MoxieGirl

a tracer? I had gradually taken myself up to 1.9 grams last year, but that was getting quite trippy for me, so I dialed it back down to a level I felt more comfortable with. But, I am no longer living on my own, so feel safer if I trip at a higher level. My house-mate is my best friend in the world and is VERY supportive. So I am going to try a higher dose again. Maybe will combine 2 of my 1.2g pouches tonight. I have, for about a year now, been trying to have an out of the body experience. Have tried a lot without taking shrooms, but have also been trying it when I dose. So maybe a higher dose will help with that little experiment too. MG

Hi guys, So far this year I have busted 5 times, a week apart. I'm busting with 1.2 grams of dried mushroom. I've not seen any improvement, and have had 19 attacks in those 5 weeks. Am getting attacked at the same rate as last year. Am thinking maybe I need to up my dose to 1.5 grams. My goal this year is to bust weekly for a few months in hopes of breaking my 6 year chronic cycle. But so far, it doesn't seem to be having an impact. Any ideas? MG

Also, just found this FaceBook group.. https://www.facebook.com/groups/CHSupport/

Does anyone use Twitter? If so, there are several people commenting on cluster headaches there, an one person has set up a @clusterheads - called ClusterMeetingPlace, and reposts a lot of cluster related tweets. Some hash-tags that are starting to pop up: #clusterheads #clusterheadache @UKcluster (Cluster Headaches UK) MG

I haven't been back to America for 12 years. But, if I can afford it, will come back for this.

Awesome interview!

This looks really COOL! And David Nutt will be speaking, want to see him.

That's an interesting question. Also, if you make shroom-tea, how long you soak it for and if you use lemon juice in the mixture can also affect the potency of the trip, from my experience. But is that also affecting the potency of the medication? From how I read things, preparing it right and avoiding fatty foods means you extract and absorb more psilo, and thus the medical effect is stronger, but so is the trip. In my mind, the trip and the medical benefit are linked, but only to a point. I suspect there is an upper-limit the medical benefit, say 1.5 grams, beyond that and you are just increasing the trip without increasing the healing power. But is 1.5 better than 1.2, better than 1.0...?? I may be totally wrong, just guessing a bit. I regularly dose with 1.2 grams. If I take much more, the trip becomes more than I like. MG

Glad to hear I'm not the only migraine sufferer getting light flashes. Wait, did I actually say glad?! A bit of normal in a world of abnormality. LOL

Hi everyone, Probably a long shot here, but maybe not. Sometimes when my eyes are closed I get a flash of light around the edges. Have googled it, and migraine sufferers sometimes get this, as well as it possibly being an indication of more severe eye problems (will have my eyes checked soon). I'm curious if it is possibly a cluster related thing, and if anyone has experienced it. It doesn't happen during an track headache or migraine, necessarily. But can. Anybody? MG

How 'this all started'... prepare yourself. First off, migraines run in my family. I've had headaches and migraines as far back as I can remember. The same with my brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, etc. My migraines got really bad when my first marriage was falling apart in the early 1990's. Longest migraine lasted a month, typical migraine is 5-7 days. In 2006 I started on a pretty intense hormone replacement therapy to change my testosterone based system to an oestrogen based one (also known as gender reassignment). 9pm, Dec 31st 2006 I got a headache. Wasn't drinking, but was stressed about not being able to spend new years with my best friend (long story). That headache lasted 7 months. Yes, 24/7 until mid July/Aug when I started having pain free periods approaching a day. In the first week of Jan 2007 I had my first cluster, and they typically hit every Tuesday and/or Wed evening at 7pm for that year. Plus frequent and long migraines. I have essentially been chronic since they've started in that I don't think I've ever gone more than a month cluster free. My neurologist thinks that my hypothalamus was 'predisposed' to having clusters, and when I was altering my hormones, I triggered them.

@Jeff, Sounds like you've made some right (if not tough) decisions in your life. 1 with the ex, and 2 with sticking with shrooms. LOL A friend and I were talking tonight about right and wrong, good people and bad people. She and I agree that we don't believe there are 'bad people' and/or 'good people'. There are just people. Sometimes people do things that others perceive as bad, and sometimes we do things that others perceive as good. Like many have mentioned, the legality of mushrooms is a man-made construct. One group of people's concept of right or wrong. They are not an evil product of some devil or something. They are just a plant. And in our case, a plant with properties to cure our ailment. People think nothing of trimming off a bit of aloe plant and rubbing it on a burn. What if the world decided that was illegal? Would aloe no longer be a viable solution for people with burns? Granted, (as far as I know) people don't take recreational doses of aloe, but that isn't the aloe's fault. It is a plant, just like mushrooms are a plant (well, fungus (or fungi)- but let's not be technical). This brings up another bug-bear of mine with society and what they consider moral. Alcohol is a drug. It is harvested from barley and/or grapes. More naturally growing plants. And yet alcohol is perfectly legal to consume for recreational purposes. Even to excess. In fact, drinking to excess if often celebrated. And yet, how much harm does alcohol do to society, and individuals? Compare that in countries where pot and/or shrooms are legal, and how much harm do they do? Makes me think that societies moral compass isn't always the best one to go by. I am perhaps getting too far off topic for this forum, and that is not my intention. Nor am I trying to raise political issues or battle the law. Just trying to look at the issue of taking mushrooms for clusters in light of the law. MG

@Pos1964 - you and Jan are often in my thoughts (sorry, not the praying type). But I do hope good news comes from the neuro's, and Jan finds a workable solution. Please keep us posted with updates. Sending the best Karma I can muster your way. xx MG

Well said weatherman. I do believe, that if ever there was a reason to break the law, then CH, which doctors describe as the worst pain known to man, must surely be near the top of the list. It is interesting how one's moral compass changes when it comes to the well being of oneself, or a loved one. My best friend sounds a lot like your partner. Very right/wrong, black/white, and law abiding to a fault. But when it came to a cure for my clusters, she's 100% behind whatever it takes.

Good article. Susan sounds like someone I know.

Yes, this site is a fantastic first start. Still, if I had a super-power, it would be that I could touch someone and have them experience one of my headaches for 5 minutes. That would soon sway opinion. LOL

"The Pharmaceutical industry needs to think more out of the box instead of just being narrow minded to other options!" Well said. Although, I also wonder if they are driven by profits. Let's see, run of the mill pain killers that don't really work, but mean everyone has to keep taking them all the time or a pill they can take every 4-6 months and be totally pain free? One solution is good for the people, the other is good for the company. There is a rule/law that I've heard about that goes along the lines of 'if it necessary it is legal'. Although working through the legal definition of 'necessary' is a mine field, and I'm not 100% sure how bona fide this concept is, or in which countries it applies (have just briefly looked it up). But, if one COULD argue that nothing else worked, and they didn't qualify for DBS, OBS or other surgical procedures, could one argue that evidence, even circumstantial evidence, has shown mushrooms to help?? Or at the very least, it might help someone settle the matter in their own mind, if it didn't stand up in a court of law. This is the approach I took, although didn't call it that. Busting was my last resort, after I tried everything else I reasonably could.

Excellent points Elly. All about location, location, location. I also wonder if where you live (or were brought up) has a bearing on your willingness to try such remedies as busting. You live in a place where soft drugs are tolerated, so it seems to me a short step from that to mushrooms with the heads. My hope is that projects like Bol and what we are doing raises the understanding that good can come from mushrooms, and other such drugs, and that the laws need to be changed. MG

Hi, This post is not meant as a response to any other posts going on at the moment about not busting because it is illegal. Rather, this post is a result of what those posts got me thinking about. I totally agree with what others have said, to each their own. I neither condone or ridicule any other persons solution to cluster headaches, nor do I seek approval for my actions by others. I simply present here my experiences, and possibly open a topic of debate. When I was very young, 8-9 years old, I spent a lot of time with my much older brother, who was a drug dealer. I smoked pot and was doing bongs before the age of 10. A year or so later, and my brother had to leave the State because someone had put a contract on his head. A few years later he did 2 years in jail for distributing illegal drugs. I have always been very against the use of illegal drugs in my own life because of my early experiences. But don't get me wrong, I'm not against the use of said drugs, but as long as they are illegal, I wasn't prepared to partake. So 3 years ago when I found out about this site, and what people were taking to stop clusters, my first reaction was, 'interesting, but not for me.' I decided then that only as a last resort would I consider such actions. At about the same time I was searching for any answer, and had researched DBS (Deep Brain Stimuation), the D3 Regimen, and anything else I could find. I knew I would never qualify for DBS, although it looked very interesting. About a year after discovering this group of people called ClusterBusters, I reached a point where I was considering suicide. I knew then that I needed to consider ALL possibilities. So I started reading this site, eventually weening myself off of doctor prescribed medicines and becoming a fully fledged ClusterBuster. For me, there were a number of things that made busting a solution in my life, once I got past the illegality of it. And trust me, that was a big hurdle for me to make. I'm no longer dependent on doctors and their prescribed meds, with a whole host of side affects. This isn't to say busting is side affect free, but in my experience, they are a thousand times better than what I was taking before. Without fail, all the meds doctors prescribed eventually wore off. Something I haven't experienced with busting. I can grow my own medicine, and thus don't have to fork out handfulls of cash every month. But most of all, I find busting infinitely more effective than man-made medicine. Plus it has virtually stopped my migraines, something I've had all my life. Does it bug me that what I'm doing is illegal? Yes. Yes it does, and quite a lot. But it spurs me on to change the law more than anything. Because this is a solution, and one that works. I would be interested to know how other people over came the 'legal' issue regarding busting. Or did you? Was it a big concern, or no big deal? Also, if you have any comments on the results of busting, and the impact it has had on your life compared to doctor prescribed meds, would love to hear about that too. Lastly, if you are considering busting, but haven't yet, what is stopping you? NO, I'm not edging you on, or challenging your morals. But rather, asking you to stop and think. MoxieGirl

I wrote a post earlier this week, and then didn't post it. But it too was titled along the lines of 'every once in awhile...' It was going to continue with.. 'it's good to remind ourselves that we are just tripping.' That thought occurred to me about 3 hours after taking shrooms, and I was lost in a kaleidoscope-world of 1000 colours. The thought came to me again the next morning. Life after all, is just a trip. And we are all just trippers, going through this life taking in our surroundings, perceiving them however our mind is programmed to perceive them. No drugs required. The first 40 years of my life I was consumed with an inner conflict of living in the wrong body. I fixed that. Through heartache and pain even CH'ers can't imagine. I fixed that. It's easy for me to think that one result of fixing that problem is Clusters. It is, that is true. But I have also begun living life like I've never lived it before. People who know me are amazed at all I do, how I live life like an 18 year old. And then when they hear about the hell I live with, they are doubly amazed. Not blowing my own trumpet. But I know the room you are talking about. I know it all to well. And I guess a big part of me has stopped worrying about such things. I rarely even think about suicide these days. My trip will end when it ends. I'm just too busy living life to worry about it. A very good friend of mine who has a much deeper understanding of reincarnation than I has a theory that I, like a lot. He says that when a spirit is young, the first few journeys through this life they want to be rich, famous, etc. But as a spirit gets older, and has lived a few lives, he or she wants to explore deeper meanings. Experience different challenges. It is these spirits that are born into a life of difficulties. Life long illnesses, poverty, etc. These are very mature spirits. MG

Hi Bob, Looks like you've come to the right place for good advice. This demon, as I call it, is a bugger to kill, if killing it is even possible. There is no quick fix (deep brain stimulation maybe). In my experience, shrooms and/or seeds are the best thing going. Just over a year ago I was putting a date in my calendar for when I was going to exit planet Earth if I didn't find a solution before then. That's when I started on mushrooms and seeds. The reason I was at that point in my life is because I've had this demon since 2007, and a long cluster free gap was 3 weeks. In 2011, they got really bad. 1-5 hits every 2-3 days for the whole year. By Nov 2011 I'd had enough. In December that year I started with my first dose of seeds and some mushrooms a friend gave me. I've been busting off and on ever since. Have done 20 something busts, and now enjoy the occasional 20 days or so between attacks. It is getting better. It does get better. You just have to hang in there and trust that things are working, even if you don't get immediate results. The slapbacks (the 2 or 3 hits you get within a few days of busting) are not fun. But they are a sign the demon isn't liking what you are doing, and that's a good thing. There are two times, in my book, when getting an attack is particularly bad. One is when driving, the second is when you are in an intimate situation with someone, or even just yourself. I used to get hit a lot then. Very frustrating. Hang in there Bob. MG

To add, I was so very fed up of taking pills every day, twice a day, three times a day.... Was getting SO sick of pills. OK, so busting takes out a few hours of my day. Once a week or so, and then no pills. A trade off I like.

Hi Moxiegirl, Can you tell me what dose you use? I am struggling with this as I need to dose practically every single week which is getting pretty old but much better than the alternative, migraines several times a week. I have tried everything from 1.2 or 1.3 all the way down to 0.5 g in an attempt to use the lowest amount possible to relieve my HAs. I really don't enjoy "tripping," especially every single week and want to achieve good pain relief without having to do that. I find when I take enough to feel the effects, it's pretty much a 5-6 hour event and I cannot do much else productive. Thanks, Hi HeadacheRelief, A little back story (will try to keep it brief). I have daily chronic headaches, usually have a headache 5 days out of 7, migraines, and clusters. Busting has virtually stopped my migraines (had 43 the year previous to busting, and have had only 3 in the year since busting). January and February are normally hellish months for me where headaches, migraines and clusters are concerned, but so far this year things have been really good. Only 2 clusters and no migraines. Busting has not altered my daily headaches at all, for the better or worse. Just doesn't touch them. But has been fantastic for the migraines and clusters. I grow my own mushrooms (Ecuador strain as I find it doesn't make me itch for 20 minutes after I take it - allergic reaction to other strains I expect). I started out with 1.1 grams over a year ago, and slowly worked my way up to 1.8 grams. I found the 1.6 - 1.8 range generated some rather intense trips. Nothing like a recreational dose (that I understand to be nearer 3 grams), but still, was more intense than I enjoyed. So I have pulled my dose back to 1.2 grams, and have made up a dozen or so packets all ready to dose with. But even at 1.2 grams, like you, it shuts me down for 4-6 hours. I get some nice visuals when I close my eyes, and have just learned to enjoy them. I get a bit light headed, and a slightly upset stomach. I find it helps to avoid food 2 hours before, and after, busting. With seeds, I would generally just crash and have a really good nights sleep. I'm finding with this strain of mushrooms, I get really sleepy an hour or so after dosing, but then only sleep for a half hour or so. Then I'm awake and restless, my body temperature goes up, and/or sometimes down, and I just can't settle. But this all wears off, and I eventually sleep quite well. But yes, expect to be completely non-productive for 4-6 hours. I haven't tried any dosage below 1.1 grams. My clusters have been REALLY bad for well over a year now, so am trying to hit them as hard as I can for a few months. Might one day experiment with lower doses. Hope that helps in some way. MG

Hi clankfu, I do this a lot, and now generally dose before bedtime so I can sleep. I just try and embrace it. I do find, though, that when I close my eyes and am in that world between awake and asleep, that I see the most amazing colours. Very much like a kaleidoscope with 1000's of facets. If I watch anything, I make sure I only watch a show or movie I've seen before, so no surprises and I don't have to think about it much, and I always go for something light hearted and funny. Don't think I could ever do this recreationally though. Am going to bust tonight, and even though I've found the right dose for me that doesn't cause much trip, I never look forward to it. MG

Putting it in my calendar now. Thank you