Magic mushrooms (Shrooms) are mushrooms that contain psilocybin. Psilocybin is a natural hallucinogenic and psychiatric compound. More information about psychedelic mushrooms can be found below.
What do magic mushrooms look like
Magic mushrooms look like ordinary mushrooms. The only difference is that they look dried. The diameter of the hat is about 4-22 centimeters. The color of the hat is gray, beige, brown, but sometimes olive. The shape of the cap of young mushrooms is often in the form of a bell but often changes to fully extended. The center usually has a blunt tubercle, and the edges of the hat are dotted with grooves. The leg is quite long and thin. Its height is about 4-12 centimeters. It is usually gray, white, or yellowish. The skin of the mushroom is easily removed and is quite sticky. The flesh is yellowish as well. When you cut a mushroom, you can smell mold or wilted grass. During ripening, the fungus changes its color and becomes purple, blue, or simply black.
How to find magic mushrooms
There are no intricate places to look for these mushrooms. Mushrooms grow in places of fallen trees, in small groups. Sometimes they can be found in small grass or on logs, along forest roads, on pastures, and swamps. However, you need to be vigilant, because they often hide in different corners.
Benefits of magic mushrooms
Mushrooms affect each person differently. It is also influenced by environmental factors. Some people believe that mushrooms are a sacred herb and help a person to know higher spiritual states. Others use them for a sense of euphoria. Psilocybin, which these fungi contain, is converted into psilocin when it enters the body. It changes the level of serotonin in the brain and provides people with unusual sensations. The effects of magic mushrooms can be felt after 20-40 minutes.
How long do shrooms take to kick in? Wild magic mushrooms can last up to 6 hours. During this time, psilocin is excreted from the body. Shrooms are often dried, mixed with various drinks, or eaten raw. After the research, many useful properties were revealed. Mushrooms can help people with incurable depression. It has also been found that mushrooms can enhance creativity, empathy, and subjective feelings. According to research, they “turn off” the areas of the brain that are most active in some forms of depression. Experts believe that magic mushrooms microdosing could be good antidepressants. It has been suggested that it alleviates obsessive-compulsive disorder, nicotine addiction, drug addiction, cluster headaches, and anxiety.
Side effects of magic mushrooms
People often use magic mushrooms to get high. However, mushrooms can cause a completely different effect. Usually, in the colloquial language, it is called a “bad shroom trip”. Everyone who eats hallucinogenic mushrooms is at risk of psychological and emotional problems. It is impossible to know exactly how much hallucinogenic substance is contained in Shroom. Therefore, it is almost impossible to determine the shroom effects.
The “trip” can be easy and just relax the consumer or lead to a terrible experience (panic, delirium, etc.). It is known that magic mushrooms can cause even cramps. After using the mushroom drug, the following occurs:
- a change in consciousness: the usual perception of sound, color and light changes (it may seem that moving objects have traces that follow them, the addict sees sounds and hears colors);
- the appearance of the illusion of lightness and the ability to fly;
- mood shift for the better.
These and other “miracles” of drugs from the group of hallucinogens are caused by acting on neurotransmitters (substances that transmit signals from cell to brain cell) and disrupting chemical and physiological reactions.
They affect metabolic processes in the most important substances in the human brain and affect the formation of serotonin, dopamine, and acetylcholine. At the same time, the effect of hallucinogens seems to the subject amusing, but at the same time, a person can perform far from amusing and harmless acts.
With regular use or overdose, side effects occur, which are expressed in:
- nausea and vomiting;
- intestinal discomfort;
- muscle weakness;
- feeling anxious;
- psychopathic personality disorders;
- feeling of chronic fatigue;
- dizziness;
- panic attacks;
- inadequate perception of the surrounding world;
- psychosis.
It is noted that the consumption of mushrooms containing psilocybin is highly addictive with severe consequences. The risks associated with long-term use of this group of drugs are primarily mental, not physical.
With prolonged use, the most common effects are:
- panic;
- the strongest fear;
- memory impairment;
- visions;
- optical illusions (even without the use of drugs);
- psychosis; decreased motivation;
- somatic diseases;
- flashbacks (return of hallucinations after weeks, months, or even years after stopping psilocybe use).
Physical risk is associated with uncontrolled behavior and the possibility of injury that is incompatible with life (falling from a height, self-inflicted injury, or injury). There are common myths that smears are lighter than other drugs of this kind, but they are just as unpredictable. The mushrooms soon become addicted, so to achieve the effect will require even larger and larger doses, which is also very harmful.