zoloft and shrooms

[bisqueware]

I’m looking to try shrooms, and I’ve been on 50 mg zoloft for two weeks. Will it kill the trip/is that dangerous? (Also, if it matters, I might have some alcohol in my system from last night.)

 

[Cream Gravy?]

You won’t be able to trip on an SSRI.

Also, if you’re so depressed you’re resorting to dark age medicine like SSRIs, you probably shouldn’t be tripping, and especially not mushrooms because all they’re gonna do is bring your issues to the forefront.

 

[Cream Gravy?]

It’s not dangerous to mix the two, SSRIs simply block the action of all psychedelics as they rely upon use of your serotonin receptors to take action and if those receptors are being blocked by some devil drug, they won’t be useable.

 

[Cream Gravy?]

I have heavy biases against the use of serotonin blockers in psychiatric medicine so my views are skewed on the matter. Suffice to say, you can’t trip if you’re on them.

 

[Survived Abortion]

You won’t be able to trip on an SSRI.

This is just not true at all. I was on many different SSRIs way back when, and they had no impact on my ability to trip on classic psychedelics at all.

They will impact your ability to get off on MDMA, and probably related compounds such as MDA, MDE, 5-APB etc. But not psychedelics like mushrooms, LSD or mescaline.

Also, if you’re so depressed you’re resorting to dark age medicine like SSRIs, you probably shouldn’t be tripping, and especially not mushrooms because all they’re gonna do is bring your issues to the forefront.

This is just not true either.

Suffering from depression is probably one the top best reasons why you should consider using a psychedelic. And the fact that psilocybin brings issues to the front of your awareness is a good thing. That’s how therapy works!

The fact is, SSRIs just don’t work for depression. The fact that it takes weeks for people on anti-depressants to find any relief is because that is generally the natural epidemiological course of mild-moderate depressive episodes. Meaning, you would have gone into remission whether you took the SSRI or not.

Severe depressive episodes don’t ever really respond to SSRI antidepressants.

That’s where psychedelics come in. I’m surprised there are so many people on bluelight still holding onto the antiquated view that “depressed people shouldn’t trip”, when it’s been all over the media for years now that psychedelics demonstrably improve depression in people with the worst cases of it, to a margin far greater than that produced by standard therapies. And not just depression, but many other psychiatric problems.

Just look up the work of Amanda Feilding at the Beckley Foundationand her collaboration with Imperial College London. Check out the studies done by Roland Griffiths at the Johns Hopkins Univeristy. Check out MAPS. Check out the Hefter Research Institute.

Come on man, get with it. This stuff is blowing up all over the place!

And by the way, i’m not just citing other people’s findings here. I come at this from personal experience of 10 years on the pharmaceutics carousel, suicidal depression which never let up. Until I discovered psychedelics, which completely healed my life and let me kick the SSRIs and benzodiazepines.

I feel that telling people not to use psychedelics when they are depressed is tantamount to telling people not to do exercise when they have high blood pressure. It’s just scaring people off a potential therapeutic morality and keeping people unwell who could otherwise benefit from self-experimentation.

After all, when you’re depressed, you’ve really got nothing to lose.

Do it!

 

[Cream Gravy?]

I don’t think that’s in the interest of harm reduction in the slightest.

I’ve seen ssris block people from tripping a number of times, they definitely at the very least severely blunt it.

 

[bisqueware]

I’m not severely depressed anymore, I’m actually the healthiest I’ve ever been. Just started zoloft because I figured my anxiety wasn’t going away as easily.
Does it just depend on the person? I’ve seen people say it doesn’t change their trip, others say they had to take more for it to work, and others say it kills the trip. I’ve been wanting to try psychs for a long time, so I’m fully willing to miss a few doses for the sake of the journey.

 

[Cream Gravy?]

The thing about these anti depressants is they linger in your system for long periods, they build up effect over time. Skipping doses isn’t recommended if you want to use your medication as prescribed and you’d need to skip a few weeks generally to get full effect.

 

[Survived Abortion]

Does it just depend on the person? I’ve seen people say it doesn’t change their trip, others say they had to take more for it to work, and others say it kills the trip.

No, SSRIs will not effect your trip. Not even the one you're on, sertraline. It's just not pharmacologically possible. SSRIs work on the serotonin transporter (and to some degree, the norepinephrine and dopamine transporters). Psychedelics work on the postsynaptic 5-ht2a receptor. You would have to block that receptor to cancel the effects of a psychedelic, which SSRIs don't do. Antipsychotics are the drugs which do that.

Anyone who says that SSRIs kill psychedelic trips were probably also on high doses of RC benzos or antipsychotics when they tried it. That, and/or they had sky-high tolerance to psychedelics due to frequent use.

You can safely take mushrooms tonight, and you will trip just fine.

I’ve been wanting to try psychs for a long time, so I’m fully willing to miss a few doses for the sake of the journey.

Just go for it man. If I were you I wouldn't 'miss a few doses', as you don't want to be trying your first ever psychedelic whilst in withdrawal from SSRIs. That wouldn't be a pleasant experience at all.

If you want to try shrooms without any SSRIs in your system at all, you'd be better off waiting a month after quitting the sertraline to make sure your brain is homeostatically back to baseline.

 

[TripSitterNZ]

SSRIS completely block the effects of psychedelics. Stop spreading false information.

You want to be two weeks of clean of SSRIs before taking psychedelics. The US army in the 60s had SRRIS in their chemical warfare kits incase the russians used lsd in the field to be immune to it.

 

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

You won’t be able to trip on an SSRI.

Also, if you’re so depressed you’re resorting to dark age medicine like SSRIs, you probably shouldn’t be tripping, and especially not mushrooms because all they’re gonna do is bring your issues to the forefront.

Many people do trip while on SSRIs. I ate shrooms with a guy who was on the SSNRI effexor and he tripped but not as hard as I did but we just split 3.5g of Psilocybin mushrooms.

 

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

SSRIS completely block the effects of psychedelics. Stop spreading false information.

You want to be two weeks of clean of SSRIs before taking psychedelics. The US army in the 60s had SRRIS in their chemical warfare kits incase the russians used lsd in the field to be immune to it.

No SSRIs do not completely block the effects of psychedelic drugs. Benzos if taken during a trip will apparently stop a trip.

 

[Hodor]

No SSRIs do not completely block the effects of psychedelic drugs. Benzos if taken during a trip will apparently stop a trip.

This.

SSRI's seem to decrease the effects of psychedelics (presumably because increased baseline serotonin levels would slightly downregulate any kind of serotonin receptor to some extent). You can still trip just fine, you just might require a (slightly!) higher dose.

On the other hand, antipsychotics can almost completely block a trip, as they tend to block a receptor called 5ht2a, which is unfortunately exactly what psychedelics activate to do their magic. Basically, those are the psychedelic equivalent of naltrexone. Note that certain antidepressants - like trazodone, mirtazapine and the tricyclics - also include 5ht2a antagonist activity similar to a mild dose of antipsychotics.

Benzos increase the activity of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA, which tends to rein in the neurochemical cascade that is the psychedelic experience. Of course, that is why it is a good idea to have some of them on hand for any trip, in case things go south. A modest dose can salvage a trip that is going off the rails without killing it completely.

Lithium, for some reason, seems to be just about the only thing capable of actually dangerous interactions when mixed with LSD, as there have been reports of fugue states and even seizures.

As for tripping while undergoing treatment for depression: If you are currently in a good place mentally due to the zoloft, you might actually benefit from a trip, although you might naturally want to play it safe: Have a benzo on hand for emergencies, and don't try to smoke weed during the experience, as that tends to potentiate the experience in rather unpredictable (and not necessarily pleasant) ways.
Don't quit your SSRI just to trip; even if you don't relapse, the first week of SSRI withdrawal in particular tends to make people pretty irritable, which is exactly not the mood you want to be in when embarking on a psychedelic trip. Just keep taking the zoloft for the time being and enjoy the trip anyway.

 

[Cream Gravy?]

No SSRIs do not completely block the effects of psychedelic drugs. Benzos if taken during a trip will apparently stop a trip.

See IME it’s the exact opposite. Benzos barely blunt my trip but I’ve seen many people not trip and get miffed that I gave them a bunk tab and then I ask about any medications they’re on and they’re always on an SSRI.

I’m just trying to give the OP perspective. If he’s on SSRIs he should probably just avoid all recreational drugs. It’s one or the other in my book. Starting recreational drug use was actually when I got off SSRIs myself and began to love life and myself for the first time.

 

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

See IME it’s the exact opposite. Benzos barely blunt my trip but I’ve seen many people not trip and get miffed that I gave them a bunk tab and then I ask about any medications they’re on and they’re always on an SSRI.

I’m just trying to give the OP perspective. If he’s on SSRIs he should probably just avoid all recreational drugs. It’s one or the other in my book. Starting recreational drug use was actually when I got off SSRIs myself and began to love life and myself for the first time.

I have never taken benzos either to relax as they are a downer, or while tripping on acid or mushrooms. I once took some Nicinamide or vitamin B-3 while on acid just to see what would happen as I had read it can stop a trip, and nothing happened and I still tripped.

 

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

I have never taken benzos either to relax as they are a downer, or while tripping on acid or mushrooms. I once took some Nicinamide or vitamin B-3 while on acid just to see what would happen as I had read it can stop a trip, and nothing happened and I still tripped.

Has anyone else here tried taking vitamin B3 while on acid?

 

[Ismene2]

Ssri didnt do jackshit for depression - just very slightly mongs you out and makes you as fat as fuck. You will need antidepresants when you get off them just to deal with looking at your fat white lilly ass every morning.