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Showing content with the highest reputation on 02/25/2021 in all areas

  1. Struggling with your humanity and existence with the burden of cluster headaches challenges even the most stable of souls. Add the element of a panic attack, which can feel like the arrival of death itself, and life's burden can be overwhelming. Every human is defined by their underlying physiology, spirituality, history and aspirations, Its what makes us unique and why treatment is rarely a one size fits all problem. Certainly on a basic level cause and effect can be directly related but because we inherit slightly different metabolisms, slightly different anatomy, vastly different toxin/nutritional exposure and upbringings the manifestations of disease and response to treatment can be predictable or paradoxical. I believe that is why some folks can use alcohol and drugs without much long term consequence and others ruin lives from the onset. I also suspicion its partially why we hear about some things working for some clusterheads and the same treatment gets no traction with others. If possible get a support network into place so you can vent and express yourself. I believe you must work hard not to be dramatic and emotional. Express your experience in as calm a manner as possible. People turn off fast if they sense a drama king/queen. Not fair but true. It helps if you write it down and codify it before verbalizing to others. This is true if you are talking to a support person or a medical professional. It helps you align the facts and reduce the embellishments and makes the communication as succinct as possible. Writing it down also helps putting things into perspective and understanding your personal journey and what a strong warrior you really are. Thats thought and opinion take it for what its worth. Panic attacks are very challenging and can be disabling. THC ingestion can often fuel because some folks get paranoid, feel guilty or are not comfortable being relaxed. Most of us who know potheads marvel at how they use it to alter perception, mellow out and frequently use. This behavior is unique to a subset of individuals as there are many more who get no joy from pot. It is possible to have a panic attack proximate to THC use but very unlikely its physiologic 24-48 hours later unless the person is a chronic. THC is stored in the fat and the brain is a big gob of fat. Triptans like Imitrex and Zomig can induce anxiety mostly through reaction to decreased stomach activity and non cardiac chest wall tightness. The uncomfortable feeling can precipitate anxiety. Diclofenac is a non steroidal like ibuprofen and usually doesn't cause or mitigate anxiety. Paroxetine is a serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) and the model drug this antidepressant class was popularized. Since we suspicion clusterheads have a serotonin regulation problem you can get all sorts of atypical responses. It is worthy to note in a depression paradigm many believe it is a spectrum and to become depressed one must pass through anxiety first. Conversely to defeat depression you must pass back through anxiety. Since anxiety is such a horrible debilitating state most folks get stuck in depression. If the Paroxetine is helping you get out of a depression you may be approaching the anxiety as a path to wellness. Thats where support and counsel helps to get you across the threshold. Meds alone rarely are an effective intervention expect for be pharma. Don't know much about Quetiapine but from what I read it looks like a supplement to help with brain function and healing. Some promising results but the jury is still out. Unlikely to be harmful. Verapamil is a calcium channel blocker used historically for hypertension. You were on a very low dose. Its possible it could drop your pressure a bit and cause anxiety or in very rare cases cause your heart to beat abnormally which can also provoke anxiety. It has other anxiety provoking side effects but its rare. Its not use too much anymore because it wasn't a very good antihypertensive and heart rhythm disturbances had to monitored. Steroids and steroid weans can cause anxiety. Lorazapam is a benzo as you mentioned. The prototypical benzo is valium. Long term benzo use can lead to physical and psychological dependence but usually you are talking about moths to years of use. Lorazapam is a very short acting medication and 0.5 mg is a very low dose. While its possible lorazapam contributed to the anxiety its more likely you were under treated and got in that horrible zone between panic attack and relaxed. Judicious use of benzos can be very helpful in managing anxiety but are best used in conjunction with coordinated counselling. They also can also help while busting during that anxious period. Vitamin supplementation is being vigorously studied and reported. While the data is promising and impressive definitive studies are ongoing. Hopefully these studies will further our understanding of cluster headaches and their management. Until then I would suggest the risk benefit calculus favors trying vitamin supplementation following the guidelines put forward. As with most cluster heads you search for explanation and cause/effect in a desperate attempt to manage. Imaginary thinking predominates especially during a cycle. We look for triggers, blockers and treatments to end the horror of an attack. Our uncommon disorder doesn't get much attention from medical science so we are left to ourselves and citizen science to explore options and support each other. At the end of the day it helps to know panic attacks are real, debilitating and manageable. Acknowledging them and exploring management options are important to quality of life.
    2 points
  2. This is my second trip up for this study. I would think the travel expenses are what would be holding back the enrolment. Also most of us that already use MM for our own treatment have nothing to gain from this other then stopping home treatments, getting back to baseline hell then crossing your fingers on what you get from the study. I like to torture myself from time to time so I figured why not try this again. No other vacations planned with this pandemic so sitting in a hotel room for 2 weeks cant be that bad. Give me new walls to stare at. In all reality I do sign up for studies whenever I can just to help get the science figured out by the smart people, It would kill me if one of my kids ever had to deal with this with nothing in the pipeline to ease the pain for them.
    2 points
  3. Hi CH companions! i wanted to reply earlier but thought it would be much better to present a sold view, because my mental health presented different mood levels during this time, so now i am, as i feel, in a better position to tell my story. Try to tell my ordeal in some detail, maybe someone get a gain from it: -Left benzo on 16 December (took it from 15 November) -Left taking Quetiapine 25 mg, on 13 January, just taking 18 of it in total (left it in taper process) -Left Paxil on 22 January, was taking it from 15 November -Started taking magnesium oxide 500 mg tabs (1 morning-1 night) from 20 December, still taking them -Different doses of D3 with calcium and zinc -Took 6 tablets of citicoline sodium 500 mg at different days (heard somewhere that weed reduces this chemical/citicoline in brain) -Tested my vitamin B12 tens days ago, it was on border line (between 200-300 pg/ml), as of now taken two 500 mg methycobal injections. Felt its positive impact instantly My assumptions: As J put it rightly that maybe Zomig interacted with cannabis and created a chemical imbalance, i agree with him because i sensed that Zomig has the feelings of an SSRI-type. Bejeeber too was on the point that benzo withdrawal or tapering is hard, as on 9 December i missed my dose at night i got a panic attack but i didn't took any tab then on evening panic attack came in vengeance this was the worst attack of my panic attacks (a strange and a bad experience of my life). There i decided i have to leave benzo for good. Again, Bejeeber was right! Maybe i was/am in mid-life "existence crisis" cannabis brought it in open in a bad way. As in the past i enjoyed existence questions and liked reading such stuff, but this time even just slight thinking of mysterious universe brought terrifying feelings,,,, culprit was the cannabis! As Spiny said "it is the only connection I personally have to panic attacks". Now i am feeling normal or close to baseline. And, did a experiment: took a few pegs of whisky on two consecutive nights, just 10 days ago, as i heard that it will lessen or interact with THC chemicals (see my confidence that here i am taking risk by taking alcohol to test my brain, means i am becoming good). Albeit i was late, because alcohol lessens (or worsen, it depends) THC impact just after you took cannabis. BUT, still terrified that i might not return to November 2020 Conclusion: Never to touch cannabis and benzo again. In coming days, maybe, i tell you my tips how i combat my CH. Love you friends
    2 points
  4. As I always say when a question like this comes up, this isn't the best place to get a good answer to that question, because people who have permanently stopped their cycles are not the users here. There are some good answers in the previous replies about the possibility of pretty-much permanent relief if a preventive busting cycle is maintained, and there might be lots of examples among people who came here and didn't come back of even better successes. There are similar stories of seemingly potentially permanent results from the D3 regimen. And, considering all the hype among informed people about the new CGRP medications (Emgality, etc.), it seems impossible to me that there aren't some people who are preventing cycles with that approach.
    1 point
  5. I dose all the time (about 15 times a year) and besides a dentist trip triggering I have skipped three solid years of cycles and counting.
    1 point
  6. I hope everyone is noticing that we are discussing two different companies- MindMed and MindMend. Looks like MindMend is just trying to be the next wave of dispensaries, not research.
    1 point
  7. I had thought about moving this thread to the closed board (off the public - general board), but figured since it's just public info we're chatting about, what's the harm leaving here. I'll leave this thread in the general as long as no posts about personal use etc. Cheers, J
    1 point
  8. Hugs to you A-Z!!! You can pm if needed, but posting helps others too. So, I thank you for putting this up on the board!!
    1 point
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