They told me stories when I was little about people who did LSD once and lost their minds, never to be sane again.
Yeah, that's silly. :)
The only people I've ever known to have long lasting negative effects from psychedelics were people who simply did way too much of them, very frequently, over a long period of time--or people who had underlying mental illness that was exacerbated.
Otherwise stable people who take LSD or mushrooms almost universally report only positive experiences and beneficial long term effects.
That's good to know. :)
Those stories you're told when you're really little can have a lasting impression, even when you're older and know them to likely be extreme exaggerations. Like, one of the guys my parents referred to as going insane from doing LSD was a Vietnam vet who really was probably suffering from PTSD. I remember him coming around when I was really little, like before Kindergarten, and he freaked me out. I didn't find out until I was grown that he'd been in 'Nam. See, THAT makes way more sense than "he did LSD and went crazy."
Interestingly, they never told me any stories to dissuade me or my brother from trying weed. In fact, they never even mentioned weed. I only found out it was a thing when I was a freshman in college and some of my friends started doing it (shows you how sheltered I was). I also recently found out my dad continued smoking weed until I was 13....I always thought it was cigarettes!
So, I guess for my parents, regarding their kids, LSD=bad, and weed=OK. :)