Middle age may be the most ambiguous life stage. While clear-cut markers can define adolescence and old age — puberty on one end and retirement, say, on the other — midlife lacks an official “start” and “end” date. It’s typically regarded as ages 40 to 60.

Moreover, the experience of middle age varies widely from person to person, man to woman, culture to culture.

But if there’s one universal condition for this phase of life, it’s probably mental stress. Middle-aged individuals are more likely than those at any other life stage to be juggling multiple roles and responsibilities: embarking on a career change or facing retirement concerns; in the thick of parenting or adjusting to an empty nest; contending with arthritis or training for a marathon; caregiving for their parents or dealing with their own health issues.

And this juggling can be both a source of joy and a cause of burnout, especially as older bodies become less resilient and social support systems less accessible.

It’s no wonder midlife can give rise to existential questions — and, yes, even crises. But it can also spark inspiration, motivation, and appreciation.

In short, mental health in middle age can be a study in extremes. Which is why it’s good to remember to prioritize self-care, nutrition, movement, and social connections — and to not be too hard on yourself.

Midlife Changes Affecting Mental Health

As your brain and body age, your mood may suffer. The likelihood of developing a chronic illness like high blood pressure or arthritis increases as you cross the threshold of midlife — and chronic illness increases the risk of depression and other mental health issues.

Hormonal shifts can also impact mental well-being. Middle age can be a sort of “second adolescence” in which your body goes through significant and permanent hormonal changes.

For women, the onset of perimenopause often brings both physical concerns — think migraine, weight gain, and sleep disturbance — and psychological distress. Some 70 percent of women will experience mental health symptoms such as anxiety, irritability, or depression during perimenopause or menopause.

Meanwhile, men will have a small but steady drop in testosterone levels, a process known as andropause, beginning at about age 40. This can contribute to mood and sleep issues, as well as to changes in sexual functioning and desire.

Age can also bring on neurological degeneration. Though most midlifers are yet to notice any major cognitive impairments, memory and processing speed — the time it takes to make sense of new information — typically begin to decline.

Still, it’s not all bad news on the brain front. Studies suggest middle-aged brains are better at problem-solving, complex reasoning, and resisting the kind of impulsive reactivity characteristic of younger adults.

The Midlife Happiness Dip

In 2010, The Economist published an article suggesting that happiness dips in middle age and only rebounds in later years. Journalist Jonathan Rauch described this phenomenon in The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50, a chronicle of his own experience of midlife. “I began to feel a sense of restlessness and malaise, my achievements didn’t feel rewarding, and I didn’t feel grateful for all the good things in my life,” he told Experience Life in a 2019 interview. (You can read the interview here.)

Yet over time, our outlook changes, Rauch writes in The Happiness Curve. “The passage of time, by itself, affects how satisfied and grateful we feel — or, more precisely, how easy it is to feel satisfied and grateful.”

The happiness curve theory has drawn significant media attention. But does it hold up?

Studies are mixed on whether the happiness curve is universally applicable. Longitudinal studies of mental health at middle age point to a wider diversity of experiences influenced largely by individual variables. What does seem to matter across the board, alongside marital satisfaction and socioeconomic status, is social connection.

Having a support network matters at any age, and studies suggest midlifers tend to maintain a smaller social circle than their younger counterparts. With stress coming from all directions — career, kids, aging parents — and free time an increasingly precious commodity, it may be easier to rely on existing relationships rather than to build new ones. If those relationships are unsupportive or haven’t been well tended, mental health can suffer. (For more on building social connections, see “Why Social Bonds Are So Important for Our Health.”)

On the bright side, lots of data supports a late-life lift in happiness. So if you do fall prey to malaise at midlife, you can at least hold out hope for sunnier days ahead.

A Midlife Reckoning

The midlife crisis remains one of middle age’s most enduring stereotypes. Though it’s actually pretty rare — only 10 to 20 percent of people report having one — the recognition that time is limited can certainly provoke existential anxiety.

But that recognition doesn’t have to be a bad thing. “Midlife is a perfect time to revisit and reassess choices we’ve made earlier in life that no longer fit,” says gerontologist Barbara Waxman, MS, MPA, PCC, a member of the advisory council of the Stanford Center on Longevity, in a piece published by Stanford Lifestyle Medicine.

She prefers the term “midlife reckoning” over “midlife crisis.” “We have a better understanding of ourselves and what we care about,” Waxman explains. “We’ve honed our skills, have more confidence, and have more to offer. We might have an inner calling that is shifting us in a different direction.”

Ultimately, your perspective on aging may be one of the biggest determinants of well-being. One study suggests that a positive outlook on aging nets optimists an extra seven and a half years on average. So those who see getting older as a good thing are likely to live longer — and enjoy better mental and physical health along the way.

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It may seem obvious, but we all deal with stress differently.

According to Ayurveda, the traditional medicine of India, this is partly because our physical constitutions are shaped by the natural elements. These are our doshas: Vata, Pitta, and Kapha, which loosely correspond to air, fire, and earth.

In the Ayurvedic model, we can help restore ourselves by rebalancing our doshas when we feel off.

While almost no one falls exclusively into just one, we do tend to have a primary dosha, and it’s especially visible in how we process stress. Consider these examples:

• Lidia has always trended toward worry, but since her son told her he’d been bullied, she’s become overwhelmed with anxiety and sleeps only about four hours a night. Her intense worry is classic for an airy Vata.
• Jeff is a successful business owner, but after a recent spate of workplace conflicts, he’s become irritable, moody, and distracted. He wakes most nights between 3 and 4 a.m., restless and ruminating. Such “heated” qualities are typical Pitta.
• Janelle is dealing with ailing parents, a distant partner, and work that feels depleting. She drags herself out of bed, gains unwanted weight, and can’t find the motivation to get to the gym. These behaviors are often linked to an earthy Kapha constitution.

Through an Ayurvedic lens, each of these emotional challenges could be predicted, and possibly prevented, by understanding and caring for that unique mind-body type. The key to balance is to maintain daily habits that support your dosha.

VATA (AIR) IMBALANCE:
The Mind Runs Rampant

Air types like Lidia can be creative, enthusiastic, spontaneous, and fun, but they’re prone to fear, anxiety, and insomnia under stress. They can easily become ungrounded by overwork, irregular sleep, skipped meals, or an erratic or too-busy schedule.

Act: To rebalance, create a predictable daily rhythm: Take breaks at work, eat three meals a day, and sleep at regular hours.

Eat: Diet can bring overly airy types down to earth. Choose foods that are grounding, such as warm, hearty soups and stews. Aim to avoid too much sugar and other refined carbs, which can hamper blood-sugar regulation and affect mood.

Support: Passionflower is a gently calming herb that can soothe dysregulated Vata types. It may be used as needed or, if anxiety is persistent, taken daily for up to several weeks. Dose: one or two capsules (200–300 milligrams each) up to three or four times per day for anxiety.

PITTA (FIRE) IMBALANCE:
The Passions Take Over

A fire type like Jeff can be confident, passionate, determined, and successful. But under pressure, Pitta types can get overheated, angry, impatient, ruminative, and judgmental. They’re also likely to push too hard for too long and to overdo it on caffeine and other stimulants.

Act: To counter the Pitta tendency toward overdrive, get some distance from your current pursuits. Take time to unplug from work. Do something purely for fun, ideally something not too competitive.

Eat: Foods can cool the extra fire of unbalanced Pitta energy. The diet should be light — relatively low in protein but with a high water content. Think summer foods such as big salads, fresh fruits, and pumpkin or sunflower seeds for snacks. Hot, spicy, or fried foods add fuel to the fire, so try to avoid them.

Support: The amino acid L-theanine can calm the brain and soothe agitation. Dose: 100–200 mg twice daily. (If you find it sedating, take it just once at bedtime.)

KAPHA (EARTH) IMBALANCE:
Motivation Disappears

Earth types like Janelle are usually steady, grounded, reliable, and easygoing. Everybody loves having a supportive Kapha on their team. But when earth types are imbalanced, they can fall into lethargy, with a heavy, flat mood and loss of motivation.

Act: Earth types require stimulation, diversity, and a little excitement. When heaviness descends, try something new and a little challenging. Take an exercise or dance class, watch a thriller, or listen to some fast, loud music — anything that gets the heart rate up.

Eat: Kaphas need activation, so seek foods with spice, tartness, or unusual flavors. Aim for a food plan low in fat and carbs and high in protein. Think spring with bitter greens, lean meat and fish, and plenty of nonstarchy vegetables.

Support: Rhodiola is a gently energizing herb that can counter sluggishness and lack of motivation. Dose: 500 mg daily of an extract standardized to 3 percent rosavins.

 Natural Mental Health

For more nonpharmaceutical solutions for common mental health challenges, visit our Natural Mental Health Department.

This article originally appeared as “An Ayurvedic View of Mental Health” in the September/October 2026 issue of Experience Life.

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Depression is notoriously difficult to treat, but advances in neuroscience and electromagnetic technology are enabling new options for some chronic cases. One well-established, if not as well-known, treatment is transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).

Don’t be fooled by the sci-fi sounding name: TMS — which uses magnetic fields to stimulate the brain’s natural electrical activity — is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), produces minimal side effects, and boasts strong efficacy rates.

“It can be a game-changer for people who suffer from chronic depression,” says interventional psychiatrist Suzanne Jasberg, MD, who began treating patients with TMS more than a decade ago. “I became fascinated with neuromodulation during my medical residency, and I’ve continued to use it ever since simply because it’s so effective.”

TMS has also been FDA-approved for obsessive-compulsive disorder, migraine, and smoking cessation (though insurance does not always cover the cost of treatment for these uses). Trials are underway for a range of other mental illnesses, including bipolar disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder.

How does TMS work?

TMS is performed via an electromagnetic coil that’s placed against the scalp and delivers nerve-stimulating pulses to regions of the brain that tend to be compromised in those with depression.

This is a fundamentally different approach from medication. Antidepressant medications influence the brain’s neurochemistry, affecting the release or reuptake of neurotransmitters like serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine. TMS affects the brain’s neurocircuitry, the interconnected neural pathways that enable us to process information, regulate emotions, and make decisions.

TMS works well as a means of enhancing rather than replacing traditional treatments: With healthier neuropathways, the brain can make better use of medication and psychotherapy.

What does TMS feel like?

During TMS sessions, a patient dons hearing protection and settles into a reclining chair beneath or beside a magnetic coil. At an initial session, a TMS technician “maps” a patient’s head to identify the regions of the brain to target. Reflexive twitching in the hands and fingers on the opposite side of the body identifies target brain locations. At subsequent sessions, a technician uses measurements gathered from this mapping process to determine treatment locations.

TMS machines are fairly loud, and patients can hear and feel a tapping sensation against their head, even with ear plugs. The tapping can be uncomfortable or even slightly painful, and patients often experience headaches or dizziness after a session. These side effects are generally mild and pass within a few minutes; it’s safe for a patient to drive and go about their day once a session is complete.

Patients will often bring a friend or family member with them to their first sessions to help them cope with the tapping and make the experience less intimidating.

TMS is not a one-and-done treatment. For several weeks, patients typically undergo sessions every weekday, each lasting between 20 and 50 minutes; many return for follow-up sessions after the initial course of treatment.

Why haven’t I heard more about TMS?

This really comes down to marketing dollars, Jasberg explains. “TMS doesn’t have the marketing budget that pharmaceuticals have.”

TMS also carries some stigma. She finds that people associate TMS with electroconvulsive therapy, a far more intrusive treatment that can lead to memory loss. Or, as she puts it, “they may assume TMS must be woo-woo and experimental.”

“Brain stimulation sounds scary,” she acknowledges. But TMS has been FDA-approved for more than a decade and is backed by a large body of research supporting its efficacy and safety. The side effects tend to be mild, and there’s no memory loss, little risk of seizure, and no need for anesthesia.

Still, the treatment is not for everyone. TMS is not recommended for anyone with a magnetically sensitive implant, such as a pacemaker or cochlear implant. A history of seizures, head trauma, or other neurological conditions may also rule out the treatment.

The history and severity of depressive episodes also determines whether an individual qualifies for TMS. The treatment is approved only for major depressive disorder, and some providers and insurance companies OK it only if the depression is deemed resistant to other treatments — which means an individual has undergone at least two unsuccessful medication trials and received a formal diagnosis of major depressive disorder.

To find a TMS provider near you, work with your insurance company or check out provider directories like Brainsway or the Clinical TMS Society.

How well does TMS work?

Studies have shown that about 60 percent of individuals who undergo TMS for depression experience a significant and sustained decrease in symptoms, and one study found remission rates as high as almost 80 percent. By contrast, the average antidepressant offers relief to only 30 percent of those who take it.

While there are no guarantees, TMS can be life-changing for those who respond well to the treatment. “Many of my patients have been depressed most of their lives,” Jasberg says. “They may have tried 20 or 30 different medications. Understandably, they come in skeptical. But a few weeks pass, and they find themselves doing things they never thought they could do. The world seems brighter. They’re finally able to enjoy life.”

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From the outside, it seemed that American long-distance runner Kara Goucher was on top of the world. After medaling at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, securing her place on the 2008 U.S. Olympic team, and finishing top three at the New York City Marathon, Goucher was at her career peak.

She was part of the Oregon Project, an elite, Nike-­sponsored professional training team coached by running legend Alberto ­Salazar. Her image ­appeared on billboards, in malls, and on the sides of buses all over the United States.

Behind the scenes, though, Goucher was suffering emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of Salazar, which left her isolated and afraid. She was also witnessing the questionable if not outright illegal use of medications and other substances by certain teammates, directed by ­Salazar and other Oregon Project staff.

When she and her husband (also a former Oregon Project athlete) decided to start a family, she was assured by Nike executives that her contract would be secure during her pregnancy as long as she stayed “relevant” by participating in media interviews, photo shoots, and other events. Yet Nike suspended her pay due to what they termed her “medical condition” that kept her from competing.

It would take years for Goucher to summon the courage to speak out about her own abuse and the doping she observed. Her testimonies against Salazar and Nike between 2018 and 2021 — first to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and then to the U.S. Center for SafeSport, ­regarding sexual and emotional misconduct — contributed to Salazar’s lifetime ban from coaching USA Track and Field athletics. She tells her story in a 2023 memoir, The Longest Race.

Now 46, Goucher is retired from racing but serves on the board of the USADA and as a commentator for distance running for NBC Sports. She also hosts the Nobody Asked Us podcast with fellow runner Des Linden, on which the duo discuss “all things running.”

We caught up with Goucher to learn more about her journey from elite competitor to advocate for women athletes and clean sport.

Q&A With Kara Goucher

Experience Life | In your book, you describe struggles with self-­confidence going back to high school — and how that left you vulnerable as a young athlete at the Oregon Project.

Kara Goucher| From a young age, I was really driven and a bit of a perfectionist, but I never was the best at anything. The term “imposter syndrome” wasn’t something we talked about then, but that was me to a T. I’d line up on the start line and think, I’m fooling everyone that I belong here.

The Oregon Project was a men’s team, and at first I thought I should just be grateful to be there. We had unlimited resources from Nike, and it was intoxicating to be part of that group, to have that exclusivity.

Because my dad died when I was very young, I was always looking for some sort of male guidance in my life, and I turned to Alberto. I also had the ability to push away things that hurt me, whether physically or emotionally. All of this set me up to be taken advantage of.

EL | Yet you overcame your fears to tell your story on a very public stage. How did you build up the courage to do this?

KG | It was a slow burn, finally deciding to testify against Alberto for USADA’s ­investigation and then for SafeSport. What drove me to write the book, though, was that there were high-profile people writing about me who spoke with authority against me but who had never met me. I was never quoted. I was never asked.

I got so frustrated that the story being told about me wasn’t real. I wanted to tell my story where nobody could cut me off. I wanted it in my own words so I could move on and have peace.

EL | Your family wasn’t aware of the abuse until you decided to blow the whistle. As you look back, what did you learn from this experience?

KG | My family loved me before I ran, and they love me just as much now, when I don’t run [competitively]. I think I wanted to protect them from what was happening because I knew how much they just wanted me to be happy.

I’ve learned that when you’re all in on something, whether it’s your job, sport, music, or whatever, sometimes you lose track of who you are. When you’re lying on your deathbed, you’re no longer a runner or a musician — that’s just something you pursued and worked at. You’re all the moments in between with your family, all the memories with your friends who showed up for you and who you showed up for. That’s who you truly are.

EL | You have written and spoken about the role of therapy in your life. How has therapy helped you heal?

KG | It’s so important to be able to be vulnerable enough to talk about things. My husband and I have been in marriage counseling, not because we want a divorce but because so many things happened to us, and it’s helpful to talk about them with a neutral party. There’s so much power in releasing things that feel like secrets, that you’re ashamed of, that you feel embarrassed about. Releasing these in safe spaces gets rid of the power they have on you, and you start to regain your own power.

EL | In 2022, you were diagnosed with focal dystonia [a neurological movement disorder that causes involuntary muscle reactions] in your lower left leg. How are you doing?

KG | I have repetitive movement dystonia, which means my brain wires sometimes get tripped up. When I do a motion I’ve done repeatedly, like running, instead of just contracting the muscles I need to do that motion, every muscle from my knee down contracts.

It’s been hard because running has been my release. Sometimes I even have problems walking, and I have to use a cane on days when it’s really bad. I get Botox treatments four times a year, which helps. Today was a good day: I met a friend to run three miles, and we ended up running seven. When I have days that are good, I take advantage of them.

EL | Over your career, you have put yourself out there as an elite athlete, an author, a commentator, a ­podcaster, and an advocate for clean sport. How do you see yourself now?

KG | I never saw myself as a leader, but I think there is a kind of quiet leadership that comes with being comfortable with who you are, with taking risks, and with doing something outside the structure you’ve always been in. I think that’s where I am in my life now — I’m exploring things I like, and I’m not trying to be perfect. Some things have been great, and some things haven’t been. I just want to be who I am, and it’s a really nice place to be in my life.

Running the Long Race

This article originally appeared as “Running Strong” in the July/August 2025 issue of Experience Life. Photographer: Andy Anderson.

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The buzz about microdosing psychedelics began around 2015, with a wave of news stories about Silicon Valley entrepreneurs using the practice to enhance focus, creativity, and problem-solving. Bestselling books like Michael Pollan’s 2018 How to Change Your Mind also helped bring psychedelics back into the public consciousness. And though psychedelics are still largely illegal, recent decriminalization efforts have made them significantly more accessible.

Today, there’s growing interest in the potential of psychedelics for mental health. While the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research (CPCR) at Johns Hopkins University has primarily focused on how larger, therapeutic doses of psychedelics can help relieve PTSD symptoms and assist terminally ill patients with their fear of dying, an increasing number of people are seeking general mental health support through microdosing.

Billy Hauser, a 58-year-old film director in Nashville, turned to microdosing in 2021 to help manage his depression. (Hauser is a pseudonym used to protect his medical privacy.) He had been taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) like Prozac since he was in his 30s, but he hated the side effects, including unwanted weight gain.

He also questioned how much they were truly helping. “The dosage just kept getting upped, and the effect just became more negligible,” he explains.

Unlike the numbing consistency of SSRIs, microdosing psilocybin brought a noticeable lift to his days, he says. “It’s like taking a photo on your phone and then increasing the brightness — everything just looks a little brighter.”

What is Microdosing?

Microdosing involves consuming tiny doses of psychedelic substances. Whereas larger doses of psilocybin can induce visual and auditory hallucinations, altered time perception, and profound changes in mood and thought patterns, microdoses tend to gently enhance mood, focus, and an overall sense of well-being — without impairing normal functioning.

“Microdosing has no classic psychedelic effects,” explains James Fadiman, PhD, coauthor of Microdosing for Health, Healing, and Enhanced Performance. “There are no therapeutic breakthroughs, no angelic visitations, no realizing that you’re part of the divine everything.”

Instead, many people simply notice that they engage in the tasks of daily life with greater clarity and ease.

A microdose is generally defined as a tenth to a twentieth or less of a standard, hallucination-inducing dose. A standard psychedelic dose of psilocybin is 2 to 3 grams of dried mushrooms; microdoses generally range from 0.1 to 0.3 grams.

Some describe a microdose as “subperceptual,” but that’s not always the case. Even if a dose is nonintoxicating, it may cause perceptible shifts in focus or mood. Many people notice a mildly stimulating effect, like you might get from a cup of coffee.

In The Microdosing Guidebook: A Step-by-Step Manual to Improve Your Physical and Mental Health Through Psychedelic Medicine, nurse practitioner C. J. Spotswood, PMHNP, emphasizes that the concept of microdosing psychedelics is not new. “Many believe that microdosing has been practiced by Indigenous cultures for centuries for different reasons,” he writes.

While the practice itself may be old, the scientific understanding of microdosing is still young. Yet what researchers are learning is promising.

The Science of Psilocybin

When you take psilocybin, your body rapidly converts it into a psychoactive substance called psilocin. Psilocin activates serotonin receptors and changes how brain regions communicate with each other. Some regions become more active and connected; others grow quieter.

MRI studies have shown that psilocybin disrupts a particular area of the brain known as the default mode network (DMN). “The default mode network is a collection of circuits and hubs in the brain that … is the closest approximation of our ego or self,” explains Scott Shannon, MD, cofounder of the Psychedelic Research and Training Institute, in a 2020 interview with functional medicine physician Robert Rountree, MD, that was published in Alternative and Complementary Therapies.

“When we wake up from sleep or if we are knocked unconscious and we come back, [the DMN] reboots up to tell us who we are, … what we are worried about, our biases, our prejudices, our preferences, our failures, and our insecurities. It is really our inner narrative.”

The DMN is closely associated with rumination and self-focus. “When [it’s] amplified, people become depressed, obsessional, and even totally dysfunctional,” Shannon adds. “When the default mode network [is] dialed down — which occurs with meditation — it often results in a sense of peace, tranquility, ease, and positive mood.”

This quieting of the DMN may be one reason many people report that standard doses of psilocybin give them a greater feeling of interconnection: It helps loosen the grip of self-involved rumination.

Most psilocybin research has focused on the impact of large therapeutic doses delivered under supervision from medical and psychiatric professionals. Microdosing is different in both its approach and its goals, emphasizing regular support over major breakthroughs. Whereas macrodosing’s effects can be profound and transformative, the effects of microdosing are subtle.

They’re also more difficult to scientifically validate. There are few randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies on microdosing. Fadiman notes that the practice of modern microdosing is less than 15 years old.

The legal status of psilocybin creates stringent research requirements that are easier to meet in single-day, supervised, high-dose psychedelic experiences, like those performed at the CPCR.

At present, most academic microdosing studies have been observational or survey-based, producing evidence of limited quality. This research has broadly found that people who microdose report enhanced mood, increased creativity, improved focus, and heightened emotional well-being compared with those not taking a dose.

In several placebo-controlled studies, the placebo produced comparable mental health benefits. This suggests that expectations might be driving many of microdosing’s benefits.

Some research, however, contradicts this notion. A review of 19 placebo-controlled studies published in 2024 in the Journal of Psychopharmacology found that “microdosing with … psilocybin leads to changes in neurobiology, physiology, subjective experience, affect, and cognition relative to placebo.”

Microdosing for Mental Health

Some people have turned to microdosing as an alternative to antidepressant or antianxiety medication. Unlike SSRIs, which can mute both positive and negative feelings, microdosing seems to reduce negative emotions while enhancing positive ones. It also may have fewer side effects.

Anecdotal reports suggest that microdosing may also ease the process of tapering off SSRIs, offering support during withdrawal and helping to maintain emotional balance.

In 2019, Fadiman partnered with Sophia Korb to run an open-label, nonclinical microdosing study involving 1,700 respondents from 59 countries. Among the responses were reports from people who had struggled to wean themselves from their medications before succeeding with the help of microdosing.

“Microdosing is a totally different model of system improvement versus symptom suppression,” Fadiman says. He stresses that people should still closely follow their physician’s instructions when tapering off SSRIs, even if their symptoms seem to improve right away.

In clinical high-dose psychedelic experiences, much emphasis is placed on intention, mindset, and setting. This involves consciously articulating goals or expectations for what you hope to explore, heal, or achieve during the experience; nurturing a calm and open state of mind; and ensuring you’re in a safe, comfortable, and supportive setting.

Because microdosing is integrated into daily life, these elements — especially setting — may be less of a focus. But Spotswood notes that, rather than simply taking a pharmaceutical approach to microdosing and passively expecting it to produce its effects, having a more mindful and reflective relationship to the process can lead to profound and lasting results.

This is especially so if you’re working with the support of a therapist or guide. Journaling, group therapy, one-to-one therapy, or even regular check-ins with fellow microdosers can all be useful.

“I think psychedelics are part of our future [in psychiatry], because they are going to move us from this supportive model to this evocative model, where we are really honoring and valuing the psyche in a much deeper and more profound way,” notes Shannon.

Still, microdosing is not a panacea, and it won’t be right for everyone. Certain populations of people will be helped by it, and for others, it will be an experiment that may or may not help.

For Hauser, the eight months he spent microdosing brought a sense of connectivity and receptivity. “It helped me get in touch with myself and notice things in a different way,” he says. “It’s not the entire solution to everything, but it’s a fantastic tool.”

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