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The popularity of microdosing psilocybin is at an all-time high, with more people buying and trying magic mushrooms in Canada than ever before. The country’s medicinal mushroom dispensary network is spreading like wildfire, as interest in microdosing grows among patients and practitioners alike.
In particular, microdosing mushrooms in Canada as a form of complementary therapy for the treatment of depression is gaining momentum. Research has also suggested that microdosing psychedelics has the potential to bring welcome relief from a long list of other psychological health issues, ranging from anxiety to mood swings to PTSD.
But when it comes to parents who microdose in Canada, the practice among people with kids has a tendency to raise eyebrows. It’s fine for adults in general to buy shrooms in Canada to treat their health issues, but apparently not for parents.
Or at least, that’s the view of critics.
Nevertheless, evidence suggests that more parents are turning to microdosing than ever before. In addition, those doing so are microdosing psilocybin for a longer list of reasons than ever before.
Hence, rather than judging those who take an alternative path to your own, it pays to hear their stories and take their viewpoints into consideration.
Acknowledging and Moving on from Historic Trauma
For example, there are some parents who readily admit that traumatic events in their own past have an inevitable impact on their parenting capabilities. There’s a known and well-document ‘cycle’ of trauma associated with parenting, wherein issues during one’s upbringings subsequently affect the next generation, and the cycle continues.
Irrespective of the nature and extent of the trauma (or who was responsible for it), it can be an extremely difficult to break the cycle.
Nevertheless, many parents have reported major improvements after turning to sub-perceptual doses of psychedelics. Rather than ‘getting high’ and simply forgetting about the traumas of their past, psychedelic provide them with the opportunity to view them from an entirely different perspective.
They’re able to acknowledge what happened, understand the resulting impact and make a conscious decision to move on. Something that would not be possible with conventional meds for treating things like anxiety and depression, which in most instances are simply designed to ‘numb’ the residual symptoms and effects of such conditions.
An Alternative to Traditional Anti-Depressants
Making the decision to experiment with psychedelics as an alternative to traditional medications is not something most parents approach lightly. In fact, it is comparatively rare for a patient with depression, anxiety or PTSD to try psychedelics without first trying more conventional approaches to treatment.
Traditional anti-depressants have the potential to be effective to an extent in the vast majority of users. However, even when traditional meds bring the symptoms of depression under control, they have a tendency to trigger a long list of side-effects of their own.
This is why parents in particular would often prefer to avoid the use of these traditional prescription drugs where possible. They may have a positive impact on the symptoms of their depression, but at the same time cloud their days and nights with additional symptoms and side-effects.
Among those who make the switch to tiny doses of psychedelics, this is often where the biggest difference lies. Along with bringing welcome relief from the symptoms of depression, psychedelics like psilocybin are not associated with the same negative side-effects as traditional antidepressants.
This, in turn, allows those using them to get on with their daily lives as normal. It also enables them to put 100% of themselves into their parenting, rather than struggling to maintain their energy and motivation levels due to the medications they are taking.
Building Better Relationships with Kids
Almost all evidence supporting the use of psilocybin for improved parental capabilities is (understandably) anecdotal in nature. However, there’s a growing contingency of parents in Canada who believe that the careful use of psilocybin enables them to build deeper and better relationships with their children.
Barriers between parents and kids exist for a wide variety of reasons. Complex personality, the inevitability of the generation gap, past trauma in the parent’s history and so on – all creating potential awkwardness and difficulties in relating to one another.
In extreme cases, parents feel as if they’re unable to reach their kids at all, while their children feel that their parents have become completely detached from them. In both instances, this does not tend to be conducive with a healthy family environment.
This is where the use of psychedelics has supposedly helped some parents establish better relationships with their kids. Again, the emphasis is placed on using sub-perceptual doses to have the desired effect, without resulting in the user ‘getting high’ in the traditional sense.
How and why sub-perceptual doses of psychedelic substances could make it easier for parents to connect with their kids is open to debate. Though it could simply be a case of putting to rest the awkwardness, anxiety, stress and depression that often accompany parenthood at various stages in a child’s development.
Always Seek Professional Advice
Of course, none of the above should be misinterpreted as a direct recommendation to experiment with psychedelics as a parent.
If interested in the potential benefits of microdosing, it is essential to speak to a qualified physician for advice and support.
