- Three moms said that taking small amounts of psilocybin made them more present and calmer parents.
- It’s also helped them deal with trauma and postpartum symptoms, they told Insider.
- Research suggests psychedelic drugs like psilocybin have therapeutic potential.
Editor’s note: This article discusses suicidal ideation.
When Natalie wakes up in the morning, she takes her 100-milligram “‘magic” mushroom pill, meditates, and wakes up her daughter.
The mom of one, who asked Insider to withhold her last name for her family’s privacy, said she’d been taking small amounts of psilocybin, the psychedelic found in these mushrooms, for almost a year, after being 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,” Natalie said.
Now, with the support of microdosing, or regularly taking a small amount of a substance, she can face motherhood and life with a sense of calm, she said.
Natalie was introduced to the psychedelic a year after giving birth when her cousin struck up a conversation about psilocybin and its therapeutic potential. At the time, Natalie said, the idea of using shrooms terrified her, but the lack of relief she felt from her antidepressant medication made her open to other solutions.
She created a microdosing regimen using psilocybin from a dispensary in Oakland, California, where she lives and where the substance is decriminalized. Since October, Natalie has microdosed every other day for a month, followed by a two-month break — a practice she says has transformed her.
Natalie is one of a growing number of moms using magic mushrooms to enhance their parenting abilities. As the movement to decriminalize psychedelics in the US grows and more scientific evidence suggests magic mushrooms have mental health benefits, people have increasingly become open to the practice.
Three mothers who microdose psilocybin told Insider it transformed them…
Read more:Moms who microdose ‘magic’ mushrooms say the psychedelic made them better parents