Kids in Crisis - Can Mushrooms Help? 🍄
Near-daily throughout this year I’ve fielded panicked emails from parents, godparents, friends and family of a struggling teen or young adult in crisis. It’s heart-breaking to watch a young person you love so deeply - someone with their entire life ahead of them - struggle with anxiety, depression, hopelessness and despair. The mental health epidemic we’re experiencing across the country has been especially devastating for young people.
The first question everyone wants to know: Can microdosing & mushrooms save them?
Today I’d love to share what I’ve seen & witnessed, and some recommendations if a young person you love is struggling.
One of the problematic aspects of the mainstream framing of microdosing - that it is identical to a prescription drug for mental health conditions - is misleading and inaccurate. While microdosing is often presented as an apples-to-apples equivalent to anti-depressants (trading one daily prescription for the other) this is very much not the case in reality. In fact the goal of microdosing is, well, not to need to microdose at all. Instead, the healing that microdosing catalyzes is an innate, lasting healing and new ‘set-point’ that you need not continue active dosing to retain over time. The experience is so different than and outside of the conventional pharmaceutical framework that it takes active deconditioning to realize it’s YOU that’s healing on a fundamental level.
When people ask me if their teen or young adult child would benefit from microdosing, my most common initial recommendation to parents is to first invest time, attention and true presence with their children and ask them what they need. I also encourage and invite the parent to begin a personal microdosing practice so they can learn - first-hand and through direct experience - what working with mushrooms is actually like versus the mainstream narrative of a magic pill. When possible, I also love to consult directly with the child as they are often able to be more candid with me - a caring stranger - than they are with their parents.
When I ask young adults what they most need and wish for from adults, they say:
Presence. Witnessing. Support. Mentorship. Maturity. Leadership. Long-term thinking.
As adults and as a society, we need to get real & honest that most of our kids aren’t struggling because something is wrong with them. While a minority genuinely have a chemical imbalance and true medical condition, the majority of them are simply mirroring an increasingly sick planet and culture in their physical, mental and emotional health. Our youngest souls are our most sensitive souls - not yet conditioned, programmed or hardened by modern life - and therefore most sensitive to the pain of the planet & world.
Think about the world - your mindset, worries and concerns - when you were 10 years old. 16. 25?
…Now think about the world a present-day 10, 16 and 25 year old are stepping into. Is it any wonder they are distressed and struggling?
Children are naturally neuroplastic and bendy, wide open creatively and taking in the stimuli & patterning around them at every moment - unlike older adults who benefit from mushrooms to overcome over-patterning, self-reference and rigidity. What children most need is the set & setting of healthier soil, adults who are attending to their own healing and culturally a safe container to thrive.
The answer to the youth health crisis isn’t to “fix” our kids with medications or mushrooms. This moment is calling upon all of us to change the way we’re living so our children can cultivate the safety & resiliency they’ll need to thrive in a rapidly changing world. Every adult who commits to their own healing - who learns to regulate their nervous system, develop emotional mastery, cultivate empathy & self-awareness, evolve in their maturity and heal naturally - is modeling & mentoring the next generation. The earlier our kids learn basic healing tools and resources, the better equipped they will be to face the immense challenges in front of them.
If a teen or young adult you love is struggling… first & foremost: Love them. Spend time with them. Go for hikes and spend time in nature together. Do an activity you love, together. Learn what lights them up. Ask them what they worry about. Protect & care. Demonstrate for them that healing and growing, self-care and self-compassion are foundational elements for a vibrant life.
Mushroom practice & microdosing amplify and support what is innate and serve as a catalyst for our greatest potential. It is a partnership that thrives when grounded in a health-promoting environment of devotion, joy, presence, intention, intimate connection, community and care. Our job as adults is to create that container of safety for our kids first and foremost before any type of medicine practice. To cradle them in the natural world - the animal & plant kingdoms - and the elements of natural healing: sunshine, fresh air, affection, connection, the earth, and most of all, love. The more our children feel safe, held and seen by us - the more they are nourished with healing resources, education and tools - the stronger they will be in all ways.
When I imagine the future, I hold a vision of every young person learning the fundamentals of self-care, natural healing, intuition and social-emotional learning skills as children. Each of them becoming their own best healer and viewing health as something to aspire to every day, not just when we’re sick and in pain. Creating fresh patterns of proactive, preventive and health-affirming life choices, and being celebrated and supported for them.
Can Mushrooms help our kids? Absolutely - but in my experience it must begin with us.
Nature is a powerful force, but when we perpetuate a culture so at odds with health and healing we can’t expect her to do more - give more - than we are willing to do ourselves. Our children will inherit this world we’re creating — let’s tend to the personal, individual work of healing, maturing, transforming and leading by example. Their future depends on it.
