Other - Is it Possible to Trip From Touching a Mushroom?

[tmhutch]

Hi all. New here and have to relay a story. A long time friend of mine freaked out while camping in the woods after supposedly touching a slimy mushroom. Is this possible??? I had to coax him 6 miles out of the woods in the middle of the night all while he was freaking out. He was eventually hospitalized and suffered from recuring halucinations for 6+ months. I live in the Pacific Northwest and know there are some great mushrooms but have never experienced anything like that.

Help!

[tayo]

must have been poisonous, and led to some sort of fungal infection? 6 months is quite a while, and its unlikely that mycotoxin was absorbed through the skin but if swiy's friend were to touch eyes, or mouth or get near them with that it could cause problems. Clearly it wasn't a "funguy" it was a poisonous mushroom. sounds like a sketch story though.

[fnord]

i think your friend has some serious mental issues!i highly doubt that this really happened to him,no mushroom ive ever heard of has toxins that can be absorbed transdermally.

[Nagognog2]

I studied mycology in the Pacific Northwest. And I found all kinds of incredible mushrooms. It's a mycophile's delight!

And I studied the most toxic of thr 'shrooms as well. I never heard of one that could do that. Anywhere on Earth for that matter. The most common cause of mushroom poisoning is young people taking Galerina Sp. - which superfiscally resemble some Psilocybe sp.

None of these can cause poisoning simply hy handling them. Though washing your hands would be a good idea.

[tmhutch]

Thanks for the replys. I've known this guy since grade school (40+ years) so initially assumed he was telling the truth but the more I learn the more difficult it is to believe.

[Bajeda]

Originally Posted by Nagognog2

INone of these can cause poisoning simply hy handling them. Though washing your hands would be a good idea.

I was wondering, maybe the mushroom was incredibly potent in terms of toxicity and the guy touched it and didn't wash his hands so he got some in his mouth somehow?

[fnord]

i dont know it still sounds far fetched to me!

[radiometer]

According to noted mycologist David Arora this is impossible. Even briefly chewing and then spitting out a poisonous mushroom is not dangerous.

[tayo]

that one is hard to believe.. chewing and spitting out... wouldn't some be absorbed in the mouth, even if in small amounts.

[fnord]

ive heard that also,i dont belive mushrooms are as deadly as people like to think,sure theres a few (7? in new england??)deadly mushrooms but most will just cause vomiting diarrhea stomach pain etc etc.

[radiometer]

hat one is hard to believe.. chewing and spitting out...

"Incidentally, almost any mushroom can be safely tasted by chewing on a small piece of the cap and then spitting it out." p.15

"Handling wild mushrooms is not dangerous. You may want to wash your hands after prolonged contact with deadly Amanitas, but poisonous mushrooms can cause harm only if ingested." p.28

Both quotes taken from Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora, considered the bible of mushroom identification.

ive heard that also,i dont belive mushrooms are as deadly as people like to think,sure theres a few (7? in new england??)deadly mushrooms but most will just cause vomiting diarrhea stomach pain etc etc.

That is a dangerously optimistic way of looking at the situation. There are many kinds of toxic and/or deadly mushrooms. Only when a wild mushroom is positively identified without a doubt should it be consumed. Toxic species include many varieties of Amanitas, Gyromitra sp., Inocybe sp. and Clitocybe sp. Also, a great many of mushroom poisonings come from individual allergic reactions to mushrooms which other people can eat with impunity.

As David Arora writes, "the two most common causes of mushroom poisoning are carelessness and ignorance."

[fnord]

in no way did i mean that its safe to eat any mushroom,all i was saying is that people overestimate(which is probly a good thing!)the toxicity of mushrooms.while there are some that will kill you and tons that will make you wish your dead,people seam to think that just about every mushroom is deadly.

[radiometer]

I would agree with that point. Western society has not been kind to toadstools. But I wrote what I did for a wider audience than just yourself.

I should also make it perfectly clear that I am not advocating people chewing on wild mushrooms willy-nilly. This should only be done when one is instructed to do so when keying out a particular mushroom.

[grandbaby]

Originally Posted by tmhutch

A long time friend of mine freaked out while camping in the woods after supposedly touching a slimy mushroom. Is this possible??? I had to coax him 6 miles out of the woods in the middle of the night all while he was freaking out. He was eventually hospitalized and suffered from recuring halucinations for 6+ months.

There is only one mushroom on the planet that can cause these effects. It is to be dreaded by all. Its Latin name is Psilocybe Placeboensis — commonly known as the Placebo 'Shroom (or, in street lingo, "pleebs"). There is only one known antidote: education. Powerful though the antidote is, it usually only works before administration of the substance. Once the patient has absorbed placebo molecules into the brain, it is virtually impossible to dislodge them. I'm sorry your friend was poisoned by such a horrifying plant.

Reputation Comments on this post:

	thanks for a chuckle
	hahahah brilliant

[tmhutch]

Jeez, so I can now only assume the idiot brought mushrooms along without me knowing and OD'd. Man, I'm gonna get some mileage out of this. He was always the light weight in the group so it stands to reason, LOL. He must have eaten a TON to have recurring issues for over 6 months. Seriously, his marriage almost ended because of it.

[Nagognog2]

Galerinas, eaten in quantity, could cause recurring trip-like conditions due to severe damage to the liver.

[allyourbase]

some fungi love brain tissue. its also possible it had a meningial spore, or perhaps he picked up a similar brain eating infection elsewhere and the mushroom thing is just a red herring....simply what he/she was doing at the time the effects of the infection were first felt, the latter would seem to be the more likely.

[fnord]

cortyceps for humans?that would be interesting/scary.its a reacuring thought whenever the big lizard in my backyard munches down a few mushies.

[Lazarus]

With the complexity of the human brain, there are myriad psychological and physiological diseases that can affect one's behaviour, memory, and disposition. Naturally, many chemicals can produce a wide range of disturbing behaviours when ingested, inhaled, etc.

Schizophrenia or various related acute paranoid psychoses can be triggered by almost anything if the conditions are right. Because the nature of the illness is intense paranoia, dissociation, temporal dysfunction, and the inabillity to logicize in a manner consistant with a healty adult human, the subject may associate his or her illness with damn near anything.

It sounds like your buddy had an underlying neurological issue. The evening that you went camping was when it surfaced. Naturally he blamed some random fungus that he touched that evening as the culprit. No one wants to admit that there is something fundamentally wrong with his or her brain. More importantly, the brain often employs a number of defence mechanisms below the level of concious awareness to cope with problems, so it may never have occurred to him that it was all in his head.

It is highly likely that had your friend's illness surfaced at a different place and time, he would have blamed something else. Bad pills, food poisoning, ghosts, the CIA, aliens, etc.

When SWIM was young, his step brother had very minor petit mal seizures, indicative of epilepsy. Call him Shawn. Shawn went to a concert in a neighboring state with some friends, and had a full-blown psychotic episode. He was in a mental hospital for nearly 6 months. He has never been the same. He is paranoid, delusional, and often forms some very bizarre chains of logic. To SWIM's knowlege, Shawn suffered only one major episode, but the effects have lasted since. Shawn blames a mixture of cannabis and music for his problem. Shawn believes that there was a hidden crazy-making message in the music he was listening to that night that infected his cannabis-addled brain.

I certainly hope that your friend is able to come to terms with his problem and get some kind of help.

Reputation Comments on this post:

informative

[tmhutch]

Thanks for the input. He had been through an extremely tramatic event a couple years earlier that I dont think he had come to terms with. I suppose it's possible he finally snapped. It's been several months without issue, that I know of. He maintains a good job and strong family life with 4 children. He seems to be OK. Makes me wonder if he will have a lower tollerance for stress going forward. Seems like once you break the fragile bond of sanity you unlock a door that's more easily opened in the future. I hope that's not the case. I hope he just got to high and didnt want to admit it!