Among the many uncertainties about using magic mushrooms is that there’s no standard answer to the question of how long it takes for shrooms to kick in.
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What Are Shrooms?
One reason why the question, “how long does it take for shrooms to kick in?” can be difficult to answer is that there are many different forms of this drug.
Shrooms, or magic mushrooms, can refer to more than 150 species of mushrooms that can cause hallucinogenic effects when consumed. These effects are due to the presence of psilocybin, which the human body converts to a psychedelic substance called psilocin.
Some sources claim that people have been using shrooms for ritual purposes for thousands of years, while others question the accuracy of such statements.
What isn’t up for debate, though, is that psilocybin and psilocin were first isolated and identified in the late 1950s. The team that made this discovery was led by Albert Hoffman, the Swiss chemist who originally synthesized lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) in the 1930s.
In the 1960s, shrooms became popular as recreational drugs in the U.S. In recent decades, researchers have been investigating their potential for alleviating symptoms of anxiety, depression, anorexia, and certain other mental and behavioral health disorders.
How Do Shrooms Affect People?
The experience a person has when they take shrooms is similar to what can occur when they take LSD, mescaline, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), and other hallucinogens. Common effects include:
- Altered mood and perception
- Distorted sense of time and space
- Hallucinations
- Empathy and interconnectedness
- Mystical or spiritual sensations
- Intensified emotions
- Dissociation
In addition to their impact on cognition and perception, shrooms can also cause physical effects such as:
- Dilated pupils
- Elevated heart rate
- Dry mouth, nausea
- Vomiting
- Impaired coordination
How Long Does it Take for Shrooms to Kick In?
The answer to the question of how long does it take for shrooms to kick in can be influenced by several factors, including:
- The person’s age, weight, body composition, and metabolism
- Which species of mushrooms the person took, and if they were dried or raw
- How much they took
- The mode of ingestion (which is usually eating the shrooms or drinking them in a tea)
- If they had food in their stomach or other substances in their system
- Their environment and frame of mind when they took the shrooms
Depending on these and other relevant factors, in most cases it will take 20-60 minutes to start to feel the drugs’ effects.
Once shrooms have begun to kick in, here’s what frequently occurs:
- Within the 20-60 minute timeframe, people often start to feel a slight elevation of mood and an increased sensitivity to light and sound. This is also the time when nausea and vomiting are most likely to occur.
- Over the next hour or two, these effects will intensify and others – such as hallucinations and distorted perceptions – will set in.
- Once the effects reach maximum intensity, which is referred to as peaking, they will begin to slowly dissipate. This can take another two or three hours.
The physical effects and cognitive/perceptual distortions will usually have subsided within six or seven hours after the individual ingested the shrooms. However, it’s common to have lingering fatigue for several additional hours, and some people experience elevated emotional awareness for multiple days after they’ve used shrooms.
Are Shrooms Dangerous?
Shrooms can cause both short-term distress (bad trips) and long-term problems.
Bad trips
When someone takes shrooms, they’re most likely hoping to have an insightful, transformative, or otherwise positive experience. And while many people do achieve this goal, others have a far less pleasurable time.
Commonly called a “bad trip,” a negative experience with shrooms can include:
- Anxiety
- Panic
- Powerful, uncontrollable mood swings
- Terrifying hallucinations
- Fear that you are going insane
- Loss of personal identity (which is often referred to as ego dissolution or ego death)
- Sense that time is not progressing forward
- Psychosis
Long-term damage
The good news about bad trips is that they rarely last more than a few hours. Unfortunately, shroom use can also expose a person to extended harm, such as:
- Hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD), which can include extended visual disturbances such as seeing light trails behind moving objects or being unable to accurately judge size and distance.
- Medical concerns such as the worsening of preexisting heart problems or hypertension (high blood pressure)
- Physical injuries due to impaired coordination, judgment, and perceptions while under the influence of psilocybin
Are Shrooms Addictive?
Shrooms pose a low risk of addiction. This doesn’t mean that people never become dependent on these drugs, but the likelihood of this occurring is considerably lower than if they were using alcohol, opioids, or other commonly abused drugs.
The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) contains an entry for other hallucinogen use disorder, which is the clinical term for addictions to MDMA, LSD, DMT, mescaline, psilocybin, and similar substances.
As with other forms of chemical dependency, addiction to shrooms is characterized by symptoms such as:
- Inability to control the amount and frequency of your shroom use
- Continued shroom use even after incurring harm due to prior use
- Using shrooms in circumstances that you know are especially hazardous
- Developing tolerance, which means you need to use larger or more potent doses to feel the drug’s effects
- Wanting to stop using shrooms, but being unable to do so.
Learn More About Addiction Treatment in Tampa Bay
If you’ve found it difficult or impossible to stop using shrooms or any other drug, Tampa Bay Recovery Center is here to help.
Treatment options at our outpatient rehab in Tampa Bay, FL, include detox, a partial hospitalization program (PHP), an intensive outpatient program (IOP), and virtual programming. We also offer sober living residences for clients who need additional support while they are receiving care.
To learn more about how we can help you or a loved one, or to schedule a free assessment, please visit our Admissions page or call us today.
