How Long Do Shrooms Stay in Your System?
It is a common question for first time psilocybin users: how long do shrooms stay in your system? Psychedelic experiences can last for what seems like a lifetime, or they can be over in the blink of your mind’s eye. It is almost impossible to predict exactly what kinds of psychoactive effects a person will experience, but there are some guidelines to the duration of the trip, how long the substance typically stays in your system, and what kinds of lingering effects you can expect.
There are many factors that influence how your psilocybin trip can go, such as your tolerance to shrooms, how you consume them and what species of magic mushrooms you ingest. Psychedelic mushrooms can be very impactful, whether you have a life-changing, enlightened experience or an intense, nerve-wracking “bad trip”. Your emotional state, diet and mental health can all influence your psilocybin experience, but other uncontrollable elements like genetics and your individual biochemistry can play major roles in determining how you interact with psychedelics.
Why are you interested in trying psilocybin mushrooms? Let’s first explore the circumstances that lead people to experiment with magic mushrooms, and then we can review the known facts & figures on psilocybin’s effects on our minds & bodies.
WHY TAKE PSILOCYBIN?
Many people take psilocybin to help alleviate symptoms of a debilitating condition like depression, PTSD, anxiety or emotional trauma. But what about if you’re simply exploring your consciousness or seeking some psychedelic affirmations? The reasons why you take psilocybin and the circumstances of your decision to consume magic mushrooms will also affect your experience greatly. Your mental state and mood will shape your experience, so it is very important that you are in a good frame of mind whenever you consume psilocybin.
This might sound counterintuitive at first, because many people – if not most – start taking psilocybin specifically to help counteract their negative mental states (depression, trauma, substance abuse). Nonetheless, it is important to highlight the necessity for safety, comfort, and confidence whenever you consume magic mushrooms; being in a safe place, surrounded by trusted people, and having a thorough plan for your psychedelic experience can be the difference. Making sure you’re in the right headspace and taking psilocybin for the right reasons, all within the context of your personal health & safety, is something that might seem obvious but in fact can be overlooked by many first-time psilocybin users.
Do you think you’d benefit from a transformative psychedelic experience? Are you looking to microdose magic mushrooms and avoid the psychoactive experiences altogether? No matter what method you choose, when you consume psilocybin you need to understand the potential effects, review the benefits or experiences you’re seeking from shrooms, and plan your dose according to your personal circumstances. Experimentation is a major part of magic mushrooms, but you don’t need to be a psychonaut looking to mind-surf the cosmos in order to truly benefit from psilocybin. In fact, many business professionals, athletes, students and many different people who lead busy & stressful lifestyles are turning to psilocybin today. Microdosing magic mushrooms has become a very popular means of benefitting from psilocybin’s positive effects on mood, creativity, motivation, cognition, emotional states and overall wellbeing.
As a natural remedy & supplement for mental health, psilocybin is extremely proficient for a growing number of ailments and conditions. For instance, a lot of medical research into psilocybin as a treatment for depression is currently underway in North America. We’re just beginning to scratch at the surface of psilocybin’s medical efficacy, and we’ve only just started to formulate theories on the benefits of psychedelics as a whole. The more time, research and experimentation we devote to exploring psilocybin and other psychedelics will result in less stigma towards this unique plant compound and its advocates.
Does psilocybin sound like something you’d like to try? You might be interested in microdosing or psychedelic tripping with psilocybin, but you also might be wondering: how long do mushrooms stay in your system? Let’s go over some of the guidelines for psilocybin’s effects and their durations.
HOW LONG DOES PSILOCYBIN LAST?
Once you’ve considered the pros and cons of consuming psilocybin, you need to plan your dose and weigh all your options before you take magic mushrooms. As we mentioned, it is very difficult to ascertain the exact experience you’ll have with psilocybin, but there are some guidelines you can consider. For example, the general consensus for average psychedelic effects of psilocybin are as follows:
- Psilocybin can last in your system between 24 hours and several weeks
- Traceable in your urine up to 24 hours
- Detectable in your blood less than 24 hours
- Your hair can test positive for psilocybin between 30 – 90 days
- Typical psychedelic experiences occur 20-60 minutes after ingesting psilocybin
- Psychedelic effects usually last between 2 – 6 hours for a meager dose (10 – 15 mg of psilocybin[1])
- This is simply an averaged figure taken from many different surveyed psychedelics users
- Duration of psychotropic experiences can be variable per individual, their health, the species of mushroom ingested, the dose, and a variety of extraneous factors
- Psychedelic effects can last as long as 6 – 12 hours with a substantial dose (20 – 30 mg of psilocybin[2])
[1] https://newatlas.com/johns-hopkins-psilocybin-study-finds-optimum-beneficial-dosage/18981/
[2] https://newatlas.com/johns-hopkins-psilocybin-study-finds-optimum-beneficial-dosage/18981/
It is not typical for an employer to include psilocybin or psilocin (the derivative form of psilocybin that is produced from the body breaking it down) on their blood or urine tests. Testing for psilocybin in urine or blood requires a timely and almost immediate response. If blood is not tested within several hours of ingesting magic mushrooms, or if a urine sample is provided past the first 12-24 hours after consuming psilocybin, then the standard testing methods will likely miss the presence of these compounds. Hair follicles, however, can test positive for traces of psilocybin & psilocin for many weeks after, albeit a lot more than just one strand of hair is required to complete this analysis.
Another important factor in determining how long mushrooms last in your system is the half-life of psilocybin and your kidneys. A half-life of a substance is determined by the length of time it takes for half of the substance to be processed through the body and expelled through the kidneys. Obviously, weight, age, genetics and your health & fitness affect how efficient your kidneys are, and therefore how quickly your body can absorb and process psilocybin into psilocin. The average half-life of psilocybin is around 45-55 minutes, and it can take 5+ half-lives for a substance like psilocybin to be fully eliminated from your system. For the average person, roughly speaking in terms of height/weight/age, about 60-70% of the active psilocybin will be processed by the body within the first three hours of ingesting shrooms. Again, this is very dependent on a variety of factors, but as a benchmark you can expect to experience the peak of your psychedelic hallucinations within 90 minutes, and anticipate your “trip” to last 3-6 hours.
DETECTING IF PSILOCYBIN IS IN YOUR SYSTEM
The only way to be absolutely sure how long shrooms stay in your system is to conduct tests with your urine, blood or hair. Beyond these medical analyses, you can do your best to track your body’s interaction with psilocybin by keeping a dosing journal. This is a simple yet effective way to monitor your psilocybin tolerance, and the more detailed you are with your notes the better you’ll understand how this plant compound influences you. A dosing journal does not have to follow any particular formats, but many psilocybin users have found these factors helpful in tracking your experiences:
- The date, your age, current weight & BMI (body mass index)
- Physical fitness, any recent changes in your diet or general wellbeing
- Species of magic mushroom you’re consuming
- Tracking how each kind of psilocybin mushroom makes you feel and for how long will help to identify your tolerance
- Each species of the 180+ psychedelic mushrooms can affect you differently, but the ten most potent psilocybin mushrooms and their typical effects can be found in our guide to the top magic mushrooms
- Dosage
- Frequency, potency, severity of negative side effects
- Metabolism of psilocybin
- How quickly did the strain in question “kick in”?
- How long did the psychedelic experience last?
- Nutrition & hydration
- Did you eat or drink anything before you consumed psilocybin?
- Did you consume psilocybin with anything else? i.e. teas, herbs, medications, etc
- Did you experience dehydration during or after your experience?
This last point of hydration is particularly important for psilocybin users. Like other psychedelics, psilocybin can cause dehydration or can be influenced by not being properly hydrated before you consume shrooms. This is for a simple reason: water and other beverages can speed up the rate by which psilocybin and other substances are processed by the kidneys. If you’re not drinking enough water or staying properly hydrated, your kidneys cannot operate at peak function, therefore being dehydrated can compromise how efficiently your body processes the “magic” of the mushrooms. In fact, the only way to influence the duration of your psychedelic experience is to drink lots of fluids; some people have noticed that psilocybin effects are much shorter when they consume large volumes of water. This is basically the only way to “flush” psilocybin from your body, but keep in mind that this does not affect the same rate in everyone.
HOW LONG DO SHROOMS LAST IN YOUR SYSTEM?
It is important to note that even though the majority of people will come out of their psychedelic stupor within 6-12 hours, some people have experienced lingering effects for many hours longer. For instance, many people who have consumed a moderate dose of psilocybin remark that they can feel psilocybin on the fringes of their perception even after a full night’s sleep (6-8 hours). Typically, when you sleep after consuming alcohol, cannabis or psychedelics, your body will process the remainder of the substance and you will technically be done “tripping” when you awake. However, this is not always the case as some psychonauts can have recurring psychedelic effects, sometimes referred to as “the afterglow”, the next day after consuming psilocybin the previous afternoon/evening.
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This provides some essential context to the idea of consuming psilocybin in a safe, comfortable place with trusted, supportive people nearby. If you are experimenting with psilocybin for the first time, or even if you’re a seasoned stoner, it is good practice to manage the environment you do magic mushrooms in, and have a plan for any negative side effects that might occur. By minimizing the risks and taking into account all the precautions, you can have truly beneficial experiences with psilocybin.
