all my friends at school seem to think there is a big risk of getting stuck in a trip from magic mushrooms, or going retarded, or going back into the trip years later.
what is the real risk of this?
i always thought that if you take them responsibly and dont have to much at a time you wont have any of these problems.

getting stuck in a trip is not likely. I don't know anybody who's ever had that happen to them. and i know a LOT of people who take mushies. i remember hearing things about acid like that when i was younger. a bad trip may shake someone for a while, as far as remaining in that heavy psychedelic state for the rest of their life...not very likely at all. tripping is generally quite safe if done in an appropriate set and setting. use with respect

noticed your in aus too? i had very similar rumours going round at my school. once i took a few trips myself i realised many people really have the wrong idea about hallucinogens

This is one of the textbook scare tactics that's employed to keep you away from psychedelic drugs. For instance, there is the story about a man taking LSD and while tripping he concluded that he must have been a glass of orange juice and that he never got out of this trip and to this day still believes he is a glass of orange juice. The mental image is someone permanently thinking he's a glass of orange juice(and the way he would walk) cracks me up. However, the story is bogus / a hoax / propaganda. source

Back to reality. There is a very tiny small chance that when you take LSD that you end up in a psychotic episode. But it's believed that LSD(or any other psychedelic for that matter) is the trigger of the psychosis, not the cause. In other words: if you're genetically pre-disposed to psychosis than taking LSD could trigger it. When are you pre-disposed? When there is a history of mental illness / psychosis in the family.

I strongly advice you to do more research. Read wikipedia on Psilocybin and magic mushrooms. Head over to erowid.org and read their vault on Psilocybin. Knowledge is power!

My friends told me similar rumors of "people they knew" or "friends of friends" who got stuck with "perma-trips". Personally I've yet to encounter any of these individuals yet myself. I have to wonder if they are perhaps confusing this concept of perma-tripping with life long changes (including perceptual changes) due to neuroplasticity.

They aren't dangerous if you dont take too much. If you have a negative interpretation of the experience it can scare you and make you feel crazy or like you'll be stuck, but you simply wont. The first time I ate shrooms I took 3.5 grams all at once and was tripping so hard that at the peak I couldn't recognize my personality/felt seperated from myself and pretty crazy(I now interpret this as ego death or seperation from the ego and find it quite therapeutic and sacred), I was in a place with some people I didnt trust and that manifested itself in faces of people turning evil, ect. This is what i would consider a psycho-mimetic trip, though I do not think I have any psychotic issues, one must respect the medicine and try to understand the nature of mind manifesting drugs if they want to use it in a positive way. I have had 0 lasting negative effects from psychedelics. (dmt once, shrooms 9 times, acid once) Now I dont ever trip around people I dont trust or in a unsafe setting, and have never had a bad experience again. Getting started with psychedelics, always take it slow, I recommend a gram to start with and garantee no negative lasting side effects.

You must always take into account peoples mental states and that some people probably aren't going to receive a psychedelic experience well.

On my first trip with mushies many moons ago i was told that the mushrooms can start growing inside you and you will trip forever. Obviously that freaked me a bit but in the end it was all B.S