How Long Do Shrooms Last?

Psilocybin mushrooms are a type of fungi that are consumed for their mind-altering effects. They are considered hallucinogenic or psychedelic drugs, which means they can make you hallucinate when you consume them. When you eat magic mushrooms, your body converts the psilocybin into psilocin, which is what causes the psychoactive effects you experience.

You can consume them by eating dried mushrooms or brewing them into a tea. If you eat them, the effects will begin approximately 30 minutes later. When consumed as a tea, the effects are typically felt within 5 to 10 minutes. Normally, the effects of psilocybin mushrooms last for 6 hours.

Magic mushrooms can cause visual and auditory hallucinations, changes in sensory perception, a feeling of euphoria, changes in consciousness, shifts in mood, and more. You will also experience physical effects like dilated pupils, fast heart rate, excessive sweating, nausea or vomiting, and rapid breathing.

While it is possible to have a good time when you take magic mushrooms, you also run the risk of experiencing a bad shrooms trip. To explain, bad trips are characterized by experiencing scary effects after taking a hallucinogenic drug. A bad trip on mushrooms might include scary hallucinations, feelings of fear or panic, paranoid delusions, vomiting, and more.

Even though some people enjoy magic mushrooms, there are risks to consuming them. For example, you could develop a mental health issue known as hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD). It is also possible to trigger an episode of psychosis when consuming psilocybin mushrooms.

In this article, you will learn:

• What are shrooms?
• What are the effects of magic mushrooms?
• What is a bad shroom trip?
• What are the risk factors for bad trips?
• How long do shrooms last?
• How long do magic mushrooms stay in your system?
• What are the physical health risks of using shrooms?
• Can abusing shrooms damage your mental health?
• Should you receive addiction treatment for shroom abuse?

What are Magic Mushrooms?

Magic mushrooms are a slang term for psilocybin mushrooms. They are also referred to as shrooms. These fungi grow naturally in a variety of habitats around the world.

You can find shrooms growing in damp and humid environments. In the United States, they are common in the Pacific Northwest, the Gulf Coast, the Midwest, the Northeast, and the Southwest. They are also found on every continent across the globe.

Shrooms contain psilocybin, which is metabolized into psilocin when you consume it. This is what causes you to experience hallucinogenic effects. Shrooms might cause you to experience sensory perception changes, visual and auditory hallucinations, and mood changes.

If you go out looking for shrooms, you need to be an expert in mushroom identification. There are many look-alikes to psilocybin shrooms, and some of them cause life-threatening effects when you consume them. In other words, picking random mushrooms in the wild and eating them can be incredibly dangerous.

What are the Effects of Shrooms?

Psilocybin mushrooms produce a variety of effects, including an altered sense of space, time, and self. They are considered hallucinogenic drugs, which means they cause auditory and visual hallucinations. Knowing all of the effects of shrooms can help you understand what you’ll experience if you decide to abuse them.

The effects of shrooms may include:[1]

• Altered Perceptions- You will experience auditory and visual hallucinations. You might notice that shapes and colors appear different or brighter. Your depth perception might be altered as well.
• Emotional Changes- Shrooms can cause a wide variety of emotional changes. You could feel a rush of euphoria and pleasure or increased laughter. However, it is also possible to experience fear, anxiety, and paranoia.
• Distorted Sense of Time- Your sense of time might be altered. For example, you might feel like hours have passed even though it’s only been a few minutes.
• Physical Effects- Shrooms can lead to physical effects like excessive sweating, nausea, vomiting, dilated pupils, increased heart rate, and muscle weakness.
• Spiritual Experiences- Some people describe the effects of shrooms as a spiritual experience. You might have profound spiritual insights during a shroom trip.

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If you consume shrooms, you should make sure you are in a safe environment where you feel secure and supported. Taking psychedelic and dissociative drugs in an unstable environment or around people you don’t feel safe with can lead to a bad shroom trip. In other words, your environment can greatly affect the experiences you have.

What is a Bad Trip?

Bad shroom trips are characterized by having a negative experience on a hallucinogenic drug. They can occur while taking psychedelic mushrooms. If you are taking shrooms and begin to feel anxious, scared, or frightened, you might be having a bad trip.

Taking shrooms while you are in a stressed mood or in an environment where you feel uncomfortable can lead to a bad shroom trip. The symptoms and effects of a bad trip might include:

• Mental confusion
• Irritation and anxiety
• Panic and paranoia
• Intense hallucinations that produce feelings of fear
• Delusional and paranoid thinking
• Symptoms of psychosis, including delusions, paranoia, hallucinations, and a detachment from reality
• Losing your sense of reality and being unable to tell what is real

Bad mushroom trips are usually psychological. However, it is possible to experience negative physical side effects. For example, when taking shrooms, you could experience a fast heart rate, chest pain, high body temperature, excessive sweating, dehydration, and more.

Factors That Affect Your Chances of Having a Bad Trip on Shrooms

While the precise cause of a bad trip is not fully known, some factors can play a role in your chances of experiencing one. Magic mushrooms can cause intense fear, scary hallucinations, delusional thinking, and even psychosis.

When taking shrooms, the following factors play a role in your chances of experiencing a bad trip:

• Environment- Some settings might induce unpleasant emotions or trigger memories of traumatic experiences. If you are not in a comfortable or supportive environment when taking shrooms, you might have a bad trip. It can also be difficult to calm down and regain control over your trip if you are not in a pleasant environment.
• Dose- Taking large doses of shrooms increases your chances of having a bad trip.
• Mental Health Conditions- If you have a pre-existing mental health condition, you are at a higher risk of having a bad experience. For example, if you have PTSD, the shrooms might cause you to visualize the memories of your trauma. Additionally, people with bipolar disorder could be triggered to experience a manic episode when they take shrooms.
• Lack of Experience- If you’ve never taken a psychedelic drug before, you might be at a higher risk of having a bad experience simply because you don’t know what to expect. It is always best to have someone with experience nearby to help guide you through the process.
• Emotional State- Many people believe that the emotional state you are in before taking shrooms influences the experience you’ll have. For example, if you take mushrooms while you are sad or angry, you are more likely to have a negative experience. This means you should avoid trying to use shrooms to self-medicate negative emotions.
• Using Other Drugs- Mixing shrooms with other drugs can cause unpredictable effects. You should avoid taking them with any other mind-altering substance. For example, taking cocaine while you are on shrooms is a bad idea, as the drug increases your heart rate and energy, which could cause anxiety and paranoia.
• Lack of Supervision- Many people who have a bad experience with shrooms deal with feelings of isolation and feeling like they are floating outside of their bodies. If you have a sober person with you who can talk you through the negative effects you are experiencing, you are less likely to panic.

If you are dealing with a bad experience after taking shrooms, there isn’t much you can do besides wait it out. This is why it is best to avoid abusing psilocybin, as the effects can last long, and you can never predict how the drug will make you feel.

How Long Do Shrooms Last?

Shrooms will begin to affect you 30 minutes after you eat them. However, some people brew shrooms into tea. If you drink psilocybin in a tea, the effects will come on faster, within 10 minutes.

Whether you eat or drink psilocybin, the effects can last anywhere from six to eight hours. Your body metabolizes psilocybin slowly, which means even small doses can produce long-lasting effects. If you take fresh shrooms on an empty stomach, you are likely to experience symptoms for a longer period.

While there are potential therapeutic benefits to psilocybin mushrooms, they are still dangerous to abuse. Because of how long the effects last, the risk of experiencing a bad trip is something you shouldn’t mess with. If you have a bad experience, you’ll be stuck dealing with the effects for 6 to 8 hours.

How Long Shrooms Show Up on Drug Tests

Whether you use a small dose or a large dose, you can fail a drug test after having a shroom trip. If you were wondering how long shrooms last, you might also want to know how long they stay in your system and show up on drug tests.

First, routine drug tests do not analyze your urine, saliva, or blood for hallucinogenic drugs. In other words, if someone wants to find out if you have been abusing shrooms, they’ll need a specialized drug test. Hallucinogenic drug tests can look for drugs like psilocybin shrooms, LSD, mescaline, and peyote.

If someone is asking you to take a specialized test for shrooms, the amount of time that it stays in your system will vary depending on what type of test is being used.

Urine Tests

Most routine drug tests are urine tests. They usually look for drugs like cannabis, cocaine, amphetamines, opioids, and phencyclidine. A routine drug test will not find shrooms in your system.

If someone were to purchase a specialized test to find shrooms in your system, they probably won’t use a urine test. This is because your body eliminates psilocybin from your urine within 24 hours.

Saliva and Blood Tests

It is also uncommon for people to test for shrooms using blood and saliva tests. Shrooms don’t stay in your system for long enough for most routine drug tests to produce a positive result. Psilocybin leaves your blood and saliva even faster than your urine.

Hair Follicle Tests

Lastly, hair follicle tests are the best option to detect shrooms in your system. Unlike standard drug tests, these screening tools can detect shrooms and other substances in your hair follicles for up to 90 days after your last dose. Even though shrooms don’t stay in your system long, your hair follicle keeps the evidence of psychoactive compounds for up to 3 months.

What are the Health Risks of Using Shrooms?

As you know, shrooms can cause physical symptoms like increased heart rate, sweating, heightened body temperature, vomiting, and more. Other than these side effects, are there any health risks associated with abusing psilocybin?

Some of the health risks of consuming dried and fresh shrooms include:[2,3,4]

• High Blood Pressure and Heart Damage- The temporary increases in blood pressure caused by taking shrooms can put you at risk of developing chronic blood pressure problems. If you take them frequently, these blood pressure increases can lead to long-term heart damage.
• Blood Vessel Damage- Some studies have found that regular psilocybin use is linked to blood vessel damage throughout the body.
• Dangerous Behaviors- When you take shrooms, you are likely to engage in dangerous behaviors because you are not thinking clearly. For example, some people believe delusions like they can fly, causing them to fall from high levels. In other words, you can experience dangerous bodily harm or even life-threatening injuries while under the influence of shrooms.
• Seizures- If you have an underlying risk of experiencing seizures, taking psilocybin can trigger you to experience one. Additionally, the stress caused by a bad trip can induce a seizure.
• Misidentified Shrooms- One of the most significant physical health risks associated with taking shrooms is misidentifying a mushroom. If you are not an expert in identifying mushrooms, you could accidentally ingest the wrong one. Some mushrooms can lead to life-threatening health issues.

If you believe you are experiencing health issues because of your shroom abuse, you should seek help from a healthcare professional. While it is not understood whether shrooms are truly addictive, you can develop a psychological dependence. You should consider attending an addiction treatment program if you are having a hard time stopping the use of shrooms.

Can Shroom Abuse Affect Your Mental Health?

While psilocybin is being researched for its potential benefits for certain mental health issues, abusing the fungi can lead to psychological risks. Psilocybin might have benefits in low doses, however, when you abuse it to experience a trip, you are using large amounts that can have devastating effects on your mental health.

The mental health risks associated with psilocybin include:[5,6,7]

• Bad Trips- As mentioned, when you take mushrooms, you might have a bad experience. These adverse reactions can lead to mental health risks like intense anxiety, fear, paranoia, delusional thinking, and even aggressive or violent behavior.
• Psychosis- Because of the way that psilocybin affects your brain, it could trigger you to experience psychosis. Psychosis is a mental health condition that causes you to experience hallucinations, delusions, a detachment from reality, disorganized speech, and paranoia.
• Worsening Mental Illness- If you abuse shrooms regularly and have an underlying mental health condition, your symptoms could worsen. Whether you have depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or another condition, psilocybin can make your symptoms more intense, long-lasting, and severe.
• Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder (HPPD)– Misusing shrooms regularly can lead to the development of a condition called HPPD. This illness causes you to experience hallucinations even after your trip has ended. While it is not linked to neurological damage, HPPD can be distressing and disruptive to your daily life.
• Psychological Dependence- Even though shrooms are not thought to cause physical dependence or withdrawal symptoms, you can become psychologically dependent. This means you might think you need shrooms to function properly. If you are psychologically dependent on mushrooms, you might need to attend a professional addiction treatment center to stop using them.

Should You Attend Addiction Treatment for Psilocybin Shrooms?

Addiction is defined as having a physical and psychological dependence on a drug. When you are physically dependent on a substance, that means you’ll experience withdrawal symptoms when you stop using it. That said, psilocybin is not believed to lead to physical dependence or withdrawal symptoms.

However, you can develop a psychological dependence on shrooms. Some people believe they can only experience spirituality when they take a psychedelic drug. You might also experience intense cravings or urges to abuse shrooms.

If you are psychologically dependent on magic mushrooms, you should seek help from a professional addiction treatment center. Even though you don’t have a full substance use disorder, you do need support to stop using shrooms.

At the Mandala Healing Center, we can help you overcome shroom dependence using a variety of evidence-based treatments. Because shrooms don’t cause withdrawal, you don’t need medical detox. However, you will need to engage in individual therapy, group counseling, and relapse prevention.

During therapy, you will learn about the root causes of your substance abuse, learn vital coping skills to prevent you from relapsing, and connect with your peers to gain a community of support. You will also have access to dual diagnosis care, which is necessary if you have a co-occurring mental health disorder that requires ongoing treatment.

The Mandala Healing Center can help you recover from the causes and symptoms of your addiction. Instead of using a one-size-fits-all approach, we will provide you with an individualized treatment plan that addresses your needs and goals for recovery.

Get Connected to a Top-Rated Addiction Treatment Center

If you are struggling with shroom abuse, it’s time to seek professional help. Even though shrooms don’t cause withdrawal symptoms, you’ll still need support from a drug rehab center to recover. At Mandala Healing Center, we offer clinically proven treatments for substance abuse and substance use disorders.

Additionally, if you have a co-occurring mental health condition like depression, anxiety, PTSD, bipolar disorder, or another condition, we can offer you dual diagnosis care. We will provide you with individual therapy, group counseling, and medication management to ensure you get the support you need to feel mentally healthy once again.

Why Choose The Mandala Healing Center? Clients are taken on a journey of healing through complete immersion into evidence-based clinical modalities, multifaceted alternative therapies, and expert medical management, allowing them to fully detox and recover from drug and alcohol addictions. Through a program of care designed to encourage change, a foundation is created that allows clients to find their higher purpose and reclaim their lives.

Contact us today for more information on how our highly-rated addiction treatment center can help you overcome shroom abuse and regain control over your life.

References:

1. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA): Psilocybin (Magic Mushrooms)
2. AHA Journals: Association Between Lifetime Classic Psychedelic Use and Hypertension in the Past Year
3. Nature Scientific Reports: Psilocybin-induced changes in cerebral blood flow are associated with acute and baseline inter-individual differences
4. Science Direct: Do classic psychedelics increase the risk of seizures? A scoping review
5. Psychiatry Online: A Case of Prolonged Mania, Psychosis, and Severe Depression After Psilocybin Use: Implications of Increased Psychedelic Drug Availability
6. BMC Psychiatry: Prolonged adverse effects from repeated psilocybin use in an underground psychedelic therapy training program: a case report
7. Sage Journals: Hallucinogen-persisting perception disorder