Anxiety/Panic Disorder, PTSD, Manic Depression etc etc.

[Ethnopiate]

Basically, as a "sufferer" of the above mentioned conditions, I am curious as to how others manage, live with or have healed themselves of these "disorders".
More specifically, what entheogens people have found to help them cope or cure.
EG;
Recent studies have shown psilocybin has the capacity to "block" the traumatic memories from, or feelings associated with, PTSD aftermath.
I have also read, though won't post as fact yet, that psilocybin and psilocin can cause the brain to grow new cells.

I would love to hear about the situations others are in and openly converse in a non-critical, supportive forum for discussion on ideas, experiences and opinions on treatments and coping strategies.
All the best to you all with your respective demons, I hope solace can be found.

[jbmac]

whatever you do never take Prozac, meditate, experiment with microdoses of nature's medicine, I have found 2 puffs of edit to work a lot better than the crap doctors prescribe. Trying acupunture an strange chinese medicines to fix me better than a team a quack doctors did..

[Ethnopiate]

I'm looking into the natural side of things in earnest, as I believe we have all these receptors in our brains that plants have the key compounds to, we just need to look in the right places to find cures for everything we have really brought upon ourselves. I have only taken antibiotics 10-11 times in my life and had the good ol' upbringing of playing in the veggie garden, eating worms, making mud cakes and all that wonderful, immune system boosting stuff! Kids these days in our bleach and cotton wool society are gonna have it tough soon, esp with all the GM crap coming of age. I digress...

I have read and found (and sincerely wish I had the capacity to research further) that certain species, rather, strains of weed, have more CBD, an anti-psychotic that occurs in-balance with the THC but is bred out of "super" strains, than others as it does not contribute to the high.
If I smoke potent hydro, it makes my anxiety much worse for the first hour or so. If I smoke bush grown, not so much. This could also be dependent on sativa/indica percentage in the plant. THC and CBD occur (to my understanding) in the plant like oil and water in a glass. You can only have a certain amount of each substance. I have abstained though as it does me no good, health, motivation or mood wise. Plus I have a terribly addictive personality, same with alcohol. It helps short term, but the next day my anxiety levels are way up.
Unfortunately, just about every damn plant I want to try I can not get my hands on due to legal status in Western Australia, thus I am researching legal alternatives, of which a few seem to be coming to light.

I am just starting my ethnobotanical/entheogenic journey in earnest now. I have dabled in the past, but now I feel the need to fix my "mental glass" more than ever and am seeking all the advice and education I can from people who have gone before.

[Ethnopiate]

I'm looking into the natural side of things in earnest, as I believe we have all these receptors in our brains that plants have the key compounds to, we just need to look in the right places to find cures for everything we have really brought upon ourselves. I have only taken antibiotics 10-11 times in my life and had the good ol' upbringing of playing in the veggie garden, eating worms, making mud cakes and all that wonderful, immune system boosting stuff! Kids these days in our bleach and cotton wool society are gonna have it tough soon, esp with all the GM crap coming of age. I digress...

I have read and found (and sincerely wish I had the capacity to research further) that certain species, rather, strains of weed, have more CBD, an anti-psychotic that occurs in-balance with the THC but is bred out of "super" strains, than others as it does not contribute to the high.
If I smoke potent hydro, it makes my anxiety much worse for the first hour or so. If I smoke bush grown, not so much. This could also be dependent on sativa/indica percentage in the plant. THC and CBD occur (to my understanding) in the plant like oil and water in a glass. You can only have a certain amount of each substance. I have abstained though as it does me no good, health, motivation or mood wise. Plus I have a terribly addictive personality, same with alcohol. It helps short term, but the next day my anxiety levels are way up.
Unfortunately, just about every damn plant I want to try I can not get my hands on due to legal status in Western Australia, thus I am researching legal alternatives, of which a few seem to be coming to light.

I am just starting my ethnobotanical/entheogenic journey in earnest now. I have dabled in the past, but now I feel the need to fix my "mental glass" more than ever and am seeking all the advice and education I can from people who have gone before.

[(1.1.2.3.5...)^inf]

Finding a hobby to obsess about (e.g. entheogens, music, making something, whatever) then enjoying talking and doing stuff with like minded hobbiests can help. Sleeping well is v. important with mental health too. So sleeping 4hrs a night because of obsessing about a hobby is not so helpful.

Last year I hit a low and panicy patch when trying to give up smoking. Its hard to not be a complete asshole when changing dosage of combusted nicotine/harmine containing compost. Getting into building vaping setups and mixing eliquids has cheered me up no end and has also got me talking to another group of sane people - again, great for mild mental health stuff. Works well with my earlier entheogen hobby.

How about the other mental health skill of physical exercise? For example walking 10miles a day looking for mushrooms and your local native entheogens, or digging and cultivating your entheogen garden.

[(1.1.2.3.5...)^inf]

I would like to enjoy the unmentionable herb but too many strains just give me panic attacks and messes with my working memory. There's creativity there but that's only one herbal power.

[Ethnopiate]

Cheers for your input!
I have the problem of only being able to grow my plants in pots as the whole outside area of the house I am renting is entirely paved. This also poses other challenges such as keeping pots off the ground to stop root burn, using light coloured pots rather than the cheap black ones etc etc but I am winning. I have become involved with a few Perth based FB gardening and plant/seed sharing groups and met some awesome people, been surprised by the generosity of people who will give me plants for free when they come to pick up theirs, like dragon fruit (soursop), agave, wormwood and one lovely lady even gave me about 15 lil baggies with all sorts of diff veggie seeds!
That only gets me so far though. Being low on funds means I can't indulge myself in experimentation with legal alternatives from sites like Shaman Aust and the likes so I need to be able to have access to such resources in my own garden.
I have been fully enveloped in my quest for the ethnobotanicals I am chasing but again, when my head hits the pillow, I fall asleep, get a solid (usually) 8hrs but if I have nothing to do the next day often just stay in bed till midday, sometimes later depending on how lucid I am when I wake. Waking up for me sucks as I ALWAYS wake up anxious and have to combat that immediately, then start my day/afternoon.

So I have tried the following thus far;

Cognitive behavioural therapy - (limited effectiveness, esp when an attack comes out of the blue with no trigger),
Anti-depressants - (SSRI's, tri-cyclics and MOAI's, many diff brands, types and combinations). Currently on 60mg Avanza (Mirtazapine) which helps with sleep.
Benzo's - (valium and Xanax, both of which are absolute hell to come off with Xanax being as bad or worse than opiates!). Currently prescribed 1-2 vals per day as needed.
Having one in my pocket often acts as a safety blanket and knowing it's there "just in case" often helps a
lot. I try to avoid taking them for more than a couple of days consecutively as I hate coming off them if I have a daily dose.
Anti-hypertension meds - Catapres, great for stopping restless leg syndrome and used for lowering blood pressure.
Exercize - Great, when I can motivate myself to do it. The natural release of feel good endorphins during and when I get home is always a boost.
The un-mentionable plant - Terrible! Onset is usually paranoia and borderline panic, an hour later it seems to work but I wake up groggy, anxious and stupid.
Mycology - Certain strains have recently been shown to quell bad memories from PTSD and actually stimulate the growth of new brain cells! Excellent side effect of ego death which helps a lot! Still researching atm.
M'done - Very effective side effect of reducing panic. Sedatives used the be my thing, I was a junkie for a while there (a year perhaps) but got my life back on track and thankfully been clean for close to 3 years.
Various other herbs, tinctures, extracts etc with varying results.

Have to leave it there as I am out of time!
All the best to you all, looking forward to seeing where this journey takes me, and you all.
Questions, comments and critique welcome, that's what it's all about.

[(1.1.2.3.5...)^inf]

Thanks for sharing and being open about it all! Nice to meet you enthopiate.

If it helps at all, I think getting out of bed and doing stuff is hard even for a lot of 'sane' people too. I really believe finding something to _do_ that interests you enough to get up for is important. So many different activities could be intensely fun and interesting once started and practised - finding something to structure your day round.

[minderbinder]

i'm stuffed with several ad-medications and in the end it's still bad but i'm chained to all this pharm crap additionally.
can't use edit anymore, too. grrr :/

i can not compare, but if one can get around using ssri/s-what evers, one should try to do so on any account.
of course if the choice is silver buller vs ssri then the ssri might still be better