diamondmaker

Funny, I was just looking at that drug after remembering an experience with it when I was younger. As I remember it has a dissociative quality like nitrous. I can't speak as to the CH questions... it was before I started getting CH. The vasodilator thing sends up the red flags though.

Maybe it is the huge mass of depressed people that will finally force the issue?

Well said spiny It affects me in profound ways when I hear the stories of women going 20+ years being treated for migraines and told they are exaggerating their symptoms. :-[ :-/ :'( Edit: gotta make an emoticon that is like [smiley=tekst-toppie.gif] only with the finger!

Another example of the flexibility of our brains... but I wonder if like the beast, epilepsy again returned to the parts left?

Oh spiny... I do not think it is simply psychological, it is a problem that is most certainly hard wired. I say a deficit in network capability... that means it is nothing to do with mind over anything... it is mind not able... on a deeper level. We are all very capable people. In fact most of us are exceptional people. It is not a question of being able to navigate this world... it is a matter of how well we throughput the crap we are forced to digest.

AMEN!

Interesting... like the beast just moved his residence... still autonomic just changing where the pain is perceived? Now that's the fancy terminology I was looking for... or insights to draw a clearer picture... still like the picture ref better.

The people doing imaging studies are not usually even headache people... just researchers with new imaging toys playing with them. The Headache docs, who just desperately want to be able to treat this condition, grab on to this information and speculate simply because they have nothing else... so we get back to where is the money to focus on research for CH? With multiple approaches to research mounted at the same time we could perhaps draw a better picture of what we are dealing with rather than wait 5 years for a study to confirm or refute past "evidence". CH has the dynamic nature that screams plasticity. The way the beast morphs and adjusts to medications... like it is learning its own work-arounds. And that makes it something unseen... a ghost in the machine.

Hi rockhopper, First, there has been a look towards the hypothalamus since a study came out in 2009 indicating all CH "activity" seemed to eminate from it. I can not link you to the paper, many here can, but it has shifted focus to the hypothalamus for the past 5 years. Neuroplacticity is not new... however it is new to the discovery of conditions like CH. My personal belief is that we, as infants overcame a defect in our neuroplacticity, or "mind networks"... by really putting to task our placticity... causing unseen stress as we are forced to find work-arounds to adjust to plain old life. I think CH is simply a processing problem. A throughput problem.

Good hit dig... decreased mindflow (I know, a new term born from the neuro-placticity idea)... stems the flood... the overload. Is this really an overload... or perhaps we are unable to network the required data... as in, are we unable to process normal amounts? Food for thought.

Hey TE, Exactly... but what were we soothing... at such a young age? I still have to soothe in one way or another.

Very nice Lt2... now I just have to work out the source issue.

Yes bedtime... I should have mentioned sleep as well. I find just laying down to be a trigger. I like to sleep (or attempt to) in my recliner, mostly sitting up. I find the more vertical I stay the better. If you can find melatonin... 9-12mg before bed helps some.

Ok, first stay away from alcohol! That is a huge trigger. I also find overly warm stuffy places are also a trigger. If you have access to energy drinks, the caffeine and taurine mix, some find chugging one at the first sign of attack can help to abort the attack. If no energy drinks, then just caffeine, like really strong coffee might help. Cold air is a good abortive. If it is cold out, just go out and hyperventilate cold air, get your blood moving... or stick your head in a freezer, car AC on max... etc. I fixed the oxygen link above, please read up on that treatment, it will be your best friend. What you will find is you and your doctor most likely did not administer it correctly. When done correctly, it can abort and completely clear out a headache attack in 10 minutes! It will be worth every cent/effort to get this mask: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/ccp8/index.php?app=ecom&ns=prodshow&ref=o2ptimask

Hi Rudy, Welcome to the board, sorry you have to be here. Please tell us what treatments you are currently using. Do you have high flow oxygen? See here: http://clusterbusters.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/OXYGEN-12-20122.pdf

Just need somebody to fund this little project... 8-)

Hi ssibjb, welcome to the board. I would like to be excited about the news... but I have experienced similar results with many medications over the last 40 years... only to find out in later cycles that my cycle had just ended normally, and the treatment doesn't really work. I do hope this is not the case for you. Ooops! That might be your first mistake. Unless your neuro is a headache specialist, he most likely knows next to nothing. Let us give a test... has he ever advised you to use 100% high flow oxygen to abort headaches?

2 tru 8-)

Not sure what earworm thoughts are... but many of my thoughts feel like they are gonna bore a hole in my head. And rocking... I perfected it to music at 5, but earlier... well too young to remember. My folks say I started "bouncing"... sitting on the couch bouncing my back and head against the cushion... pretty much as soon as I could sit up.

Hi and welcome to the board. I too am no fan of pudding head... or as we call it Dope-o-max. Just wondering if you have ever tried oxygen to abort the killer night time attacks. If they are clusters... usually works. In any case I do believe you could benefit from RC seeds. Read up. Ask questions.

I have explored my past for the early childhood PTSD thing... it sure feels like I have some of that... but not really anything showing up other than the usual childhood stuff. Not to say anything even mildly stressful couldn't be interpreted as traumatic by a newborn infant. It may just be the defect in processing (what I believe CH is) made life itself look that traumatic.

Again, I think it comes down to use. If you regularly take it daily, then a detox might be in order. If you take it only once in a while, a day or two is fine. Taken at the same time as busting to manage anxiety... for me it blocks. However, using it after the magic has hit the receptors really good (couple of hours) will not un-bust... so it can still be used as a rescue med if you really can't take the "trip" anymore. I did have some success with using it concurrently, but I was using the benzo to be able to handle the side effects of much larger doses. I thought larger doses = better busts... not really. I was just canceling any added benefit I would have gotten... and it really only worked for a short while. My 2 cents

Cool stuff CHF. 8-)

I would have to say the way to change the wiring is psychedelics... actually not change so much as provide additional paths for a re-wiring job. From the article on MM: "Picture the information in your brain being shared across an interconnected and heavily-trafficked system of highways. In that example, psilocybin isn't removing the highways. Instead, it's simply building new ones. Journal of the Royal Society Interface Visualization of the brain connections in the brain of a person on psilocybin (right) and the brain of a person not given the drug. Edit: And as I understand it the concept of neuroplasticity means the brain is not hard wired, but dynamic enough to re-wire itself.

Not really unhappy with the study, just the wasted 5 years as lt2 points out. I do like the shift as well, and agree with it! And re the other post, the traits I want to identify are only to draw a bigger picture of CH. They are more side effects of CH, caused by the cause, and as CHF says, may lead back to a common source. The pain is really a side effect as well. A bigger picture folks. Treatment of traits would follow conventional psychiatric methods, that is useless. Edit: As useless as attempts to treat the pain conventionally!