A woman who suffered a severe bout of ‘empty nest syndrome’ depression after her children left home has said taking magic mushrooms changed her life.

Journalist and author Jane Green said her last child left home around the same time as she began experiencing the menopause and a black depression set in.

When her friend informed her that taking magic mushrooms in a therapeutic way had “completely changed her life”, Ms Green decided to look into it.

“What I discovered through my research was that when you are in a depression, the parts of the brain that control happiness sort of shut down, almost like a light going off and what these drugs have been scientifically proven to do is change the neural pathways.

“So, when you're depressive, thoughts get used to going down the same pathways all the time because the lights have been switched off on the happiness pathways, these drugs actually turn those pathways back on again.”

Ms Green decided to try the therapy as she "didn’t know what else to do" – and ended up going on three ‘journeys’ with the help of her friend.

“That involved taking a very specific dose in a very safe setting and then listening to music that has been specifically composed to take you on a journey,” she said.

“You wear an eye mask so there's no outside simulation and it lasts for between four and six hours.

Author Jane Green and family. Image: Supplied

She said the sessions were very successful and effectively cured her symptoms.

Ms Green said she was living in Denver, Colorado at the time, where psilocybin - the active ingredient in magic mushrooms - is legal.

“The other thing I have to say is that, whilst there are so many stories of people who have found amazing results with these psychedelics, if you have any history of mental illness or bipolar disorder in your family, this is something that you shouldn't take,” she said.

“It is not for everyone so I definitely advise anybody who's thinking about this to do their research and know what their family history is.”

Author Jane Green. Image: Supplied

She said empty nest syndrome is a catchy title – but she was going through several different major life events at the time.

“It's more about age and stage of life,” she said. “It's very easy to call it empty nest syndrome, but you know it's many things.

“I think that often, by the time our children leave the home, it's also when we as women are hitting menopause,” she said.

“It's when we often feel lost and untethered, even if we have careers.

“I've had a really busy career my whole life. I couldn't wait for my children to leave the nest, couldn't wait to have a tidy house again and not have rucksacks and shoes littering the floor.

“I thought I'd be completely celebrating - and in some ways I was - but then I realised that I spent the last 24 years defined as, you know, a writer, a wife, a friend and a mother and all of a sudden that mother door was just closed.”

Ms Green said there were many different things happening in life when her children left home.

“It was a confluence of things… and really, the crux of the piece that I wrote was that magic mushrooms cured my depression – and in a way that nothing else had done.”

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