New user needing help

[alikhan]

Hey clusterheads! Been a CH for years now. Aged nearly 30 and my episodes have returned after a years break.

Yet this is the first time I'm trying psilicybin mushrooms for the first time to try to end the cycle.

So I'm having a CH every morning around 8am that wakes me up from sleep. Today I got dried mushrooms, grinded them and into capsules of around 300mgs. Now I fear the headache may return early in the morning again. And having capsules ready, and having seen the information on the website, I have a few questions that I think the page should clarify for all new users.

The page says "When attempting to break a cycle they noticed that dosing with mushrooms would stop an attack in its tracks.

A little experimentation showed that using a very small dose would not trigger the shutting-door effect, and could be repeated as attacks occurred."

In the first sentence, what does "in its tracks" mean? Suppose if a CH attack wakes me up, and if the pain is nearly over 50%, would a capsule or two cure that headache? This is a question this page doesn't explain well, as in, when is a good time to take the capsules within the attack episodes after they occur? To properly abort the cycle. And the question if mushrooms will stop an already started headache?

Tonight while I was making capsules I ATE around 400mg of mushrooms and its my first time trying mushrooms and the fact that I have never been high in my life ever, no alcohol or cigarettes or anything else. So my question is if I did the right thing to take 400mg in hope that tomorrow the CH doesn't repeat itself? And I hope taking shooms at night for the first time ever isn't a bad idea, I guess I'll know in a while.

Last question, if the attacks do recur in my case, is it wise to take mushrooms before going to sleep?

Thanks a million people!

[CHfather]

I'm going to give you my opinion about all this, based on reading every post here for more than six years.  I have seen very little evidence that dosing during an attack will stop an attack.  More than a few people have reported having attacks while dosing.  It seems that it might be true, for some reason I can't explain, that a very small amount might stop an attack.  That amount is sometimes described as a SPUT -- small piece under the tongue; just a "pinch," really.  But an amount that small probably won't stop a cycle.

 

So I am also going to guess that while you might be able to use a very small amount daily to stop attacks (though I doubt that), it will not work to end your cycle.  Lately, some people have been testing "microdosing" as a way to end a cycle, but those attempts seem to either fizzle out, or the people don't report on them.

 

The most reliable method is to take a potentially effective dose of psilo every five days, and probably not during an attack.  Is 400 mg a "potentially effective dose"?  Maybe.  It's low, for sure -- the recommended dose being 1 - 1.5 grams dried, and many people saying that higher is better -- but some people have had success with levels that low.  I think it's not low enough to be considered a microdose or a "very small dose," and so it might have that "shutting the door" effect, which means that your next dose, if taken too soon (essentially, in less than five days) will be ineffective.

 

Do you have oxygen?

[reichologist]

I agree, 400 mg is very low. I'm 45 and 200 lbs and I've been using mushrooms (cubensis)  for CHs starting in 2011. I've tried various doses during that time to find what works best for me. For me, 500 mg is ineffective for aborting an attack.  The lowest dose that has worked for me is 1.5 grams (1500 mg). Although micro-doses have never worked to abort a CH, my regular 2.5g dose is effective in aborting a CH attack probably 70% of the time. When it works, it's very effective, almost miraculous, one second the CH was there and the next, poof, it's gone like it never happened and I'm shadow free. BUT...I've had a couple of occasions where the medicine did nothing to abort an existing CH and the CH remained throughout the treatment, though it does ease the CH a bit during treatment and it has so far always worked for me preventatively.  

 

Because of the abortive inconsistencies I've experienced, I don't use them to try and abort an attack, only as a preventative treatment because I don't want to waste good medicine. 1.5 grams is good for about a month of PF life, I've found, and a solidly active dose of 2.5 grams will push that PF time up. The longest I've gone PF is 7 months after a dose from some mushrooms I obtained that turned out to be on the very potent side. Though the dose was weighed at 2.5 g it felt like 3.5 to 4 grams of what I was normally getting.

 

Mushrooms are very hygroscopic so the only way to know for sure how much your consuming (mushrooms, not psilo) is to dry your medicine cracker dry with a desiccant (I use DampRid)  and pulverize. I obtain my medicine in 2 year multi-dose batches, pulverize them once cracker dry to homogenize the batch, encapsulate at 500 mg per gel cap and then I take a 1.5 g test sample to test the batch potency so I don't have any surprises later. For me the treatment is mentally exhausting (though well worth it) which only becomes more pronounced with stronger doses, and while the extended PF time is nice, I prefer more frequent treatments to a higher dose treatment. 2.5 g typically gives me 3 to 4 PF months before needing another treatment.

 

As far as going to sleep after taking a psychoactive dose...Good Luck!   I'm sure that's possible with 400mg doses, but I've never been able to sleep while actively undertaking a treatment at 2.5 g, way too much going on in my head for that, but if you can sleep....I always wait till I have a free night and subsequent morning. Individual responses to a given dose will vary of course. If you have never before used mushrooms in any capacity I'd recommend 1 to 1.5 g and see where that puts you and then adjust from there.

[filacibin]

i stopped taking them in capsule form 8 months ago,reason being they took longer to take effect and i did feel less of a reaction,

but everyone is different,i now take mine putting no less than 2 grams in hot cup of tea,!really good advice from reichologist also!

let us know how you are getting on,best wishes

[alikhan]

On 12/27/2016 at 9:50 PM, CHfather said:

I'm going to give you my opinion about all this, based on reading every post here for more than six years.  I have seen very little evidence that dosing during an attack will stop an attack.  More than a few people have reported having attacks while dosing.  It seems that it might be true, for some reason I can't explain, that a very small amount might stop an attack.  That amount is sometimes described as a SPUT -- small piece under the tongue; just a "pinch," really.  But an amount that small probably won't stop a cycle.

Do you have oxygen?

Okay so its been some time since I posted here, I feel I owe the forum a detailed response. I mentioned earlier that I have episodic CHs and occur in Fall season for the last 4-5 years.

I tried Oxygen for the first time and it helped miraculously. I am glad I live near a hospital and there aren't much for-home/portable options available in Pakistan. At first doctors told me I was insane to inhale oxygen at 15 Lpm, they said it'll damage my lungs lol. Also, the hospital had no idea what a mask with a bag meant so I improvised this (attachment - upto 50% off). Used the bottle nozzle as a mouth piece and inserted the pipe of the centralized oxygen supply in the emergency in the other end.

Anyways, when I'd get hit I'd run to the near emergency and in around 30 mins I'd get better. I once got a rebound around 15-20 mins later and that was probably because I did not fully eject the attack. Another time, the rebound occurred exactly 12 hours later.

PREVIOUSLY: when the season occurred. At the first signs I would start taking Flunarizine, a 'selective-calcium channel blocker', like Varapamil but 'selective'. It is a prophylactic drug so it would take around 15 days to set in the blood, so from the first signs the headache intensity and frequency increased for 7 days and then subsided by 15-20th day and then I'd continue taking Flunarizine for two months and then tapper the dose with a day's gap to avoid rebounds.

PLACEBO: An interesting placebo happened to me this time, when I'd wake up around 8am and have a shadow of the headache lingering. I'd rush to take 'Advil', an NSAID ibuprofen. But with it, i'd rush to take some food to avoid stomach upset. In the next 15 mins the headache would instantly abort. It happened three days and I thought Advil was the cure. I then went out of town for a weekend trip with some friends when tragically the headache occurred one morning and I took 400mg of Advil that had absolutely no effect. I ruined the trip for everyone, we went to the hospital in the are that only had small cylinders with 5 Lpm flow that had zero effect on the headache. They then injected me with Tramadol that reduced the agony by only 50%. The headaches I got this season were freaking longgg, like ~8 hrs. I then realized that it wasn't the Advil that helped but some sort of Placebo, and it had something to do with the 'food', which I remember was rice with some chicken and water. But it relates to what some suggested as energy drinks.

Mushrooms: While I was under the Placebo effect I was overjoyed and excited, and with a clear head I decided to take the 2gm out of the total 4gm mushrooms I had powdered. Again, I had never had a cigarette in my life, nor any forms of alcohol or things of the sort, so I was completely unaware of the hysteria and laughing that I was about to go through. It was fun but I never realized it would come with so much paranoia. My parents/family weren't happy with this decision so I took it secretly and so I had to hide from them and feel sort of bad all the time I was under the influence. But that's a different story.

Following that trip, which was a strong trip I'd say, quite potent because I experienced visual hallucinations; My headache unfortunately occurred again the next few days, probably with slightly lower intensity and shorter duration. Which brings me to a question whether the 'BREAKING THE CYCLE' mean instantly and immediately stopping recurrences or slowly subsiding it?

Since I was following the guidance on the forum here, Thanks to you guys <3, after 10 days I convinced my family I needed to do this, it was sad because I had promised them it would treat the cycle 100%, but anyways, I ate the remaining 2gm of the mushrooms. By this time in the cycle (in 10 days after the first dose), the frequency, intensity and duration all had subsided, and the second dose was to prevent it from going back (assuming the subsiding had occurred from the first dose). Following the second dose, in the next few days the headache had subsided, but nothing immediate or instant because even after the 2nd dose, I would get shadows in the morning, which I sometimes aborted with energy drinks (to which I also grew an addiction to).

I have so many questions here, and the important question of whether I should take mushrooms before the Fall season this year and whether it was mushrooms that subsided the headache. And the question of 'breaking cycle', is it immediate or slow decline? The subsiding was like the one I used to get in the previous years when I'd take prophylactic (Flunarizine). Another question I have is, does it stop migraines from occurring? Not chronic but triggered migraines.

Would love to hear your take on this and your suggestions for the future ahead. Thank you guys, I can't be more grateful to all of you. Thank you and God bless!