Nikkk

Just to wish you all a happy new year, and as I always tell myself: Yesterday, the weather always will be acceptable. <3

Ok so this is a few suggestions ideas, and i'm not sure exactly where this post belong so mods feel free to move it anywhere you feel fits. I am a product designer and I work also as graphic UX designer sometimes, and while using the website here I started to get a few ideas, so here it comes: - That one is an easy one: Can we implement a dark mode toggle for the website? I feel like all of us clusterheads would appreciate it greatly:) -The other idea is a tad more complex but i'm sure that there are other members that could team up with me to achieve this: a clusterbusters app! It could include different parts but basically would be a comprehensive toolbox: -one repository of treatments and resources available at hand, it could be parametric so you can basically tick your journey in treatments and whenever they match other users treatments create a node, refer to forum chats on that topic etc. -a logging app, like cluster uck, where you log and keep track of your cycles, attacks and medication protocols, the logs and time stamps can be automatically link to location in order to log atmospheric pressure, pollution, etc -the forum, an inbox, etc Its just an in between attacks idea, but please let me know if you think this is potentially interesting, I am so thankful for this community, I would love to give back to it with whatever skills and time I have. Happy holidays everyone <3

@Craigo thank you for the laughs:) I can definitely use those atm! I don't touch hákarl ever tbh! it stinks more than it taste but unless it would abort CH I don't think I would eat it. And yeah somehow CH have a sneaky way of teaching you about the fragile balance within our bodies hey. Ok now I thought my mycology knowledge was rather advanced but I've never seen that NZ mushroom before! How funky! tbf i'm not too educated on non western fungi except for a few celebrities ofc. Here I pick mainly psilocybe semilanceata, it is potent indeed and quite consistent which is an advantage but definitely not as exotic as your alien testicles:) cheers mate, hear you next year!

@Craigo thank you! this is reassuring news:) And yes i'm taking quite small dose of calcium blockers anyways, for the blood pressure, which indeed keeping my blood pressure in check has shown to work well as prophylactic measure. I'm currently (hopefully) on the verge of successfully bust a surprise cycle triggered by weaning off steroids that were prescribed for a pneumonia.. it has been messy since it was a surprise cycle I somehow panicked and started using sumatriptan spray to abort and I quickly realized that it made things worse so I dropped and went back to my dear fungi But since it has been such a roller coaster I started to dive back in the CH treatments and research rabbit hole.. and wanted to make sure i'm not doing anything stupid again out of panic! Thank you again and happy holidays, and as we say in Iceland: Happy new year and thank you for the old one! <3

@jon019 ofc it's individually different I know, I wasn't trying to throw a survey for data collection or something. I just like food and cooking and i'm curious about people's cravings and foods choices during cycles, ofc we started straight talking about what we avoid but really what Id like to hear is what people DO eat during cycles;)

@BoscoPiko yeah I know that sugar is not really recommended for inflammatory situations, though it seems to me that it's more about refined sugars that are an issue rather than fruits, fruits contain sugar indeed but so much less than a glass of coke or something. I also tend to stay away from cheese during cycles and whatever processed meat especially smoked ones. My very late lunch today is: hard boiled egg, avocado, dried mango, green chilies and cashews:)

A topic slightly away from the horror stories and pharmaceutical chats here; I love cooking, I cook all the meals in my home, I can't stand ready made meals as they are never like how I want them. But..when i'm in a cycle there's no way that I have the energy to cook. Also I dont have much appetite and definitely have different sorts of cravings than usually. So I tend to stock up on nuts, avocados, fruits, veggies that don't require cooking, I also tend to not salt things but rather drop lemon/lime juice over the nuts and sprinkle chili pepper over it. I tend to stay away from bread, pasta, etc. This way I can just grab a cutting board or a plate and drop bunch of foods on it and i'll eat a bit at a time between attacks. More because I know that I need energy to face the next one than because i'm hungry per say. And you guys, what is your diet during cycles?

@CHfather thank you! Ill try to get some bloodwork done soon to see where i'm at. I was just surprised that my doctor seemed to not see any issues here though.

@CHfather thank you for your response; If I understand correctly you mean that if I take my calcium at 8am I should take the calcium blocker at 20pm?

Hi again everyone, sorry if i'm over sharing on here lately, i'm just getting out of a cycle after having been pain free for years and so i'm going again down the research rabbit hole.. I personally respond generally really well to mushrooms busting and D3 regimen seems to help too; However due to high blood pressure i'm taking alpha and calcium blockers daily for 2yrs now, Isoptin retard 120mg, and losartan 50mg. My question is: can it cause issues one way or the other to use calcium blockers while doing the D3 regimen? When addressing it to my doctor, he was just surprised by the amounts of supplements but he said that it's all green light by him, and that the calcium blockers aren't an issue there. Thanks in advance, <3

Hey all, I was reading again about the D3 regimen and then about foods that seem to somewhat help as support during CH cycles; Im currently in a cycle that has been rather messy but I think i'm close to bust it. Anyways, in order to bust properly I have been trying to stick to supports that don't counteract the mushrooms. And while reading about the foods etc, I realized that turmeric, especially when mixed with natural oil (coconut, olive oil, etc) and black pepper acts as a decent anti inflammatory supplement. Dont get me wrong, it's not magical, and it works very minimally imo but it did help stop some shadows that would usually have been stopped by coffein. Anyways, I have not seen turmeric mentioned in this website before and thought it was worth mentioning it as every little thing that helps is worth taking, especially when not invasive or counter acting other medication. I find personally that D3 along with clean foods, nuts, fruits, greens, fish, etc really help during cycles, and well it's anyways healthy so there's no wrong about it really! Hope everyone is doing as good as they can. <3

Hi there, 10 years ago I discovered this website and made a post here after experiencing pain abortion via psilocybe semilanceata use. Back then this board helped me understand so much better how to manage my CH cycles and attacks than any doctor ever did. So just for that, thank you! As a funny story introduction, I have to tell you how I discovered the use of psychedelics for CH; After being diagnosed by a dental surgeon, I was talking about it to a friend, which told me "CH? like in Dr House episode with the mushrooms?" - this is what originally brought me to this website Now without going into every single detail of what happened to me in the last ten years, I wanted to give a brief update on my journey, as I realize that the knowledge built on this site is for a big part generated by anecdotal information, here's my humble contribution: Ten years ago I ended a cycle successfully for the first time using mushrooms. I was amazed and spent the next months reading everything I could as why this is happening. And while I dont have a real answer, my vulgar understanding is that CH are like a brain that had his road map messed with and mushrooms reset it to factory settings During that period I was trying to abort individual attacks with originally coffee, mushrooms in very small dose under my gums and tongue, and breathing exercises. However I quickly replaced coffee with lemon juice as vitamin C seems to fast track psilocybin. Anyways, after that cycle, I prevented successfully many cycles for many years using psilocybe semilanceata that I religiously pick myself every year. Meanwhile I have tried to get prescription for oxygen for years (in the fear that an attack would eventually show up) but always unsuccessfully. However, about 3 years ago a cycle started again, still not sure as why, I was traveling a lot back then and messed up my sleep cycles regularly, this could be the reason, I was also drinking alcohol more than usual, i'm still not sure what exactly happened but it did. So, I went to the doctor, reluctantly I have to say, because I still have bitter memories of what doctors made me go through prior to me discovering mushrooms for CH. Anyways, the doctor discovered that I had high blood pressure, and while he wasn't really acknowledged about cluster headaches he wanted to treat my blood pressure, which he said would likely reduce the intensity of the CH attacks too. And so he gave me isoptin (calcium blocker) and an alpha blocker, in low dosage. This did indeed greatly reduced the intensity of the attacks and fixed my blood pressure. He also prescribed me an abortive nasal spray, Imigran (sumatriptan), which I never took because I wanted to break the cycle with mushrooms anyways and i'm very sceptical by now about migraines medecines for CH. I then managed to break that cycle by doing the mushrooms protocol, took 0.5g then 5 days, 1g and 5 more days and it stopped. I went on with my life, I became a father even! 2 years went on, dosing according to the calendar and no pain. But as every father with a toddler in kindergarten, I eventually got a terrible flu, that turned into pneumonia, and therefore went to a doctor, who prescribed me steroids, which got me pretty intense.. but when I came off the steroids, omg.. the CH came in raging like I forgot how terrible these could get! 3 to 5 attacks per day and brutal and long ones! my partner couldn't stand seeing me that way and called my doctor and went on to give me the imigran nasal spray; in the midst of an awful attack I took the spray and within 20min it stopped. I was relieved. So after that I was taking a spray if the attack was getting out of control.. well.. little did I know, the attacks were coming in even more regularly and stronger than ever (if it's possible at this point..) One night I had an attack that just wouldn't stop and my partner called an ambulance to beg for oxygen, but I was too far gone and they probably didn't give me the oxygen like I need it, it was a nightmare, I ended up in the hospital hallway strapped on a bed begging to be killed and screaming at them that they better not give me opioids (because i had previous horrible experience with those before and they do nothing good to me). I eventually made it back home, absolutely beat. During a short period pain free I went online and looked up imigran and CH etc, and realized that it was a terrible mistake. So I decided not to take it anymore and rather either raw dog the attacks or bust them with mushrooms. And here we are today, no imigran for a week and two doses of mushrooms in, I had one strong shadow this morning, no attack yesterday, I am not holding my breath but it feels like I might be close to break the cycle! That's my update, hope it is useful to some. Oh btw, I just read recently about using DMT vape as an abortive and it seems insanely efficient! i'm currently looking into getting the mimosas bark to make my own. If any of you have info on this I am very interested! Thank you all for contributing to make our lives better, stay away from sumatriptan, stay away from steroids, I wish you only the very best <3 Edit: I just realize that this could be more appropriate in the busting stories section, so if a mod would move this there it would be probably good. I don't personally care that this is public however.

Thank you, yes the rest of the night was good sleep only. Though since then I had other attacks, I had 3 during the last 24hrs and one I couldn't stop, it went real hard and real strong and my psilo under the tongue plus coffee and fresh air did not do it.. I had another one this morning that I managed to stop though. I am writing down every attack and their strength durations and times. But I would really like to know more about aborting the whole cluster period; If someone could explain me how these 5 days period x 3 works? Is it wrong to take small doses of psilo in between the stronger preventive doses? Also does anyone know if there is an habituation that would make that I need to always take more to abort an attack or not? If anyone out there have info please share! <3

Yes, I am really considering that. As much as it is amazing to make it stop like this, it is always kinda scary when it starts, I keep on thinking "ohh what if it does not work this time.." And about those larger/preventive dose, I was wondering, I read once every 5 days, 3 times, ca. 1.5g (the concentration of psilocybin in our mushrooms here seem pretty high and consistent so I might think less is ok) But I try to understand what is this every 5 days thing? why 5 days? Also since I took micro doses to abort many attacks now, is this still gonna potentially work? And what about if I take micro doses during these 5 days periods?

Update 4 3am an attack starts, comes in pretty strong; Took 4 mushrooms under my tongue, no coffee this time. Went out to breathe air. All pain stopped within 20min Some nice northern lights were up to celebrate, and that wasn't the shrooms yay Good night all <3