. They enhance senses some though they don’t really create illusions or anything. I felt more sober on truffles than when sober. They’re like a smart drug.
They didn’t help my OCD, though I have no fear of them anymore.
dont give up steve, im dealing with exactly the same thing….. grabbed 5 grams of mushrooms from a cow patch and tripped balles for 3 days….. my OCD has been id say at least reduced by 50 percent….. although i though it was all completely gone, it was the remaining traces of shrooms that kept my sympotoms off…. but the hard ones… the straight haucinantions (brought on by OCD) are gone…. no more thinking my fiance is the devil….. no more thinking im the anticrist….. bro the list goes on… hope this helps…. (ps, dont goto amsterdam because those are waterdown due to the freakouts on em over there, that or they are hydroponic wich dont make you trip…. find some locally (someone selling or go pick from a cow field)
I’m really surprised by the studies or any positive accounts from Psilocybin improving people’s OCD at all.
After reading these different studies and reports, I went to Amsterdam and tried it myself for my OCD. My OCD has been very severe for over 10 years and I had tried all types of therapy though no meds.
I took high doses of strong ones. I started with a lighter one taking 20g of truffles. The effect was nice and pleasant though I still couldn’t resist my compulsions even while high and still had the same OCD thoughts and things bothering me, no matter how nice I felt.
Then I tried a strong one the next time at 20g again, the max dose they said I could take. That time I felt a bit manic at first, and then it was more pleasant. I never had any hallucinations or visual effects from them.
Though they never helped my OCD. Or depression. I mean they helped my depression for a few days, though that didn’t last.
I then tried microdosing for a few days and didn’t notice any benefits. Then I tried them a 3rd time at a higher dose, and same thing. Great fun, though nothing changed for OCD.