With celebrities like Elon Musk touting the benefits of microdosing and Prince Harry saying mushrooms and ayahuasca helped him deal with grief, more people are turning to psychedelic drugs to help with anxiety, depression, addiction, and other mental health challenges. While many people take psychedelics to hallucinate and undergo a profoundly psychologically transformative experience, others are seeking the benefits without the hallucinogenic effects. This subculture is called mushroom microdosing, in which people consume very small doses of psychedelic substances — usually one-tenth to one-twentieth of a typical recreational dosage — semi-regularly for self-healing and personal development.

A Step-by-Step Guide on How to Microdose Mushrooms

Scientists haven’t studied mushroom microdosing a lot, but anecdotal reports suggest it can improve mood and help with depression, focus and anxiety. Lab studies of psilocybin and LSD microdoses tend to support these claims, finding that participants in these trials experienced increased attention, cognition and feelings of well-being. But these studies are small and don’t compare the effects of a microdose to a placebo.

How to microdose mushrooms, an Austin-based designer who asked to be identified by his first name only, discovered that he felt better after eating a tiny nibble of magic mushrooms, which contain psilocybin. So he decided to try a regular routine of ingesting mushrooms a few times a week, hoping that the drug would give him energy and boost his creativity.

To examine how people microdose mushrooms, we searched YouTube for videos with the keyword “microdosing psilocybin.” We limited our search to those with self-rapports (first-hand accounts of experiences) and used a software program to filter out content that was irrelevant or duplicate uploads, then manually reviewed all remaining videos. Most people microdosed psilocybin in the form of dried mushrooms. Some also microdosed MDMA, ketamine and other substances.