Before beginning a microdosing practice, it's important to manage expectations. Quite often I see people practicing short term microdosing coming away disappointed that they haven't seen any major changes. It's hard not to place big hope in this novel practice when the headlines about psychedelics are reading things like "one dose of psilocybin is like ten years of therapy." Coupled with the fact that people are desperate to be relived of their pain, their stress, and their troubles, it's no wonder that let downs happen when it doesn't turn out to be a magic eraser for life's problems. Unfortunately, people are of the belief that microdosing is supposed to make you "happy" in the same way that they believe antidepressants will, and protect you from any negative feelings whatsoever. This is far from any picture of mental wellness we could strive for and respect. A better way to think about…...

Background Microdosing is categorised as taking regular doses of a drug or supplement to improve mental and/or physical health or wellbeing. Contemporary microdosing is most often associated with classic psychedelics and cannabis products, but can also include other substances such as research chemicals, new psychedelic substances, non-psychoactive mushrooms and cacao. In this case, we are talking solely about microdosing classic psychedelics, which most often is either psilocybin containing mushrooms or truffles, or LSD or one of it's more accessible analogues such as 1P-LSD or 1V-LSD. Microdosing with classic psychedelics is not new, but has been growing in popularity over the last decade during the "Psychedelic Renaissance" of the 21st century. This new trend of microdosing appears to have begun in Silicone Valley around the early- to mid- 2010s. Users reported that it helped them to feel more creative, engaged, productive, and socially adaptive. Thus, microdosing seemed like the perfect answer…...

Overview The use of psychedelics has been historically highly stigmatised due to unfounded claims as to their harmfulness. These claims were often made from a politically motivated perspective and not subject to rigorous scientific enquiry. In the years since, evaluations of various substances, legal and non, and their impact on the individual and society has shown that classic psychedelic substances and cannabis not only have low levels of harm, but in some cases the risks are negligible. By comparison, commonly used substances such as alcohol, tobacco, heroin, cocaine amphetamines, painkillers such as fentanyl and oxycontin, pose major risks to individual health and public safety. Not only can we use this to demonstrate the fallacy behind the demonisation of psychedelics compared to other substances, but also an irony emerges where psychedelic and entheogenic substances are seeing more and more positive clinical results in improving conditions in participants who often turn to…...

As discussed in the introduction, microdosing is not specifically a "cure" or straightforward fix for any particular condition or problem, although some specifics are emerging through more rigourous research. What we do know, is that various psychedelics have effects on the brain and body that can open up avenues to resolving a variety of different issues. Some known properties of psychedelics include: Macrodosing is privilege, Microdosing is accessibility Macrodosing psychedelics produces these effects to a much greater degree than microdosing, whence the enormous movement to legalize and study these substances, and the documented ways they have changed lives. However, for many reasons, macrodosing psychedelics is not for everyone. Access to safe, guided macrodosing experiences is a privilege, you need either the money to seek out reputable retreats possibly in a foreign country, or you need the luck to have someone in your own network who can be this guide for…...

There are several well known microdosing protocols, as well as many ways that individuals choose to work with this practice. The Fadiman Protocol, named for it's creator James Fadiman, probably the most commonly used, involves microdosing every third day. So you have the microdose day, a transition day, and a rest day. Fadiman recommends repeating this for four to eight weeks before taking a break. The Stamets Protocol or Stamet's Stack has also become popular over the last few years, especially with growing interest in non-psychoactive mushroom supplementation. Paul Stamet's advice is to "stack" microdosing psilocyin truffles with Lion's Mane mushroom and Niacin (vitamin B3). The schedule is to take this "stack" for four days, and rest for three, and to continue for 4 weeks before resting for another four weeks. Other protocols include things like : every other day, twice a week, or specifically microdosing on significant days such…...