honestmango

Hello:

I am 43 years old and a chronic sufferer of "cluster" headaches. At one point, I was on 13 different pharmaceuticals (nothing narcotic, because those don't touch these headaches). I have "cultivated" a network of support that has allowed me to medicate with nothing more than magic mushrooms for the past 2 years. This is the only medication that has worked for me. I'm working full-time again and I no longer think about suicide on a daily basis. It has literally saved my life. My question is not medical, because I know this substance works. But I also know that my helpers are risking prison time by helping. Do you see any hope for legalization in the future?

I appreciate you doing this AMA. My wife and I do what we can in the cluster community to raise awareness. Psilocybin doesn't work for all cluster suffers, but for the people it does help, it's a life changing thing. I'm an attorney by trade, and I would lose my license if I ever got caught, so we have to sort of try to spread the word quietly and anonymously, which does anger me at times. When I think about the drugs that are legal and so very harmful to most who ingest them, I can get pretty angry pretty fast. Thank you for doing what you do.

Beginning in 2001, my clusters became chronic, daily events. My cycles might last for weeks. Some people have several per day, but only for a few moments...mine turned into 7 or 8 per day, and each was up to 3 hours....if you do the math on that...it was constant during my cycles. I thought I was going to have to give up my law license, but in 2010, I started dosing and it has completely saved my career, my marriage and my life.

No...I dose on average about one per month...sometimes more, depending on how I'm cycling.

I was lucky enough to be treated by Dr. Matthews at the Houston Headache Clinic fairly early on, so I was exposed to O2 therapy. The problem that I ran into is that, just like everything EXCEPT mushrooms, oxygen helped only for awhile. Eventually, The Beast did not care whether I used oxygen or not. I too have a history of addiction, but with the exception of these mushies, I've been sober for 15 years. But mushrooms do nothing to trigger dangerous behavior in me, personally. I do not personally enjoy taking them. It might be fun for some people to use them as a music and social enhancer, but ingesting them on a random Tuesday morning when you've got an orbital splitting headache and a ton of work that you should be doing is very different, at least for me.