Can You Overdose on Shrooms? Understanding the Risks and Signs

There was a time when magic mushrooms were just for hippies and psychonauts looking to blast off into another realm of spirituality. Today, “shrooms” are as common as cannabis, and thousands of Americans use them daily for recreational and “medicinal” purposes.

From tech bro’s “microdosing” shrooms to improve cognitive performance, to the average Joe or Jane using them to have a laugh, these “fun guys” (that’s a play on “fungi,” if you didn’t notice), are a part of many different cultures.

Magic mushrooms contain the psychoactive substances psilocybin and psilocin, and these compounds create the psychedelic experience in users. Psilocin blocks the reuptake of the neurotransmitter serotonin by binding to and stimulating receptors in the brain.

Magic mushrooms contain the psychoactive substances psilocybin, and psilocin and these compounds create the psychedelic experience in users. When users eat a magic mushroom, whether that’s in chocolate form, a gummy, or just the traditional dried mushroom, the psilocybin breaks down into psilocin, initiating the shroom trip.

Psilocin blocks the reuptake of the neurotransmitter serotonin by binding to and stimulating receptors in the brain. As the mushroom trips comes on, the user starts to experience mild hallucinations such as moving surfaces, kaleidoscopes of color, and an overall sense of well-being, happiness, and calm.

Of course, the effects of shrooms vary depending on the dose. While you might experience the abovementioned experience from a gram or two, eating five grams of shrooms will see your mind blast off to another planet for an almost out-of-body experience.

The effects of shrooms last anywhere from three to eight hours, with the psylocibin taking around 15 hours total to clear from your system.

Can You Overdose on Shrooms?

Let’s get this out of the way first, since it’s what you’re here for. The answer is—not really. It depends on your definition of overdose. If you mean, “is it possible to die from eating too many magic mushrooms,” then the answer is a resounding “No.” There is no LD50 for psilocybin, and all that will happen if you eat too many is you’ll likely feel a bit sick in your stomach, and you’ll have a really heavy shroom trip.

With shrooms, you can think of an overdose, not in terms of lethality, but in terms of the effects it has on your mind. Psilocybin is an incredibly powerful organic compound. If you don’t know what you’re doing with it, and you take a high dose in the three-to-five-gram range, you’ll almost always deeply regret the choice to do so.

The effects of psilocybin on the mind are incredibly powerful.  Story that’s worth noting is the Dutch city of Amsterdam and its thriving “coffee shop” industry. Tourists could walk into one of these establishments and purchase magic mushrooms over the counter in the 1990s and early 2000s.

After a French tourist died from using magic mushrooms in 2008 after eating too many and jumping off a bridge. It wasn’t an overdose so to speak, but the end result is nevertheless the same as overdosing in some regard.

The Dutch government proposed the ban of the sale of magic mushrooms in coffeeshops in 2008, with the ban coming into effect shortly thereafter. Coffee shop owners saw a chance to skirt around the new laws by replacing the mushrooms with psilocybin truffles, and you can still buy them from coffee shops in “The Dam” today.

So, while you can’t overdose on magic mushrooms, taking a high dose as an inexperienced user will leave you regretting your decision. There are anecdotal stories of people doing too much and experiencing prolonged trips with lingering effects hanging around for weeks or months after the initial trip wears off in a condition known as “Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder” (HPPD).

Are Shrooms Illegal?

Psilocybin has been illegal to possess, consume, and sell under international law since 1971. However, with the increasing potency of mushrooms grown in breeding programs, incidents of tourists eating too much and doing dangerous activities led to bans in some regions. Across the Atlantic, states like Oregon and Colorado are introducing legislation to decriminalize the sale and consumption of magic mushrooms. So, coffee shops could legally sell them in small amounts.

However, with the increasing potency of mushrooms grown in breeding programs, incidents of tourists in Amsterdam eating too much and doing dangerous activities that led to self-harm started to tarnish the city’s image, forcing them to ban the sale of shrooms.

Across the Atlantic in the United States, shrooms are used by an estimated 5.5 million Americans each year. Despite shrooms still being illegal on a federal level, many states, including Oregon, Colorado, and California are introducing legislation to decriminalize the sale and consumption of magic mushrooms.

What are the Effects of Shrooms on the Mind?

Magic mushrooms create a psychedelic experience in the user. That means they experience hallucinations, sometimes mild, sometimes intense, depending on the dose they take. We’ve already lightly touched on the dose-specific effects of psilocybin on the mind, but let’s unpack them in a little more detail.

Magic mushrooms induce audio-visual, tactile hallucinations during the shroom trip.  At doses of one to two grams, a beginner user will experience a strong effect on the mind and their experience of reality. The effect varies from person to person and depends on what they ate that day, as well as their prior experience with the drug.

If you eat magic mushrooms on an empty stomach, the psilocybin is more readily absorbed in the GI tract and sent to the liver where the conversion from psilocybin to psilocin occurs. So, the user can expect to experience the full effect of the dose.

If they have a heavy meal before eating, especially one that’s heavy in fat content, they might not experience any effect or a very mild effect compared to eating the mushrooms on an empty stomach.

Some of the more common effects of eating magic mushrooms include the following.

• Visual and auditory hallucinations, including the ability to “hear” colors, and “feel” or “see” sounds.
• Laughing attacks.
• Dyschronometria, which is the inability to tell how much time has passed.
• Changes to their mood.
• A need to yawn when the trip comes on.

If the users consumes too much in one sitting, they might experience the following adverse effects.

• Alterations in their mood.
• Loss of coordination.
• Lightheadedness or dizziness.
• Anxiety, panic attacks, and paranoia.

Timothy Leary was considered the “godfather” of psychedelics. While studying at Harvard in the 1960s, Leary ran experiments on how the setting plays a role in the user experience when consuming magic mushrooms.

His conclusions state that the environment and the number of people the user has around them can make a significant difference on the outcome of the user’s trip. Being out in nature and surrounded by friends seemed to provide the best outcome for users.

What are the Effects of a Bad Shroom Trip?

While tripping on shrooms sounds great—it is, until it’s not. If the user eats too many magic mushrooms beyond their tolerance level or outside of the normal dose they’re used to eating, it can have disastrous effects on the mind if they aren’t prepared for it.

Doses in the three-to-five-gram range have an incredibly potent effect on our consciousness and the user might even have an out-of-body experience where they feel they enter a different realm of consciousness or reality. This is when the user places themselves at risk of having a “bad trip.”

A bad trip can take on different forms. For some, the hallucinations become overly intense, causing them to initiate terrifying visions or spiral out of control into a panic attack. If the user has a mental health disorder, such as bi-polar or schizophrenia, they may experience a psychotic break, where they disconnect from reality and experience lasting adverse effects on their psychology.

The effects of a bad trip usually aren’t permanent in users with a clean bill of mental health. Still, that doesn’t mean they won’t experience the adverse effects of using too much psilocybin, and it may have a lasting impact on how they view their world and interact with it.

The Long-Term Risks of Magic Mushroom Use

Some users report changes in their psyche and perception that last up to a year or longer after consuming too many magic mushrooms in a single sitting. Many users experience an upset stomach after coming down from a mushroom trip, and it puts them off using them again for a while.

However, everyone is different, and there are plenty of people who use magic mushrooms frequently. Exposing yourself to the effects of psilocybin every now and again probably won’t do you any harm, provided you take a dose that aligns with your experience level.

However, using magic mushrooms regularly may lead to changes in your brain chemistry and your perception of the world. Once again, there is no medical evidence supporting the following claims, but there are stacks of anecdotal evidence pointing to the following adverse outcomes of regular magic mushroom use.

• Changes in thought patterns.
• Disconnection of thought processes.
• Delusions and false beliefs.
• Continual hallucinations.
• Problems with memory formation and recall.
• Changes in mood and personality.

Roland R. Griffiths conducted a study in 2011 on the effects of a single high dose of magic mushrooms in a novice user.

The results of the study show that a single high dose of psilocybin mushrooms is enough to induce radical personality changes in users.

The person became more open to other people’s opinions and world views and were willing to change their mind about steadfast opinions on specific subjects where they would have entertained other possibilities previously.

According to Griffiths work, these changes could last for up to a year or longer. Some long-term magic mushroom users report permanent distortions to their perception, particularly in the size of objects. They may also experience the occurrence of halos and blurry patterns in their peripheral vision.

Does Psylocibin Have Any Medicinal Value?

Since it’s a schedule I drug, legal medical research into psilocybin is illegal under federal law. As a result, there is little medical insight into the effect of magic mushrooms on our physiology and psychology.

Despite this, there are plenty of alternative healers using magic mushrooms to help people overcome mental health issues. Anecdotal studies on the effects of magic mushroom treatment in people with PTSD show that it can alleviate the symptoms of this mental health disorder in some users. That alone warrants further study into the compound.

Apart from that, there are many people who claim a mushroom trip changed their outlook on life, and the way they approach their existence.

Some people who have no experience with the drug will pay for a guided experience with a long-time user who leads them through a strong 5 gram trip. The effects of these treatments are varied, some are good, and some are bad.

Does Psilocybin Cause Withdrawal Symptoms?

No. Psilocybin doesn’t have any addictive properties and users don’t experience physical or psychological addiction to shrooming.

In some cases, users may become psychologically addicted to using shrooms, especially if they’re microdosing (the practice of eating small amounts that don’t create any psychedelic effect but rather just calm down the nervous system and improve cognitive processes).

There is no physical withdrawal from ceasing magic mushroom use and no need for medically assisted detox in most cases. However, there are cases where users claim to be addicted to magic mushrooms. In these instances, treatments with benzodiazepines seem to help the user transition back to life without psilocybin.

Using benzos in the recovery process for these users reduces the chances of the user experiencing symptoms of HPPD (Hallucinogen persisting perception disorder) and controls agitation in the user while preventing seizure risk.

However, most people don’t require any treatment. If you’re struggling with magic mushroom abuse, reach out to an outpatient treatment program and talk to someone about your issues and what you can do to change things.

Therapy will be a must for you, and with the right approach to evidence-based therapy the user should manage to cope with their decision to cease magic mushroom use.