From my research, neuroplasticity, neurogenesis and dendritic development and branching it is absolutely a factor in psychedelic use. (Ability to learn; neuron growth; neuron connection development)

Me being who I am, I tested this. My experience is my own and of course, highly subjective.

After several months of adapting to psilocybin and understanding what my tolerance was, I started some deep sessions at “breakthrough” or higher doses (+5g of potent strain mushrooms) on the weekends. My goal was to actually rewrite my behaviors as I was fresh into alcohol abstinence and had been struggling with depression and anxiety for most of my life.

While I could go on for hours about the details, I did have a basic plan. I would meditate and focus on specific issues I wanted to correct while trying to gain insight into how and why my mind and body behaved the way it did.

While there is a ton of illusion involved, it seemed that I could choose a different way to feel about something while in the depths of a trip. Mostly because perception is so wonky, it felt like I could isolate feelings and simply decide not to feel bad or anxious about something. I would focus on things like my alcohol addiction and simply choose not to crave the stuff anymore.

What I think the trips did was allow my brain to form alternative ways of thinking through illusion and creativity. By practicing new behaviors discovered during the depths of a trip, I was able to reinforce and make better behaviors a habit.

To simplify, I made my neuron pathways “soft” with psychedelics, focused on positive ways of thinking during a deep trip and then practiced those behaviors while my neuron pathways “hardened” over time.

I haven’t been on antidepressants for a long while now and the thought of drinking again is almost repulsive. While depression and anxiety can easily be linked to alcoholism, I believe alcoholism was a symptom of my underlying mental health.

To answer your question, I believe I was able to reset and rewrite, anecdotally. There are many studies that support this, or at least, suggest this because of the actual physical effects on neurons.

(There may be some evidence of permanent protein degradation around neurons with extended and massive dosing. I need to track the paper down again where I read that bit…)

Now, I’ll eat some mushrooms for fun every once in a while, but I don’t feel the need to do much more than that. I believe I found what I was looking for and have no desire to go further. The few “bad trips” I have had was probably transformative as well, and an overall positive experience in hindsight. (However, I can handle a bad trip. There are many cases of full-blown psychosis due to high dosages by people who are inexperienced and in a shitty environment. Set and setting is paramount.)