The Most Complete Source for the Bipolar + Psychedelic Question

[BipolarGrowth]

Feel free to ask questions directly to me about this combination. In these videos which were made a while back, I had a somewhat different view on it than I do now. I don’t recommend it for everyone, but it can be quite worthwhile for those with specific goals that allow the pros to then outweigh the cons. 
 

You’ll find a lot of information on my YouTube channel. There is also talk of the relationship and interaction of spirituality/pursuing enlightenment or awakening and bipolar disorder. 

The linked videos are not in any order related to importance. 

How Psychedelics Trigger Manic Episodes (Bipolar Disorder)

?Magic Mushrooms with Bipolar? - My Heroic Dose Trip Report #5dgisd

Bipolar Mushrooms-  A 1.5 Gram Psilocybin Trip Report with Bipolar Disorder Type 1

Taking Magic Mushrooms with Bipolar Disorder (My Thoughts & Experience)

 

Bipolar Disorder & Spiritual Enlightenment - The Accidental Buddha

 

There are many more relevant videos on the YouTube channel itself than just these. 
 

A question and answer between a fellow bipolar person and myself. He is the questioner. 
 

Has working with psychedelic medicines helped you in your opinion?

 

It has allowed me to experience more happiness, love, bliss, pleasure, ecstasy, insight, true knowledge, and deep and unimaginable spiritual experiences than anything else as well as many other positive things I didn’t mention above. I tried meditation for years before psychedelics. It worked well for me on two separate two-week-long occasions, but this only happened after my highest dose mushroom trip motivated me to meditate even more. Without psychedelics, I wouldn’t have had that motivation. I also might not have been “spiritually charged” enough to have those deep experiences brought about by meditation if I hadn’t done a large dose of psilocybin mushrooms a week or so before the first effective meditative experience started. In my opinion, nothing comes close to psychedelics when you use them correctly. On a more permanent level, I’ve become more open-minded, confident, and a better creative thinker. I’m less neurotic. I’m less socially anxious. Due to these things, I’d say I’m closer to reaching my genetic IQ potential. When you’re intellectually bogged down by mental illness and limiting personality traits like low openness or high neuroticism, you aren’t going to actually be able to think, speak, and act as close to your maximum genetic IQ potential. Overall, I’d say psychedelics have made me a better person. I’m quite proud of the changes they’ve made in me or possibly allowed me to make within myself. There’s nothing more extreme that you can experience in this life than combining a history of spiritual practice and study with a high-dose psychedelic trip. Think of skydiving out of a high-altitude plane at 60,000 feet with the aim of landing on the peak of Mount Everest, then multiply it by infinity. Then you’re coming close to what your consciousness can experience when you take spirituality times high-dose psychedelic use. I’m not trying to pressure spiritually on you btw, but I can’t tell the full story of how psychedelics have affected me without including it. Spiritual practice enhances both the short- and long-term effectiveness of psychedelics and vice versa as I described a bit when I mentioned those peak states I experienced from meditation. Using psychedelics has also given me the most difficult challenges of my life. This is not only talking about the couple bad trips I’ve had which can be an experience of hell on Earth. It’s mainly referring to how high-dose trips have led to much less stability with my bipolar disorder. If your goal is stability or treating the disorder alone, microdosing for the depression side of bipolar disorder is best, but there is also likely less risk of psychedelics harming you since you are bipolar type 2. I’m type 1 which is what makes my manias much more intense and therefore potentially damaging to certain aspects of my life while they also help other aspects of my life, primarily by giving me insights and the generation of new experiences and thoughts that possibly no other human being has ever experienced or thought of before and may never experience or think of in the future. The manias at times damage my public reputation, financial stability, job stability, and close relationships. Psychedelics are the most effective treatment for depression that exists, but always remember that what can treat depression in most cases will also pose a risk of triggering a manic episode. This even happens with SSRI antidepressants. SSRIs, typically near overdose level, create hallucinations in a quite similar way as psychedelics do. Most psychedelics you’ll likely encounter or hear about, typically referred to as the “classical” psychedelics, are mainly flooding the serotonin 5-HT2A receptors in your brain with their chemical structures that are nearly identical to serotonin itself. To a lesser extent, they also affect the serotonin 5-HT1A and dopamine receptors. SSRIs work by stopping the reuptake of serotonin. They basically stop the brain from recycling the serotonin in between receptors/neurons. As you can probably start to see, SSRIs and psychedelics do similar things; psychedelics simply “do it better” because they introduce a new source of serotonin copycat molecules rather than simply trying to work with what the brain already has in it. All of that was basically said to explain that, if your goal is to treat bipolar depression, psychedelics will work faster and typically be more effective as classical psychedelics in most cases pose little to no risk of overdose at their effective dose that will treat depression effectively when compared to SSRIs. SSRIs are just as dangerous if not more dangerous than psychedelics; they simply are just given at super low doses. You can do the same thing by microdosing your psychedelics, but it will most likely work much better to treat your depression than even mood stabilizers and an SSRI combined from my personal experience and research on credible scientific studies. So anyway, you can see for me that the answer to “have psychedelics helped me in my opinion?” is quite complex. They certainly have great effectiveness at both giving transcendent spiritual experiences which generate the absolute peak good (and more rarely bad) emotions humans want to experience and treating depression. How you can most wisely use them depends on your life goals. If you want a normal and relatively happy life, microdose either psilocybin mushrooms or LSD and use a mood stabilizer that is not an antipsychotic such as lithium or carbamazepine to control your potential for mania. Some antipsychotics counteract the effects of psychedelics and likely SSRIs as well, so they can cut down the effectiveness of your chosen depression treatment. I’d go off of your SSRI if you choose to microdose. You won’t need the SSRI at all likely, and it will keep you away from the rumored possibility of serotonin syndrome which doctors, mostly based on theory alone from what I can gather, say can occur when you combine psychedelics with an SSRI. I say this is based in theory alone as I have not been able to find even a single case online of someone ever experiencing serotonin syndrome from psychedelics alone, and any actual data on combining psychedelics with an SSRI is even less likely to be found anywhere. In summary, I’ll answer a couple questions. Do I regret even a single time that I’ve taken a psychedelic even if it’s resulted in less mental stability and a severe manic or depressive episode? Not at all. Would I choose to make practically the exact same decisions about taking psychedelics if I could live my life over again retaining all memory of everything that has resulted from me taking them? Yes, I might even choose to take more if I did things over again. I MIGHT choose to have haldol on hand thus negating any “negative” effects that I experienced. I don’t even know if I’d want to get rid of the manic or depressive episodes I’ve experienced due to my psychedelic use. I don’t know if it’s fair to even categorize those times of instability as negative considering what they have given me. As much as psychedelics multiply the effects of spirituality and vice versa, mania does the same thing to both. They all multiply each other to create experiences that someone who isn’t bipolar, a dedicated high-dose psychedelic user, and a spiritual practitioner all at the same time could experience. I’m talking about experiences that potentially rival and maybe even exceed any spiritual leader, messiah, or enlightened person you’ve ever heard of. That’s the power of the modern-day shamanism that I’m talking about. The one instance of serious suicidal and homicidal depression that I experienced which was possibly caused by my psychedelic use even provided valuable experience and insight. Don’t let me sharing that with you scare you away from psychedelics, but if it does scare you, just microdose instead of playing with the fire that comes from high-dose experiences. I will reiterate though that you might even be able to do high-dose trips with little risk of a damaging mania due to you being bipolar type 2. I have a good friend who is type 2 who does high-dose trips regularly which cause little to no mania in him.

 

A separate writing:

This will likely be the most detailed writing about the relationship between bipolar disorder and psychedelics you’ll be able to find online. Many bipolar people have tried them, but info online describing experiences and the interaction is quite rare. Many people with bipolar disorder either come to the hard question of  “Should I use psychedelics?” or simply do them without even questioning it, being generally unaware of the medical warnings against it. In many ancient or even some modern day shamanic cultures, people with psychotic mental illnesses (these were often not considered illnesses in these cultures) were often chosen above people with regular psyches/neurochemistry to become shamans or medicine men/women. The shamans/medicine men/women in many of these cultures regularly used psychedelics, and these individuals were viewed to have a key role in society that seemed to be enhanced by their psychedelic use. As you can see, there is a large difference between how other cultures have answered this question and how the consensus of modern medicine answers this question. 

 

I just wrote much of the information below for a friend with bipolar who asked if psilocybin magic mushrooms have been responsible for my manic episodes. Before I get into that, I’ll clarify that I was diagnosed with type one bipolar disorder and generalized anxiety disorder at 18. I have clear family history (diagnosed type 2 bipolar disorder in my grandmother). I had my first sign of the illness at age 14. This sign was moderate depressive symptoms that lasted up until my first manic episode at 18. I did not try psychedelics until I was almost 23. I had used marijuana starting at age 14, but I would only say I was a moderate/heavy user for about two months right when I started then almost none at all until years later. I bring up marijuana because some medical professionals have suggested there is a link between its use and the triggering of latent psychotic mental health disorders, mainly bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. I figured I’d add that in since this post is basically accounting for both the potential and obvious relationships among various drugs and how my disorder manifests. Here’s what I said to my friend to answer his question: 

 

Well I hadn't had a manic episode for a few years until about two months after I had my first mushroom experience (a relatively low dose) which ended up changing my priorities quite a bit. I stopped caring about chasing success and money as much and started prioritizing things like relationships with my family and girlfriend more. This decision made me much happier. It's hard to say if the mushrooms truly caused that mania. It more started me making positive changes in my life and gave an uplift to my emotions that kind of snowballed until I was beyond just happy and was instead manic. I believe the behavior and values change was what really caused this episode, but these changes were caused by consuming the mushrooms. 

 

Another time when I took my highest dose ever (5.87 grams) it lead me to choose to start meditating multiple times per day and eat a completely vegan diet. I think the meditation and diet change were more responsible for the mania that came about 30-45 days after the trip than the mushrooms were. Other than those two times, I haven't had problems with mushrooms causing episodes. I think they have the capability to chemically trigger an episode right away, but this would only be found at abnormally high doses probably. I have had close to 10 mushroom trips with most at 3-5 grams. Only two were at less than 3 grams. 

 

It seems like the way they trigger mania comes more in their ability to motivate you to take action or make changes to make yourself happier. I've never really been as motivated as I was after my highest dose. I changed/added probably 5-10 different positive habits to my daily life consistently for over a month. I was a fucking machine, lol. As a bipolar person, when you do all of this to create happiness within yourself, there is a problem. You don't have a natural cap to your happiness in the same way a normal person does. There's nothing in place to stop you from going manic when you revolutionize your life in the way I was. Standard doses of medication will not stop that. Emergency level doses can. 

 

LSD at 10 tabs chemically triggered a manic episode for me. At six tabs and three tabs on two separate trips there were no symptoms of mania at all nor any manias caused by the motivation and values changes I’ve described with those 20% of my mushroom experiences I’ve just described. It’s important to note that 80% of the time I tripped on shrooms it didn’t lead to any notable lifestyle shifts. In the three times I used LSD, it didn’t produce lifestyle changes like that 20% of my mushroom trips did. LSD and shrooms work relatively similarly in the brain on serotonin levels. This is why I say with a high level of certainty that shrooms can chemically trigger mania at crazy doses. LSD does boost dopamine more than psilocybin, so I would say it is riskier as boosting either of these neurotransmitters significantly is known to cause manic episodes. Taking ayahuasca and going off my meds at the same time also triggered a manic episode for me. This is the only time I have gone off my meds if you’re thinking maybe that’s causing my episodes. If I hadn't gone off my meds, I would've been fine though. I’m certain of that. I had a low/normal dose of ayahuasca. 

 

Long story short, with psychedelics that work mainly on serotonin (this includes all that I’ve described here), it's the dose that ultimately decides if they will chemically trigger mania. I could probably have as many mushroom trips as I want at 2-3 grams and possibly even 5 grams without any manic symptoms caused chemically by the initial ingestion, however, the power of these trips to lead you to take action to change your own level of happiness by improving your behavior and motivation is just as much of a risk for triggering mania as the direct and initial chemical effects. 

 

Several of my manias I had in the last half of 2020  were also not caused directly by psychedelics it appears, but those episodes also might not have ever happened if I didn't "open the gateway" or "put a crack in the dam" by using psychedelics many times at high doses and potentially permanently changing how my brain works. In the last six months of 2020, I had six serious manic episodes. Five resulted in hospitalization usually lasting one to two weeks for each occurrence. Two of these manic episodes were directly and chemically triggered by psychedelics. I also had my first depressive episode that was severe enough to require hospitalization at the end of 2020. I was seriously suicidal for the first time in my life. At the worst point in this episode, I even began having serious homicidal thoughts and plans. 

 

In the 2-3 years since choosing to start using psychedelics, my mental health has been far more tumultuous than ever before. I’ve had probably twice the amount of episodes in this 2-3 year period when compared to the previous 4-5 year period. I’ve also had both my worst manic episode and depressive episode ever during this 2-3 year period. It’s possible that some of these episodes would’ve happened without using psychedelics, but at least two were directly, chemically, and unquestionably caused by psychedelics and not just by behavior changes resulting from psychedelics. 

 

Conversely, psychedelics as well as these recent manias and all manias that have came after I started using psychedelics have given me the most incredible and meaningful experiences of my life. It’s common for spiritual or religious feelings, experiences, and thoughts to occur during manic episodes, but my manic episodes have become far more spiritually significant and overall spiritual in nature than the episodes I had before using psychedelics. I have been a very committed spiritual seeker for the past seven years. It’s important to note that I only really take psychedelics because of the way they add to my spirituality and aid me in experiencing the radical possibilities of consciousness. I’m not the type to trip just as a way to hang out with friends or trip at music festivals recreationally. As Leo Gura once said, “I don’t trip recreationally. I trip existentially.” I’m certain that the combination of bipolar disorder and psychedelics has allowed me to experience deeper awakenings and insights than many dedicated monks or other seriously dedicated or gifted spiritual people have who have decades of experience under their belts. I’ve done this in 2-3 years of psychedelic use and 7 years of spiritual practice and study. A bipolar brain certainly seems to increase the potency of psychedelics as well as give advantages spiritually. 

 

The choice to take psychedelics is an individual one. I’m not trying to pressure or influence anyone to make a decision either way. I figure giving people more information will help them to make the correct decision for them. 

 

Back to the shamanic use of psychedelics in those with psychotic mental illnesses in other cultures that I mentioned at the beginning, these cultures had an infrastructure built around supporting the physical needs of shamans. Shamans were generally not required to go hunt or do other work. Their work was going on psychedelic journeys through consciousness, gathering insights and heightened consciousness from these experiences, serving as physical healers, visionaries, and psychologists, and being the spiritual backbone of the society as well as possibly several other things we might not know about today. If your goal is to be a normal full-time employee or regular member of society, it probably isn’t wise to have regular high dose psychedelic trips as a bipolar person. If your goal is to experience the absolute peaks of insight, creative thought, and spiritual potency that consciousness has to offer, then they might be for you, but remember that you will likely pay a price. That price will very likely be your mental stability. You will have more manic and depressive episodes, and these episodes will be more severe than they would be if you never used psychedelics. Shamans who did not have the burden of normal work were much better equipped to handle this. The main problem for bipolar people who want to use psychedelics in the nature I have and for the purposes I have is that the majority of us still have to work full-time or go to school or carry out important family responsibilities like raising children. It’s incredibly difficult to juggle psychedelic use as a bipolar person with these things.

Edited February 3, 2021 by BipolarGrowth

[EntheogenTruthSeeker]

Hey man! I have been watching your recent vids again, I will emerge myself in this stuff too thanks!

Would you be willing to chat again soon? I have some interesting insights and would like your insight