DOSE:	150 mg	oral	Pharms - Sertraline	(daily)
	3.5 g	oral	Mushrooms

BODY WEIGHT:

160 lb

My Experiences Diminished

Let me begin by briefly describing myself. I am a fairly experienced user when it comes to psychedelic drugs. I have tried mushrooms six or seven times beginning when I was 16. I’ve dosed acid too but haven’t had in my eyes a breakthrough experience, though this may be attributed to the fact that I simply haven’t had real, quality LSD. I’ve used a plethora of other psychoactive substances including opiates, stimulants, and disassociatives but growing up have begun to experiment with them less and less.

For roughly a year now I have been prescribed Zoloft, a SSRI, to help treat for minor depression. I experienced very positive effects following the third and fourth week taking the medication, which included an uplifted mood, shift from anxiety to confidence, happiness and overall satisfaction with self. These effects noticeably continued for another 3 to 5 months onward. At the time I was taking 100mg a day orally. Following that the medication and its effects seemed to stabilize; I no longer noticed positive results, I just began to feel “the same.” This however wasn’t a bad thing as my emotions were finally running on a plateau. It made sense anyways since SSRIs require time before they can adjust and properly interact with the body. Since then my dosage has increased to 150mg a day. I again began to notice a positive change before the medication seemed to stabilize. This is my present dose and I continue to take it once a day.

The first time I took mushrooms I was not under the influence of an SSRI. Though the amount which I ate was minimal (roughly 2 grams), I experienced a wide array of effects. Tactile sensations were different for one: my legs felt as if they were weak and rubberish and could not hold a firm stance. I was extremely euphoric, gaining intense feelings of wonder and insight. I would giggle profusely. Objects sharpened in appearance, and everything was extremely vivid. In essence, I was definitely tripping.

Months later I had the most intense mushroom experience of my life to date and the amount was a mere 1.8 grams.

The next time I took mushrooms was during my senior year of high school and this time I had been taking Zoloft for a couple of months. I purchased a large cap and stem to which my friends fully expected me to lose my mind. However it was then when my experiences with mushrooms would begin to greatly diminish. I remember coming up, anticipating my trip and eager to enter the altered mindset. But an hour would pass and nothing had changed. “Surely it hasn’t been this long?” I would think. By the peak I felt nothing other than a little different than what I had been before, but absolutely nothing visual or physical. It was overall a huge let down.

The time after that was while I was in college. I had remembered my previous experience and was hesitant, but my friend relayed to me the extreme potency of the shrooms he had recently acquired so I relented and purchased an eighth. Again the trip as a whole was very mild. I walked around campus able to converse with perfect strangers feeling hardly different. It was psychedelic but by no means significantly so. Visual and tactile sensations were slightly enhanced, but I had to try and convince myself what I was feeling rather than truly become immersed in it.

The most recent experience happened last night and so I felt I should write it sooner than later while it's still fresh in my mind. One of my best friends, A, had just gotten back from a music festival in Florida. He called me up, mentioning he had brought back a batch of “fire shrooms” for me to try. I was really excited as I drove over, but thought about my recently diminished experience. I was definitely having some doubts. I guess when I think of tripping I think back to the first and second time: waves of emotion, intense visuals, life-changing thoughts, planning to fully lose my mind and experience something indescribable.
To me, A is one of those friends who I would value with my life. I trust him more than nearly anyone else, even my parents. So when he said he tripped balls, I fully believed him and anticipated that I would do the same.

Sitting in his basement I ate an eighth and washed it down with a glass of orange juice.
T+0:45: No effects seem to take place. I was beginning to feel a little different in my perceptions but my overall perspective was the same.
T+1:15: I notice slight visual differences but nothing severe. Television looks a little different.
T+1:30: Around this point I decide to go home, but as I stand up I feel wobbly in the legs. I become excited once again and dismiss any previous thoughts of negativity.
T+1:50: At the peak, I feel very different but again am ultimately dissatisfied with the overall experience. Everything becomes mental and I’m upset once more. I have a series of flooded thoughts and can’t sleep but other than that nothing has changed.
T+3:30: I feel as if I am coming down from anything I had previously felt. Extremely angered, I postulate that indeed the SSRI greatly diminishes my experiences and soon after go to sleep.

So it seems that the Zoloft greatly weakens the potency of mushroom trips for me. I understand why drugs such as MDMA are blocked from working whilst taking an SSRI but I was not under the impression that the effects of tryptamines would become diminished. Perhaps this will provide insightful to others taking SSRIs and noting weakened experiences with mushrooms.

Exp Year: 2008	ExpID: 69871
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: May 21, 2016	Views: 9,230
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