Magic Mushroom
How Long Do Psychedelic Mushrooms Stay in the Body?
Oct
People have been eating psilocybin-containing mushrooms since the beginning of human history. Most of the time, they do this for religious purposes. During the 1960s, this substance became increasingly popular in the United States. Some religious and creative groups still use it a lot today.
Have you ever wondered how long psychedelic mushrooms stay in your system? If you answered yes, you have come to the right place because we are going to talk about how drug tests detect shrooms. We will also look into the effects of magic mushrooms.
What Is a Magic Mushroom?
Psilocybin and magic mushrooms are the same thing. Psilocybin mushrooms are a type of psychedelic drug that, like methamphetamine, can change how a person sees what is happening around them.
Some of this psychedelic mushroom’s other street names are shrooms, Purple Passion, Little Smoke, and sacred mushrooms. About 180 different kinds of mushrooms have been found to have psilocin or psilocybin in them.
Dried mushrooms can be ingested by steeping them in hot liquids, like tea, or mixing them with other foods. Magic mushrooms or shrooms can also be eaten either fresh or after being canned or dried. Their effects could reach their peak in one to two hours and last for up to six hours. When this happens, the user may feel like they are high on LSD.
Some of the potential effects of shrooms are the following:
- Increased body temperature
- Lack of muscle control
- Lack of sleep or difficulty sleeping
- Hunger pangs
- Changes in Mood
- Anxiety attacks
- Dry mouth
- Paranoia
The Half-Life of Psilocybin and Psilocin
The amount of time it takes for a substance’s concentration to drop to half of what it was at its highest point after being eaten or drunk is called its “half-life.” You can use a drug’s half-life to figure out how long it will take to leave your body.
After about five cycles of their half-lives, most drugs are almost completely flushed out of the body. Both psilocybin and its main component, psilocin, have an average half-life of about three hours. When broken up into five cycles, psilocybin has a half-life of about 15 hours. The psychedelic effects of shrooms, such as hallucinations and relaxation, can last up to six hours.
Several studies have found traces of mushroom metabolites in the blood of people who use them daily. When a person uses psilocybin more often, it builds up in their system. This can make the shrooms stay in your system much longer.
How Long Does It Take to Detect Psychedelic Mushrooms?
Once psilocybin is in a person’s body, it stays there for about 15 hours. How long it takes to detect psychedelic mushrooms depends on a lot of different factors, one of which is how often the dose is taken. If a person eats a lot of mushrooms or uses them often, their detection time may be longer.
When you eat a magic mushroom, you will start to feel the effects in half an hour to 45 minutes. Psychedelic mushrooms can be eaten fresh, dried, or brewed into tea. After psilocybin is eaten, the body changes it into a metabolite called psilocin. These substances change the amount of serotonin in the brain, which can cause unpleasant side effects like nausea, relaxation, visual hallucinations, and a distorted sense of time.
The effects of psilocybin are at their strongest about 90 minutes after taking it. The harmful effects of psychedelic mushrooms on your body usually last between four and six hours, depending on how much they take.
Standard and Specialized Tests to Detect Shrooms
How long it takes to find psychedelic mushrooms can also depend on the kind of drug testing done. Most drug tests do not find psilocybin, but it is possible to test positive for mushrooms when testing urine, blood, or hair. No matter what kind of drug tests are done, people who use hallucinogenic mushrooms regularly are likely to have longer detection windows.
Urine Drug Tests
Urine tests are the most common and standard type of drug test, and employers and the legal system often use them. Psilocybin can be found in the urine for about 15 hours, but most urine tests do not look for it or its metabolites.
Blood Tests
Conducting a blood test to detect psilocin is something that is less common, but it can still happen. People can still have traces of hallucinogenic mushrooms in their blood up to five hours after eating them.
Hair Follicle Tests
People who have used psilocin may have to wait a few days before any traces of the drug can be found in their hair. About 90 days after consuming shrooms for the last time, the chemicals from those mushrooms can still be found in the hair.
Factors That Influence How Long Magic Mushrooms Stay In Your System
For people who use psilocybin mushrooms more often, the psychedelic compound will stay in their bodies longer than it would in an average person. How long shrooms stay in your body depends on a number of things, such as:
- Age: As you get older, your metabolism naturally slows down, and your body starts to digest food much slower. Thus, your detection window gets more prominent and longer.
- Health status: Organs that are healthy and work well are essential for the process of metabolism. Psilocybin will be found in your system for a longer time if you have a medical condition that makes it hard for your body to work normally.
- Dose: If you rarely take very small amounts of mushrooms, the time it takes to find them will be much shorter. If you take the substance in larger doses regularly, it will likely stay in your body for a longer time.
- Genetics: Your body can absorb psilocybin at different rates depending on your genes.
- Metabolic rate: People with a faster metabolism are better at breaking down medications than those with a slower metabolism. People with a slower metabolism are more likely to be older, have a higher body mass index, or have health problems that affect the digestive system.
- Mental health problems: People with mental health conditions, such as anxiety or getting addicted to drugs, may find that ingesting shrooms helps them deal with their situation better. However, they are also more prone to having bad trips.
Effects of Shrooms in a Person’s System
People often eat psychedelic mushrooms to make themselves have visual or auditory hallucinations. The colours and images in these hallucinations are bright and distorted in a pleasing way. On the other hand, psilocybin is a poison that can hurt your health in a number of ways if misused.
Potential Benefits
New research from the past few years suggests that small amounts of psilocybin may help treat mental illnesses like anxiety, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. However, this should not be taken as a green light to self-medicate with psilocybin. A person with a mental illness should talk to their doctor and seek professional medical advice before using shrooms and other substances.
As with most psychoactive drugs, the effects of psilocybin on the body are different from person to person. Psilocybin can have various effects on the body, from feeling calm and sleepy to feeling sick and anxious.
Potential Side Effects
People who often use hallucinogens like psilocybin are more likely to become immune to the effects of the drug. This means a person will have to eat or drink a lot more to get the same effect.
Some research has also linked psilocybin use to hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD) or flashbacks. Here, a person can still have side effects even after the effects of the high have worn off.
Psilocybin is usually used by people who want to feel calm or enlightened. However, the drug can sometimes have the opposite effect. Some people who eat psychedelic mushrooms might have a “bad trip.” Several studies have found that people who have bad trips have terrifying thoughts and feelings of dread and despair. This kind of situation can put a lot of stress on the body and make a person act in a way that is either dangerous or irresponsible.
What Kind of Side Effects Could You Have if You Stopped Taking Magic Mushrooms?
The psychedelic part of magic mushrooms makes people have hallucinations, which can change a person’s sense of reality in the short-term or long-term. People who have not used drugs for a long time may find it hard to stop because withdrawal can cause unpleasant side effects. Here are some of the withdrawal symptoms that often happen to someone who stops using mushrooms:
- Mood swings
- Panic attacks
- Low impulse control
- Mushroom cravings
- Anger
- Difficulties with speech
Even though some of these might seem manageable, people with severe side effects from withdrawing from using magic mushrooms should talk to mental health professionals. This will ensure that they achieve long-term recovery and make sure they withdraw from these psychedelics correctly.
Also, keep in mind that the longer mushrooms stay in your body, the harder it will be to get rid of the toxins they contain and for your body to stop becoming dependent on the substance.
Addiction Treatment to Psychoactive Substances
Even though psychedelic mushrooms are not considered addictive, it is still possible to get dependent on them. Once a tolerance or dependence on psilocybin has set in, it might be hard to get rid of it.
If someone is dependent on psilocybin, their health and well-being don’t have to be damaged permanently. You or a loved one who is struggling with an addiction to psychedelic mushrooms can get help in the form of treatment placement tailored to your specific needs. These treatment plans include one-on-one or group counselling, medication, and behavioural therapy.