Psilocybin In Mushrooms for Treating Depression And Other Mental Illnesses

Psilocybin. Mushrooms. Marijuana. All these substances have been considered illegal drugs with no good uses. Over the last 20 years, this has started changing. In 1996, California became the first state to legalize medical marijuana and in 2021, Oregon became the first state to decriminalize Psilocybin, more commonly known as mushrooms.

What is Psilocybin? Psilocybin is naturally occurring hallucinogen that are found in certain fungi. They are often referred to as magic mushrooms. They are consumed for their hallucinogenic effects and have been found to trigger changes in perception, mood and thought (Alcohol and Drug Foundation) While over my 53 years of life, these substances have been considered dangerous and illegal substances, there has been a recent surge in research and medical proof that the Psilocybin in mushrooms can be helpful in treating certain mental illnesses. Multiple studies have shown significant impact in treating treatment resistant depression, as well as PTSD among others.

Last month, I had the privilege of talking to Del Jolly from Umbo, the company he helped found in 2020. Del, along with former NFL quarterback, Jake Plummer and former UFC champion, Rashed Evans, created Umbo(www.getumbo.com) to help end the stigma associated with mushrooms, fund research with universities such as Johns Hopkins and Duke, that show how these substances can help individuals with mental illnesses. According to their website, Umbo is functional mushrooms company that helps support people taking their health into their own hands and support responsible psychedelic research. Del told me that this all started in 2017 when he was living in Colorado and a friend of his began to challenge Del’s anti-marijuana stance which he had held most of his life. Once challenged, Del began to do research into the health benefits of THC. His curiosity got the best of him, and as he dug deeper, learned more and understood how THC can help others more than hurt them. Del worked as part of Decriminalize Denver and Charlotte’s Web CBD before co-founding Unlimited Sciences(www.unlimitedsciences.org), a psychedelic research nonprofit partnered with the likes of Johns Hopkins University.(Umbo website) In 2019, while Del was living in Denver, the city of Denver decriminalized mushrooms. Since then, multiple cities and the state of Oregon has also decriminalized mushrooms. He began to discover how Psilocybin found in fungi (aka: Mushrooms) also have significant health benefits that our medical system has been missing due to the stigma associated with these medicinal plants that have been seen as simply dangerous drugs. This knowledge and realization are what led Del to create Umbo so he could help end the stigma, supply supplements and help major research universities fund studies proving how Psilocybin helps illnesses such as depression and PTSD.

Psilocybin has begun to be used in therapeutic settings. It is important to mention that in order to use Psilocybin for healing, it needs to be used and managed in a therapeutic environment with a mental health professional monitoring your dose and your reactions. Experimenting with any medications, whether that from a pharmacy or a natural supplement, it should always be done under professional guidance. 

I was very curious on how Psilocybin worked with helping individuals who struggle with depression, PTSD, anxiety, eating disorders and more. Del gave me a quick overview on how it works in a therapeutic setting. Typically, an individual works with a therapist for 6 or more weeks using CBT (Cognitive Behavior Therapy). Cognitive therapy works with changing our thoughts and behaviors. For the use of Psilocybin to be effective, the individuals mind needs to be in the right spot. The individual must have the right mindset in order to be open to a spiritual experience. The goal is to first prep the mind for the changes the individual hopes to create. Once the Psilocybin is taken, the therapist helps guide the client through their psychedelic experience in order to guide them towards their realization and necessary changes. Through the therapeutic process along with the Psilocybin, the re-imprinting of the brain will create new pathways. So, if someone lives with depression, they can begin to imprint their brain with more positive self-talk. Or an individual with PTSD can use this technique to re-imprint the trauma of a particular event or events and replace them with those of peace and serenity. It helps to reprint the negative, damaging thoughts with new, better thoughts. 

Multiple universities, including John Hopkins and Duke, have active studies for using Psilocybin for therapeutic reasons in order to validate the value of using them in a therapeutic setting. There has been such tremendous success that Del told me that the FDA is fast tracking approval for the use of Psilocybin in a therapeutic setting for both Trauma and Treatment Resistant Depression. The irony it, this new treatment option could also help those who battle drug addiction. Survivors of childhood trauma are 15 times more likely to attempt suicide, four times more likely to develop alcohol-related disorder and 2.5 times more likely to smoke cigarettes according to Counseling Today publication. So, what could happen if this technique could be used to help those with addictions create those new pathways in their brain and re-imprint their brains to create new pathways to deal with those memories from their trauma? Instead of having to numb themselves or use drugs to forget, could actually be used to help them reset their brain in order to function a healthier way. This has the potential to be a real game changer in the world of addiction recovery as well as those with other mental illnesses. I would be willing to bet that everyone reading this blog post has been affected by addiction in some way. Trauma is almost always connected to addiction in some way and this could really be an incredible advancement in their recovery.

Umbo is a Functional Mushroom Company which is on the forefront of the legal use of Psilocybin use for our health and wellness. One of their biggest missions is to help destigmatize the use of drugs like Psilocybin and THC to help our mental and physical health. You can find more information, as well as some of their products, on their website at www.getumbo.com.

Like Del, I was once on the anti-marijuana side. It was what I was taught growing up. It was what I thought was true. Over time, I began to learn more and research the scientific studies and discovered we what we were taught wasn’t always accurate. Both THC and Psilocybin in mushrooms are naturally occurring substances that are now known to have significant health benefits when used in a therapeutic setting. They aren’t synthetic or some concoction made in a lab by drug dealers. If you research the history on how marijuana was made illegal, you will learn quite a lot. I now have my medical marijuana card for my chronic pain I deal with daily for my fibromalygia. Both mushrooms and marijuana contain substances that scientist are discovering can help individuals with a wide variety of mental and physical illnesses. From depression to PTSD to chronic pain and more, mushrooms and marijuana are quickly becoming recognized as substances that can help, more than hurt, when used under medical supervision. Slowly, the stigma society has held towards substances such as mushrooms and marijuana is slowly being knocked away and society, along with the medical community, are beginning to recognize that these natural substances have many medical uses for both our body and our brain. What’s important in medicine and life in general is to keep our minds open, accept when things change for the better and work together to end the stigma. That is why it was important to me to share this information.

To learn more about Psilocybin, the research Unlimited Sciences is helping to fund, the everyday benefits of mushroom supplements and the groundbreaking success professionals are having with treating those with certain mental illnesses in a therapeutic setting be sure to check out both websites: www.getumbo.com and www.unlimitedsciences.org. Umbo has an amazing blog with numerous informative articles. Be sure to subscribe to their email list to keep up with the latest news on the research and products both of these organizations are helping to develop in order to change the landscape of mental health treatment.