Microdosing for Trauma

Quick disclaimer:

With a myriad of ways to categorize and describe traumatic events and their impact, trauma is an incredibly complex topic. While I’m not going to talk about specific types of trauma here, sometimes reading about trauma can incur a stress response in individuals. If that’s you, then I want to make it clear that we’ll be discussing trauma’s general effects on the brain, body, and spirit.

With that said let’s talk a bit about trauma… 

People who experience trauma are at an increased risk of developing dysfunctional stress responses like emotional dysregulation, flashbacks, and detachment. These can be short-term or last 3-months or longer.

Trauma experienced during childhood or developmental periods of our lives, can have a long-lasting impact on the physical and mental wellbeing of the individual, and can have a profound impact on the brain’s structure with cascading effects on the body’s autonomic nervous system.

When we talk about neuroplasticity, (the brain’s ability to change and adapt) there’s a tendency to refer to its impact as being overtly positive. I want to point out that neuroplasticity is something that we do - it is not positive or negative. For every great, life changing neuroplastic adaptation we make that helps us in our lives, there is the neuroplastic aspect of trauma that can be life changing in very different ways.

This adaptive indifference is why I remind clients who get too focused on physiological aspects of microdosing, or psychedelics in general, that neuroplasticity is never the goal. Your goal is the goal, your intentions are the path, and the neuroplastic window smooths the terrain you have to cross.

I bring this up because increasing neuroplastic windows is one of the ‘features’ of microdosing psilocybin mushrooms. And these windows can be used to move your adaptations in desired directions. But before going through a window, you have to take a good look out of it and see what it is you're dealing with.

There are so many poetic sayings about wounds and scars, but here’s the gist: Wounds eventually become scars.

Trauma essentially creates wounds within us. But our neuroplastic response to trauma can keep those wounds from becoming scars, thereby keeping the impact of trauma fresh within us.

Microdosing, while widening our neuroplastic windows, also increases our sense of empathy & self-awareness. The mushrooms help place us in a state where we are able to feel our emotions strongly, yet maintain the realization that we are not our emotions. This separation actually makes us feel more whole.

As a result, when dealing with the wounds of trauma, people who microdose report that they feel what they need to without falling apart.

This is huge. Our neuroplastic responses to trauma tend to keep our emotions in charge of our story. Microdosing gives us the clarity to allow our emotions to bloom instead of fester, and gives us back control over our story.

In the same vein, people who microdose and deal with trauma report that they ask for what they need in the moment without anxiety, rejection, or fear of disappointment. The clouded emotions that arise from trauma puts us in a position of our past experiences and our future anxieties becoming our present fears.

This has an impact on how we interact with others and how we view ourselves as burdens, broken, or undeserving. Microdosing frees us from these conditioned expectations we have of ourselves and others, by imparting one of its most pronounced and greatest effects: placing us in the body of our present moment.

People who microdose to aid their trauma also report that microdosing adds a spiritual aspect to their healing, which is different yet complementary to therapy and prescription medications. This isn’t religious nor are you going to want to drum in a circle or start appropriating ‘mystical’ beings, it’s a feeling of inner wisdom, guidance, and connection that people generally find one of the most healing parts of microdosing mushrooms.

If I were to sum it up, and I’m about to so I will, I see the benefit of microdosing mushrooms as increasing your resiliency to the tangible and intangible effects of trauma. As microdosing’s effects are most prevalent cumulatively, microdosing holds tremendous potential to change your wounds to scars.

This is much more effective if you work with someone experienced and trauma-informed (ahem, it me). I’ve seen both private and group coaching environments work well for clients dealing with trauma.

I’d love to hear about the things you do to build your resilience and answer any questions on how microdosing can help reprogram your trauma responses. Reach out for a free consultation.