Can Magic Mushrooms Really Help Treat Depression and Anxiety?

An insight into the emerging psychedelics industry and its mental-health implications

No other psychedelic has received more media attention than Magic Mushrooms in the past couple of years. Surely, LSD, DMT, and ayahuasca have made it into some big publications and scientific papers, but it seems that their widespread use and legalization is still on hold, unlike psilocybin (the active compound in Magic Mushrooms).

Most of the news surrounding psychedelics have been directly, or at least partially, targeted at “shrooms” and their mental-health benefits for patients suffering from depression.

*Just a side note: Undoubtedly cannabis has been in the spotlight for more than a decade now, especially recently, as some countries in Europe prepare to launch various legislations that are bound to change the domestic landscape for years to come. However, marijuana can hardly be described as a psychedelic — a category of the so-called hallucinogenic substances (LSD, DMT, psilocybin) — due to the drug’s non-hallucinogenic properties and its overall mind-altering strength.

It’s exactly these health implications of psilocybin that have given rise to the public, and more importantly, the scientific interest towards the psychedelic. More scientific papers and data on the topic mean that more people would be reached, which goes a full circle, until it is compelling enough so that it reaches government officials.

Canada, as most countries in the world today, prohibits the consumption and growth of Magic Mushrooms. The psychedelics is being controlled by the country via the Schedule III of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and can only be used in relation to clinical trials and research purposes under the Part J of the Food and Drug Regulations.

So, “What’s so significant about Canada then?,” you may ask.

Due to the hallucinogen’s growing popularity amongst patients with depression and its ever-increasing evidence of mental-health benefits, in 2020, the Canadian government, in the face of Patty Hajdu, the country’s Minister of Health, granted lifetime usage permission to four people diagnosed with terminal cancer.

One of them is Thomas Hartle, a man suffering from Stage IV colon cancer, who opened up about the now-possible psilocybin-assisted therapy, in a video for CBC. There, he spoke about his struggles with dealing with the anxiety associated with his terminal illness and overall “existential dread.” In the video he expressed his hopes of a possible remedy that psilocybin could bring him.

Laurie Brooks, one of the other three terminally ill patients, also expressed her deep gratitude towards this change:

“The acknowledgement of the pain and anxiety that I have been suffering from means a lot to me, and I am feeling quite emotional today as a result. I hope this is just the beginning and that soon all Canadians will be able to access psilocybin, for therapeutic use, to help with the pain they are experiencing.”

Since this change took place in 2020, I have seen an increasing amount of interest towards psilocybin in the USA, and less so in Europe. There seems to be some sort of a shift in people and government’s perception when it comes to the mental-health implications psychedelics, such as Magic Mushrooms, could bring to the table.

Once considered a taboo, now psilocybin is slowly paving its way, if not towards a widespread legal use, then to a place where it could help people deal with various mental health illnesses.

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If you are further interested in psychedelics and mental health, I recently wrote about whether smoking can damage your brain cells, and the harmful and beneficial effects cannabis has on your body.