This article was originally published on Psychedelic Spotlight and appears here with permission.
They’re not quite hippies, and they’re not quite 20-year-olds on the search for existential assurance. Nope. They’re moms, and they’re coming out of the psychedelic closet to share how microdosing has helped them become better parents.
Save the shiitake and bench the white button mushrooms; modern moms are turning to a more colorful alternative to enhance their personal wellness, and their parenting.
Between carpools and cooking and work and holding it all together, how does a mom get her hands on psilocybin? Even more intriguing: how does she decide that psilocybin is the secret ingredient to becoming a super-powered parent?
Some are blaming Michael Pollan and his 2018 cult classic How to Change Your Mind. “Only a science nerd could have led me to the darkside,” says Christina Rivera Cogswell in her Huffpost Personal piece, where she credits microdosing with helping her “look deeply into the eyes of [her] own extinction.” With gut-punching guilt for the world she’s leaving her children –- one irrevocably doomed by drought, overpopulation, wildfires, pandemics, greed, and global warming –– Cogswell pursued microdosing to induce a more positive and grounded outlook on modern times.
But is there anything really dark about a little Psilocybe cyanescens alongside a morning coffee? The hivemind is now shifting toward a long-awaited conclusion: no.
Psychedelic Parenting is Trending
Though Cogswell’s story may seem like a shocking overshare to the uninitiated, she is hardly alone. With the decriminalization of mushrooms finally gaining traction, “Plant Parenthood” or “Psychedelic Parenting” is becoming a more accepted and chronicled practice.
Jake, a Western New York physical therapist and fellow psychedelic parent, echoes an epiphany for Psychedelic Spotlight. “Intergenerational trauma can feel impossible to defeat. Microdosing has not only improved my outlook on my own past but has helped me feel more optimistic about my children’s futures.”
Parents who microdose assert that small amounts of psychedelics –– not enough to trip but enough to, theoretically, alter the mind –- help them deal with the depression and anxiety that come with raising a family. Microdosing may also help mothers connect deeper with their children and approach parenting from a more sympathetic lens.
One Oakland mother, Natalie, even credits microdosing psilocybin with saving her life. In an interview for Insider, Natalie explains that she turned to microdosing psychedelic mushrooms after postpartum intensified her depression.
“I had a lot of rage where I wanted to hurt my baby. Sometimes she wouldn’t stop crying, and I just had so much anger inside of me that I was afraid for her, which caused me to want to kill myself because I was afraid that I was going to hurt my kid,” she revealed.
Her new morning routine…
Read more:Moms On Mushrooms: Inside The Psychedelic Parenting Trend – Benzinga
