Psychedelic Micro-dosing the new trend
In the past decade a new trend called micro-dosing has been gaining steam. So what exactly is micro-dosing ? It can be best defined as taking a sub-perceptual dose of a psychedelic drug, usually LSD or Psilocybin mushrooms. This dose is much smaller then a full out “tripping balls” dose, and it has been reported to have amazing effects of peoples lives. A normal dose of LSD is around 100 micro-grams and a normal dose of Psilocybin Mushrooms is around 2–3 grams. These are the amounts that most people are taking when they use these drugs for recreational purposes, and these amounts are also often used in most of the studies done on LSD and Psilocyibin mushrooms. However micro-dosing consists of much small quantities, in most cases people looking to micro-dose are taking 1/10th of the normal “tripping” dose. So this would be around 10 micro-grams of LSD or .2 grams of Psilocyibin. But why are people doing this and what do we currently know about this strange new trend?
Currently there has not been a single published study on micro-dosing and its effects. Which is likely due to the fact that during the early years of psychedelic research, researchers were just concentrating on using high doses, and then once psychedelics became illegal no one really thought to much about taking lots of small doses over time. In addition to this, now that research is starting up again, its being heavily regulated and trying to convince governments that we should give a bunch of scheduled 1 illegal drugs to people and tell them to only take a small amount every 4 days is a hard mountain to try and climb. Also, obtaining funding for micro-dosing research is hard because pharmaceutical companies want to ensure that the millions of dollars that they throw into their studies will be be paid back through the sale of this new treatment, after the studies are completed. So with both LSD and Psilocybin classified as schedule 1 illegal drugs, doing research into micro-dosing is a risk that they aren’t willing to take. Connected to this if the fact that micro-dosing could potentially be used to replace medications for conditions that pharmaceutical companies already have patents for. Which would decrease their profits overall, so they have a vested interest to stop micro-dosing from becoming legal.
Despite all of this there have been hundreds of positive anecdotal reports on micro-dosing, including reports from Albert Hoffman who was the first person to synthesize LSD. Dr. Hoffman lived to the ripe old age of 102 and even at 100 years old he was a very active man and still gave lectures . Its been reported that during the last 2 decades of his life he micro-dosed on occasion and said that it helped to clear his head. The researcher that reported these interesting facts about Dr. Hoffman has also been collecting a large database of these anecdotes. His name is James Fadiman and Dr. Fadiman has a both a masters and a PhD in psychology from the prestigious Stanford university and is currently one of the only researchers looking into the therapeutic uses of micro-dosing. Dr. Fadiman stated “I am the least-known micro-dosing researcher in the world and I am the most famous micro-dosing researcher in the world.” He’s considered to be a veteran in the field of psychedelic research due to the multiple papers that he’s written on them and also because of a study he conducted in the 60’s that gave 2 psychedelic drugs, LSD and mescaline, to architects, mathematicians, and scientists and demonstrated that it had the ability to enhance creative problem solving skills . He was planning on conducting more research into psychedelic drugs however his ambitions were halted when LSD was made illegal in 1967. However this unfortunate event hasn't stamped out his interest in psychedelic drugs. Along with co-founding a university where he’s lectured on psychedelic studies Dr. Fadiman has also written a book called, The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide: Safe, Therapeutic, and Sacred Journeys, which is a kind of “how to” guide for consuming psychedelic drugs in a safe and therapeutic way.
Dr. Fadiman has recently collected hundreds of anecdotes from people who have followed a micro-dosing regimen that he laid out which can be seen at the bottom of this article. This regimen basically instructs you to only use substances that have been tested to confirm that they are in fact LSD or Psilocybin and to then take a small amount with breakfast every 4 days. Along with this you are asked to “Write a few notes to yourself about how your day went. Consider, for example, the amount of work you did, how productive or creative it was, and the level of ease or discomfort you felt. Notice any changes in how you are relating to others. Notice any differences from normal in mood, food, physical strength, or symptoms of any condition.” These notes can be helpful for your own reflection on your experience and also for Dr. Fadimans research. Some people may wonder why there is a 3 day gap inbetween doses and one reason for this is due to the fact that you will likely be effected by a micro-dose for around 2 days. Then the 3rd day can act as a kind of control so you can see how you are functioning normally and you can use this to compare your normal psychedelic free experience to the days that you are being effected by your micro-dose. When micro-dosing is done in this manner most people do not experience hallucinations, traumatic experiences or any other possible effects sometimes reported from full blown psychedelic experiences. And according to Dr. Fadiman the vast majority of people have reported to him that they have better days, less anxiety, have improvements in their mood, can concentrate better, have an increased ability to recognize patterns and have even been able to treat symptoms of depression and cluster headaches . In an interview Dr. Fadiman said “People do it and they’re eating better, sleeping better, they’re often returning to exercise or yoga or meditation. It’s as if messages are passing through their body more easily,”. One of Dr. Fadiman’s theory's for how micro-dosing is working is that “it looks like it re-balances those pistons which are not in balance,” he added. “This may be in your central nervous system, it may be the brain stem, it may be that it’s improving function of mitochondria. One woman who had painful, crampy periods started microdosing and when her period came, she had no problems.”. Some skeptics might claim that this may all be due to a placebo effect but Dr. Fadiman disagrees, and he cites the fact that multiple people are reporting unexpected effects and if it were just a placebo effect you would only see effects that you expect to see.
Recently at the 2017 psychedelic science conference Dr. Fadiman announced that he has moved away from the somewhat disorganized method of simply having people email him reports of their micro-dosing experiences. He’s now paired with another researcher named Sophia Korb and is using a more organized and scientific method catalog these reports are “well designed self reports, online, checking in, a standard protocol, pre-report of symptoms, diagnostic categories, and a control group”. They have also collected a vast amount of data too , currently they have 1,304 subjects in their study from over a dozen countries. If you want
Micro-dosing to treat symptoms of ADHD
One common reason that people micro-dose is to help alleviate symptoms of ADHD. Dr. Fadiman said that he received reports from people saying that micro-dosing was a lot like Adderal, a common stimulant medication used to treat ADHD, and that they got all of the benefits they would normally get from taking Adderal but without any of the uncomfortable side effects. One report posted on Reddit stated “ I take between 15–20 ug of LSD every third day. It helps me with focus, empathy, and energy. I’m diagnosed with ADHD and I have taken both Adderall and Vyvanse in the past. I find micro-doses of LSD to provide a similar feel to those medications, without the adverse side effects such as loss of appetite and the dirty feeling of the comedown”. This is exciting because like this report says, stimulant medications like Adderal can have some very uncomfortable side effects like loss of appetite, gastrointestinal issues, sleep problems, and mood swings, harsh comedown, anxiety, uncontrollable tics, headaches, blurred vision, dry mouth, hallucinations, chest pain, seizures,weight loss, tiredness, and worst of all they can be extremely addictive.
Many people have given reports to Dr. Fadiman stating that they used LSD micro-dosing to help decrease the amount of stimulant med’s that they take or to help ween themselves off their stimulant medications. People have stated that stopping theses addictive med’s causes withdrawal symptoms but by micro-dosing these withdrawal symptoms are either non-existent or they are severely dampened. In an interview Dr. Fadiman stated that “It’s an extremely healthy alternative to Adderall,”. In addition to this some perks that micro-dosing has over stimulant med’s is that you don’t have to micro-dose every day to get the desired effects. On the other hand to get continued effects, Stimulant med’s need to be taken on a daily basis.
During my research for this blog one thing that I came across, in the realm of micro-dosing to treat ADHD, is that LSD might be a better choice then Psilocybin mushrooms. One Reddit-er who has ADHD stated that they had tried both but felt like the mushrooms were less effective. One possible physiological reason for this is that LSD is known to stimulate both serotonin receptors and dopamine receptors whereas Psilocybin only stimulates serotonin receptors. This is important because ADHD is thought to be caused by dis-regulation of dopamine pathways in the brain. For those who don’t know, dopamine is a neurotransmitter in our brains that works by regulating our reward circuits, pleasure centers, movement, and emotional responses. And some of the effects of LSD are related to its activation of dopamine receptors specifically the D2 receptor. Now this doesn't mean that Psilocybin can’t be used to treat ADHD, its just a possibly explanation for why LSD may be the better choice for some people.
Connected to this is the fact that many people who are attending college, work in demanding jobs or who are simply looking for a leg up on the competition in their lives are obtaining prescriptions for ADHD stimulant medication to enhance their cognitive performance. In our current culture of high performance this has become the norm but with all the uncomfortable side effects of stimulant medications, LSD micro-dosing may be a better option. There have been numerous positive reports from people working in high performance fields such as the tech industry in Silicon Valley and also other places around the world, all claiming that micro-dosing has significantly enhanced their performance and focus at work. One corporate banker recounted how micro-dosing helped changed his life and even helped him to win the National sales award in corporate banking. He stated that it had a huge impact on his ability to focus “ When micro-dosing, I can actually sit down for hours at a time without even realizing it. Sometimes, I look up after 6 hours of work and go, “holy shit””. After reading a bunch of accounts like this one it looks as though micro-dosing helps to facilitate a “flow state” where you get fully submerged into the task you are completing and are totally unaware of how much time has gone by. This is especially helpful for people with ADHD because entering into a flow state lets you get important tasks done without being distracted and is also thought to be a key component to living a happy life.
An anonymous source that I interviewed said that they micro-dose at least once a week and feel like it really helps them “I go to class on it and work on it as well. It helps me with typing papers! I really enjoy it. It allows you to perceive things as if you might when you are fully tripping, but not as intense and your vision is still normal so it isn’t like you’re hallucinating as you’re trying to get stuff done . It helps keep me in the present moment, empathize easier, and it makes classes amazing! I took a philosophy class last semester and had trouble wrapping my head around some of the concepts, but when I would go to class on a mirco, everything would make a lot more sense.”.
Future directions for Micro-dosing research
Although there has yet to be a actual study that looks into the effects of micro-dosing there may be some in the near future. Amanda Fielding, head of the Beckley Foundation for psychedelic research in the UK, has a plan to take 20 subjects and give them small amounts of LSD; 10, 20, or 50 micrograms, or a placebo. After taking these drugs they will each be tested on a range of cognitive tasks including the ancient Chinese game of GO which is a complex strategy game. While completing these tasks each subject will have their brains evaluated useing both MRI and MEG technologies. This study will help to determine if micro-dosing is actually giving people the competitive cognitive edge that they have been reporting and also help us to understand how this happens. In an interview Fielding stated “I’m very interested in that level of [potential] cognitive enhancement which isn’t a full-blown psychedelic state but is a lift in productivity and cognition and amusement or thinking further than one usually does.”
Disclaimer
Despite all the beneficial effects that micro-dosing can have, this is not for everyone. To start off, its illegal in almost every country and you can go to jail for having any of these substances in your possession. There has also been reports of micro-dosing that was unpleasant and some people, after trying it once, will never want to do it again. Dr. Fadiman said that out of the hundreds of reports hes received from people who have micro-dosed there have been 5 cases where people had unpleasant experiences. One important thing to remember if you do try micro-dosing is to stick to the dosage regimen and time table that Dr. Fadiman has suggested which can be found below. If you don’t its more likely that you will have an unpleasant experience and might accidentally pass the threshold limit and go into a actual trip. This is what happened to one of the producers of the podcast Reply All and afterwards they said they were done with micro-dosing for good. If you want to hear about their experience the podcast episode is embedded below. However of all the reports that Dr. Fadiman has received none has reported lasting harm. In addition to this from the reports the Dr. Fadiman has received so far it look like almost all medications can be taken with micro-doing
For quick tutorial explaining micro-dosing check out the video below.
Below is a preview of a micro-dosing regimen that helps you to accurately record your experience and if you would like the full regimen you can click here.