Eating disorder recovery and psilocybin — anorexia specifically, experiences?
58 replies · Therapy & Integration
I'm in long-term recovery from anorexia — 6 years from my lowest weight, now at a healthy BMI, but the cognitive distortions (body dysmorphia, food fear, BMI preoccupation) are still very present even though the behavior is controlled. I've seen the Imperial College pilot data (n=10, positive signals). Anyone with personal experience using psilocybin specifically in this context? I'm asking about anorexia, not just general body image.
I'm 8 years from my AN lowest point. Did a ceremonial session at 3g three years ago. The body image thing: during the experience I had a moment where I perceived my body completely differently — not through the ED lens. It was brief and I can't reproduce it, but it gave me an experiential reference point for what normal body perception might feel like. That reference point has actually been useful in therapy.
Important from a safety perspective: if you're in recovery but your weight has been low in the past year, get cardiac clearance before any psilocybin session. Even recovered AN patients can have cardiac abnormalities from restriction history. Psilocybin elevates heart rate and BP at peak. This is a real risk to manage, not a hypothetical.
The cognitive residue of AN is real and separate from the behavior. What you're describing — controlled behavior but persistent distortions — is something the Imperial trial is specifically trying to address. The mechanism hypothesis is that psilocybin can interrupt the rigid self-referential processing that maintains dysmorphia even after weight restoration. The pilot data supports this. I'd try to get into the UCSD trial.
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