Should a medical influencer do mushrooms

[@Xob_Driesestig]

Of course Rohin would want to take a mushroom: As we've learned from video games, they make small men double their height.

[@ashj_2088]

Oh you👻

[@diyeana]

😂 I just "heard" that sound effect.

[@sirBrouwer]

if you want a psychedelic retreat just ask your friends at the anesthesiology department.. I am sure they can help you in some very creative ways.

[@jcortese3300]

Honestly, I'll glad you were picky about it. I've read a lot of interesting things about psychedelics and admit I'm curious, especially since I also have a tendency to stubborn depression. I can't take them myself though; I have epilepsy, so promoting oddball electrical activity in my head isn't what I'm after. But I'm really skeptical. Michael Pollan's book talked it up, but all of his more striking "success" stories were from well-off people who were facing a tough, one-time emotional challenge. The one time the shrooms were not effective was a poor-to-working-class person living in a trailer park struggling with money, total lack of support, and chronic depression. This is why the biggest red flag in your story for me was the word "luxury." The shroom trend always seems to help rich people with temporary problems the most. Even helping terminally ill people face death is a solution to a temporary problem that only needs to be faced once. If you have to face a chronically draining problem like constant depression, constant pain, a toxic family, chronic poor health, or poverty, these things don't seem very effective. I also don't buy the argument that some civilizations used them for religious purposes, so they must be wonderful and spiritual. I'm just not seeing how tripping balls by ingesting a mushroom, licking a toad, or drinking a bowl of warm snot is going to turn everyone into peaceful, huggy hippies. An AWFUL lot of the societies that have used these chemicals for spiritual purposes were -- and are -- some of the most vicious, murderous, bloodthirsty, warlike societies in history, and in every single one of them, to be a girl or woman was ghastly. And the one thing more American than wellness garbage is the delusion that ANY community dysfunction can be cured by a magic pill and moreover one that gives you an unshared, completely individual experience. Nope, and nope. Sorry, that was awfully long. I think you made the right choice.

[@AlistairKarim]

My overall advice (as someone who "tried" around 20 substances), is to forget about any psychoactive drugs as a solution to life problems. But, if you have some stuff lying around, or it's very accessible at the moment, it really is worth exploring it as a space of "perspectives", ... rather than "solutions". Some specific perspective will be a solution, like stimulant perspective is a "solution" to attention deficit disorder. And probably in a space of perspectives of psychedelics there is a solution to your specific depression, but i dought it would be achieved in one trip. And don't forget, that the only working psychoterapy is either to actively live and try things, or to find a better stable routine, which are ultimately the same thing. My two cents, as an anecdot, around depression and psychedelics specifically is about 2c-b, which was proposed back in a day as an aid in psychoterapy. Known to public as a mild, warm psychedelic, easy for a novice, ... as they said. Complete opposite for me due to muscle spasms as side effect (appears to be ultra rare). I was very fast tired by it, but continued to intentionally trip, not out of curiosity, but out of boredome, for about 36 hours straight to the point of complete mental exhaustion. On a next day, *everybody* around were talking outloud about my awesome mood, and easy-going productivity. Like, EVERYBODY. And i don't recognise what they were talking about. At all. Cause, my legs were in pain, and i was barely holding up mentally. I didnt have any mood uplift, but something deep within me nevertheless had actually changed. My behaviour actually became easier and smoother in every detail. I do not recomend 2cb though. I've got much easier time with 100-200u of acid, but it could be a personal thing due to me, quite possibly, lacking dopamine a lot (have undiagnosed severe attention deficit for life), so, *possibly*, I perseive dopamine overflow in an acid trip as calmness and confidence, while for others it's anxiety and overstimulation.

[@lisasteel6817]

@@AlistairKarimyeah the only problem with self medicating your own mental health with psychedelics is the come down after the fact sends you (it did with me) into a very real depressive state. You need to get the dose just right to not get that come down and it’s a fine edge. I haven’t experimented with micro-dosing because I’m a parent now and I’m way too old and too responsible for durgs these days.

[@AlistairKarim]

​@@lisasteel6817 Well, that one didn’t happen to me under any substances. My issue is more about anxiety rather than depression. Even after two months on stimulants non-stop, I just had a 22-hour sleep and then a normal day afterward. Everyone’s nervous system is unique, and mental complexity even more so. Kudos, though, for being a responsible parent. I’ve seen people do the exact opposite, and from my point of view, it ended really badly.

[@jonstewart464]

I think you're right to be skeptical about the range of people for whom psychedelics will help with serious mental health problems. I have mental health problems, and while I really love psychedelics, they haven't cured anything. But, if you do a high dose of a psychedelic with the appropriate set and setting, you'll see why they generally do make people "all peace and love", at least while they're basking in the afterglow of the trip (it fades quickly and it takes effort to integrate anything permanent into your behaviour). It's in the common character of the experience, the feeling of being connected to all other beings, etc. The hippies weren't making it up. I think a risk/benefit analysis comes out overwhelmingly favourable, but that's case and context dependent for sure.

[@seanrowshandel1680]

It was supposed to "compete" with beer for being worth prescribing, but it lost the fight to beer. It was probably just for poor people in "those societies". It's a heart-deforming stimulant which nobody bothered to research 10,000 times because it was very obvious. The fact that he's advertising the shallow, predictable effect which it has is definitively an indication that he's "been enlightened by it". YES, the blood alcohol content of users DOES lower at the same rate as it normally does when they take it.

[@andrewharrison8436]

My wife went to the West Indes. Jamaica? No she went of her own accord.

[@sharpphilip]

I half expected the last ten seconds to jump cut to footage of Dr. Francis HIGHER THAN ALL HECK

[@bln8285]

your boss is watching us?? everyone look busy!!

[@abody499]

just carry a piece of paper. works every time. if ur on a building site, point at something

[@StrongMed]

Rohin, so how do I get one of these invites to an all-inclusive trip to take shrooms at a swanky resort in Jamaica?

[@diyeana]

@@StrongMed lol Dr. Strong.

[@lisasteel6817]

You need to change your name to SchlongMed.

[@medlife2]

I’ll forward you the email! 😂

[@DjDolHaus86]

If you want to come down to Cornwall and do some mushrooms by a lake then I can hook you up, doc. I can't promise a scientifically backed study or saltfish but we can probably manage some jerk chicken

[@ginnyjollykidd]

Bravo, Rohin! First, if they can foot the bill for your cruise, they don't need your endorsement. Second, they are trying to buy a commodity they cannot come by themselves but you have in abundance: credibility and legitimacy. The thing is, in the process, like you said, it would not build their legitimacy but tear down yours. It's a monkey's paw. Your ethics have saved you, us, and our rapport. I find that no small thing. Thank you. I hope you are able to make the cruise you want under more legitimate and honest circumstances.

[@DrSardonicus]

_The_ Matt Walsh and Ben Shapiro?! You've finally hit the big leagues, doc! POGGERZ

[@renrams]

if this is not ironic i really don’t know how to break the news to you mate

[@emperortgp2424]

/ourguy/ all along

[@Vossst]

@@renrams blud cant detect irony. ong non poggers behaviour + classic yt comment section L

[@318ishonk]

If you make portrait mode videos and hold the mic in your hand (like those gen-Zs who don't understand mic stands or lavalier mics) then you should also talk with a Valley Girl accent . That just makes sense :-)

[@medlife2]

I am looking to move into the beauty sector and was practicing how I’d hold lip gloss

[@JustOneAsbesto]

You should only do mushrooms if you want to do them. Don't do mushrooms as an excuse for a free trip to a "wellness retreat" in Jamaica. That sounds like one bad trip leading to another. Those people are going give you an experience as fake as they are. If you want to go to Jamaica, go to Jamaica. Have fun.

[@CullenCraft]

Set and setting 100%

[@Vossst]

He was gonna do science too, honest! :^ )

[@hanshans387]

Doc, I miss your long form vids, but the short forms ones are always enjoyable too! Also, does anyone else really not like the new colour fade on the youtube scrubbing bar?

[@christianseven6805]

I used to get thrilled when seeing another 46 min vidéo to sleep to

[@BS-vx8dg]

Love the _ST:First Contact_ reference!

[@queenofdramatech]

It is hard in the US because many drs take the money to push the drugs and it can be hard to sus out. Also, my dr can then start me on the med ASAP while we wait for insurance to approve the drug and then all the paperwork to go through before I can be treated.

[@PKWeaver74]

If only there was a way to experience psilocybin without spending a fortune on one of these retreats. I mean, it's not like you can just buy the spores and easily grow them at home otherwise loads of people would be doing it! Hell they'd probably have dedicated forums online discussing the process, sharing knowledge and experience...

[@TesterAnimal1]

Or just go for a hike round Fox House and grab some.

[@SomeoneBeginingWithI]

Recording that and putting it online would definitely get him into trouble at work. He would probably lose his medical licence. Travelling to a country where it's legal and taking it there was already a grey area he was worried about. Buying them online and taking them in the UK, and then making a clear public record of having done that, is straight up promoting illegal behaviour. I know that normal people get away with doing that kind of thing all the time, but Rohin is a doctor and is held to a higher standard of behaviour. He has to worry about the BMA taking away his medical licence.

[@PKWeaver74]

@SomeoneBeginingWithI Absolutely agree.

[@jonstewart464]

​@@TesterAnimal1When I was a teenager growing up in Sheffield I used to get the bus out to Fox House to pick mushrooms! Now I'm in my mid forties and I pick them in the Lakes where I live now...

[@methanial73]

Ah man! I wanted to know how Rohin tripping balls would've been!

[@8pelagic610]

Dude. Post Doc with Dr. Nutt, clinical studies in mycological medical applications under controlled conditions. Write a comedy sketch about your experience from a philosophical and applied medical perspective with some interesting fashion choices. Publish in your social media outlets. Use your fees from speaking and participation for a fun trip to Jamaica. The Jamaica Mistake Project.

[@alextgordon]

3:43 I feel like there's a story here...

[@wordzmyth]

🧐 therein lies a tale

[@Naptosis]

6:24 I'd love to talk with you more about the 'group singing' and 'sounding sessions', but we're at the bus stop and several times you've made reference to the fact I'm a badger. Did they send you any free samples?

[@Garbaz]

I think it would have been very interesting to see someone with your sort of perspective going through the experience of taking shrooms. You aren't an expert in psychedelics, so it wouldn't be purely roller coaster accounting, but your approach is generally critical and scientific.

[@etherdog]

Just heard a podcast, RadioLab from WNYC "The Ecstasy of an Open Brain" about "windows of plasticity" where various senses are most prone to influence and at what age, and the use of psychedelics to open those windows for therapeutic reasons (e.g., develop echolocation for someone newly blind, PTSD). Good story.

[@sandwich2473]

Thank you for being level headed and sensible with these things, it's a shame that we don't get to see the cool stuff you could have done - it's a very interesting topic but I don't know if it would have been worth the risk One of the things that interested me about my work is, although we do mandatory compliance training every month which covers the same five things (don't use a bad password, don't click on strange links, etc) and one of those things is the social media policy We all get told that we will be found online before too long regardless of if we use an anonymous handle or not because most of us have terrible opsec (what I've put in this comment is enough for them to know who I am :P) The people keeping an eye on what employees are talking about online keep tabs on people who might be showing problematic behaviour regardless of whether or not they'd be able to be easily linked back to the company People have had disciplinaries and faced subsequent dismissals over what they post

[@locochingadero]

I'm really impressed with your instincts here. 1. The potential efficacy of psilocybin 2. The cringe-factor of the more woo woo proponents. Psychedelics will eventually find their way around to natural affinity groups where they can be used in the context of real lives (Heroic Hearts for instance). Till then, thanks for keeping an open mind and keeping up with the research!

[@pedrosmith4529]

It was the right choice.

[@ChrisCapoccia]

I would expect the most important feature for a psychedelic retreat would be the quality of the doula and related counseling sessions before and after. Many studies on benefits from talk therapy, and this could be a sort of boosted talk therapy

[@JustOneAsbesto]

The "most important feature" of any trip is you.

[@Vossst]

@@JustOneAsbesto Set & setting.

[@Vossst]

From what I've read about psychedelic therapy, the guided aspect of it is a huge component of the treatment's efficacy.

[@JustOneAsbesto]

@@Vossst Cliche & basic. What you bring to the trip from a mental health perspective is WAY more important. If you're all jacked up inside, you're gonna have a jacked up trip. Regardless of set and setting. Set & setting is such a basic-bitch 13-year-old understanding of things. It's a thing I expect to hear from people who haven't even taken tylenol. Just vomiting cliches.

[@relocfoursteinh5160]

Please make just the Interview Science Docu, some Zoom Interview and a discussion of the facts. We need credible information on KZbin especially if a lot of influencers are going to promote this.

[@bergerniklas6647]

Just come to the University of Basel where they have been using this stuff for research for medical reasons for decades

[@LinusBerglund]

I understand the Temptation aspect. Had I not been on lithium (recurring depressions. All my life. Regular SS*I made me fat and bloated and depressed) I would have been in the Netherlands the day before yesterday.

[@Tesssasasasaaasa]

As someone who works in a busy health role, I've tried it a few times over years in outdoor spaces and i had positive mental breakthroughs (which in turn i was happier at work). For me, it was fun but I could easily never do it again because a bad trip can happen - but sometimes that helps. I have no answer, I'm very neutral about it haha

[@Tesssasasasaaasa]

But being somewhere unfamiliar with strangers would probably suck for the first time so you made the right choice probably

[@dfgdfg_]

This time of year all you have to do is retreat into the local field and keep your eyes peeled. You can even fire up the BBQ after if you fancy some chicken 😆

[@MagentaFerret-wd5vt]

As the saying goes: if you're not paying for it, you are the product being sold

[@DJMankiewicz]

Blink twice if it was Rythmia!

[@RJHarvey272]

You don't subscribe to the American idea that everyone needs therapy because you don't have to live here. ;b

[@chickenduckhappy]

More complicated question: how many weeks to wait after until legally out of hot water until doing surgery again? 🤔 not exactly a single-substance thing like alcohol that is metabolized at a predictable rate.

[@aapfelkuchen]

Nothing legal to consider there, just be honest to your doctors and tell them what you took, so they know how to change the dosages of their medication to your circumstances

[@galen-eu1vu]

@@aapfelkuchen But Rohan is the surgeon. Recall the story of the pilot who had a psychotic episode in the cockpit after his fiends got him to try shrooms to help with his chronic depression?

[@jonstewart464]

​@@galen-eu1vuThat sounds like a fishy story. Is it "guy has no psychiatric history, takes a psychedelic, comes down completely, has a good sleep, days later he's at work and goes into psychosis"...and this is supposedly caused by the psychedelic? Doesn't sound plausible. If you're going to have a psychotic break induced by a psychedelic, you're not going to come down, feel fine and go to work flying a plane first.

[@chickenduckhappy]

@aapfelkuchen I was talking about a doctor performing surgery after such an experiment 😅

[@Vossst]

Unless it triggers a latent psychiatric issue, which is certainly possible, effects only last at maximum 2 days, from everything I've heard. I'd personally consent to surgery anytime after that. Not too worried about my man's third eye opening mid-stent.

[@dustystarr2297]

Everyone should do mushrooms at least once!

[@hanshans387]

at least a handful of times tbh!

[@pattheplanter]

Man has such an intense time on mushroom retreat in Jamaica that he forgets a fortnight of time and those videos he uploaded.

[@triton62674]

FYI: IT'S MUSHROOM SEASON GET PICKING!

[@chris107892]

If you had gone would you have come back and said "In my experience"?

[@JustOneAsbesto]

This video made me realize that I think of taking mushrooms a lot like going to the dentist. It can be quite unpleasant, and sometimes it really hurts. But you need a good cleaning every 6 months or so to keep rot from setting in.

[@joostvhts]

So.... Also no netherlands then?

[@diyeana]

One of my (no longer) favorite medical influencers went the Way of the Woo and started promoting all sorts of junk. He attracted loads of subscribers at the Goop-Level of Intelligence. So, if that's what you're after, and want to shift your average watcher IQ level down by 30 points, go on that retreat. 😂 To be honest to myself, I would have been tempted for a hot second, too. At least until I read the fine print.

[@JustOneAsbesto]

I have so many guesses. Huberman? Don't tell me who it is if I'm wrong, I want to keep guessing.

[@warbler1984]

​@@JustOneAsbestoI also second Huberman...the man who specialises in the optic nerve...and everything else in the human body and has a protocol for everything

[@diyeana]

@JustOneAsbesto Not him. I've never respected Huberman. 😆

[@JustOneAsbesto]

@@diyeana Eagleman?

[@JustOneAsbesto]

Fun fact: David Eagleman got his powers after being bitten by a radioactive eagle.

[@alexandrupaviliu1431]

Is it still available? 😁

[@sween187]

Just say your charge is 75million plus tax, do you believe your product is that good, but good work, they are currently doing a lot of research in that field in the UK at the moment.

[@lisasteel6817]

I don’t know, man; it looks like you’re talking into a lipstick.

[@joostvhts]

Isn't that a vape?

[@misslayer999]

mushrooms are overrated, altho I've read the studies, and WOW. I liked DMT a lot better personally

[@lisasteel6817]

You gotta pick the blue tops and dried sucks. Um a friend told me.

[@misslayer999]

@lisasteel6817 well I've eaten a lot of mushrooms in my day lol and it's just not my cup of tea, at least not anymore. I understand the potential benefits and frankly I think that's amazing, but I did them recreationally, mostly while I was still in high school, with a few trips later on in life that I did not particularly enjoy. If I felt like I needed them for therapeutic reasons these days, I would absolutely do them again, but right now my mental health is pretty golden. DMT, well that's a whole other story lol.

[@TesterAnimal1]

Employer monitoring of social media should be completely illegal. We all use it like chatting down the pub. Would they also like to check when we say there? So why here then?

[@warpigs330]

I'm sure they would love to check what you say about them at the pub, luckily they don't have that capability.

[@andrewfrance1047]

Because here you are kind enough to provide a written transcript.

[@ratunkuuu]

Depends where you work... in a small town in a rural area pub feels like boarding school...​@@warpigs330

[@abody499]

u dont see why it might be important for a regulated professional's online musings _in the capacity of a regulated professional_ to be monitored by their employer?

[@Vossst]

@@abody499 On one hand: they hired him. They should trust him. On the other: this is a public platform, which can be viewed by anyone, including one's naturally curious employers. The matter of professional integrity seems to me fairly moot because of how selectively it's enforced-there is no burden of evidence nor any other standard in lace for, say, doctors of theology playing at life coach, doctors of medicine playing at salesperson, or medical researchers publishing findings the continue to have harmful effects long after they're disproven. Not terribly reasonable that a professional in good standing should fear censure when so much rubbish gets through. Innocent until proven guilty, I would say, and if not guilty, or even suspicious, not really deserving of Orwellian scrutiny.

[@personaslates]

I think psilocybin is fantastic.

[@TonyNaggs]

I don't know much about magic mushrooms, but that weird episode a year ago was scary to hear about: with the off-duty pilot in the US trying to crash a plane he was riding the jump seat on, supposedly after trying magic mushrooms.

[@LMoM0MoM]

I would have paid more than I can afford to see you on psilocybin.

[@RICDirector]

You are looking wearier than after a double shift, my friend...hoping all is well, that you are well, so on and so forth. Many hugs from California on a rare rainy evening, may your season be one that gives you joy and mental ease.

[@nonsequitor]

That's such a noob thing to say 🤦‍♂️ "do" mushrooms? Do you suggest patients "do some meds" with no context? What are you asking? Should you get high AF for fun?? 🤷‍♂️ Up to you. If you've got a family history of psychosis I'd recommend not, but yeah, pretty safe generally speaking. Should you microdose? 🤷‍♂️.... Do you have a problem with invasive thoughts/ default mode network regulation or treatment resistant depression? If so, probably yes. Definitely do that instead of SSRIs.... (unless you enjoy side effects, no help with symptoms, and significant risk of crippling brain zaps for weeks to months from Serotonin withdrawal)

[@michaelpapadopoulos6054]

"noob thing to say" LMAO

[@Stephanie_Vincent]

sir this is a Wendy's