Testimonials

"About 2 years ago, I was put under the care of a new neurologist. He was experienced in CH, and at the end of our first meeting he asked if I had ever tried any psychedelics (I have, but do not enjoy tripping so they are not for me). He also mentioned he had a patient report that vaping DMT had helped them. So I got home and dug my old DMT vape out from a long time ago, and it worked! Within one puff the attack was aborted.

I use DMT every day. I have 3-6 attacks on average a day, sometimes more, sometimes less, and use DMT to abort all of those attacks. I have been using it for roughly just under 2 years I would say (I don't have a clear start date sadly).

DMT is almost 100% effective for me. The only times it doesn't work for me is if I have an attack in the night and I wake up with an upset stomach. Sometimes the taste of the vape will make me vomit, which means I have to use a different abortive (oxygen and sumatriptan injection).

I prefer it over other treatment options because my oxygen was becoming ineffective for me and I was spending all day and night chained to an oxygen tank, not wanting to leave the house because of having to carry a heavy oxygen tank with me everywhere. It is also very discreet and easy to just slip into my pocket, not painful to use unlike the injections, and also is technically a natural treatment option I suppose. Also it is very quick to recover from. Some people find that the sumatriptan injections can wipe them out after using, but with DMT it's usually 20 mins or a bit less depending on how much is needed to abort the attack, and you can be back to normal.

DMT has changed my life in a massive way, due to the fact that I now have the confidence to go out of the house and try and do normal things again, without getting loads of awkward questions from random members of the public asking why I have an oxygen tank, which is just rude. One person once joked that I had a bomb on me when it was my oxygen tank. I can also now attempt to do things I have not done in years, like camping and walking, due to not having to take a few tanks of oxygen with me.

I can say that in the last two years I have noticed that more and more people are getting curious: more people are discovering it and how effective it is, but the obvious problem people struggle with is actually getting hold of the medication. But it is actually quite common, more than people realise. Many healthy people like to use it recreationally to chase things akin to enlightenment, or maybe to give them spiritual guidance. I'm not using it for any of those reasons personally.

I would like to ask from politicians if this medication can be given some sort of experimental licence to be studied, and if found beneficial (which it is) to then also have funding to help people pay for it, maybe as some form of alternative therapy, I don't know. It can, has, and will save lives. And of course the same goes for any other psychedelic that is deemed beneficial to cluster headache sufferers."

"For over a decade, I struggled with chronic cluster headaches, trying various treatments like LSA, psilocybin, and LSD. While each method offered some relief, their effectiveness was often limited. However, my experience with DMT has been truly remarkable. I started using it to abort my cluster headaches and was astonished to discover that a quick puff from my vape pen could eliminate the pain within just two minutes. This was an experience I had never encountered before. Since then, I've incorporated a small dose a few nights a week before bed, and for the first time in over ten years, I am enjoying more than 15 pain-free days each month! Just a simple puff, enough to induce some closed-eye visuals, is all it takes for me to maintain this newfound freedom from pain. Even on the rare occasions when a cluster attack occurs and I can't use DMT, my oxygen therapy now works much faster, allowing me to stop each attack in under five minutes. This has truly been life-changing.

I can go out without the constant fear of needing to hide away to cope with a cluster headache. While I know anxiety may still linger in the back of my mind, it is now much more manageable. With no noticeable side effects—just clearer thoughts and more energy from improved sleep—I genuinely can't understand why this treatment isn't being explored more seriously for official use.

LSA, LSD, and psilocybin all helped reduce my pain levels and delayed attacks for a day or two, but for whatever reason, DMT has taken my relief to a whole new level. There's no need for a large dose or a prolonged trip; just a small hit and I can move on with my day."

"I've been living with cluster headaches since 2009. For years, I lived through a hell that no one should have to experience. I suffered attacks that felt like they were splitting my head in two; attacks that left me screaming, writhing, wishing it would end no matter what it took. I would go to the ER unable to even speak, and still they told me it was sinusitis or that I was making it up. They sent me home without help and, worst of all, without oxygen, which was the only thing that could have saved me in those moments. They gave me medications that not only didn't work but actually made things worse. Triptans were a death trap for me. Sumatriptan (Imitrex) would stop an attack, sure… but it triggered another one shortly after. It was like putting out a fire with gasoline. I ended up giving myself five injections a day for months, watching my body waste away. I lost 45 pounds. I stopped sleeping. I stopped living. I was destroying myself from the inside out, physically and mentally. I didn't have oxygen. I didn't have an effective treatment. All I had was pain… and more pain.

The day I seriously considered suicide, I understood I couldn't go on like that anymore. That's when I decided to try psilocybin. It wasn't magic, and it wasn't immediate. It took me months, several cycles, to find the right way to use it. But for the first time, I started gaining ground. The attacks became weaker, shorter, more manageable. I learned to stop them with oxygen when I finally managed to get it at home. And over time, my life changed completely. I went almost four years completely attack-free. Four years living without fear. This November, the Beast came back. I started psilocybin as soon as I felt the first warning signs, but this time it wasn't enough. The attacks kept breaking through, although they were milder. So I decided to try 1P-LSD, something I'd had stored away for a while. The improvement was very fast. The attacks would disappear within minutes with oxygen. I took my last dose on Sunday and, although I don't know yet if my cycle is over, I've gone four days without any symptoms—which for me is like breathing again after years underwater. After 11 years using psilocybin, I can say that 1P-LSD is proving even more effective for me: faster, more stable, and more potent. Psychedelics haven't just helped me with the pain. They've saved my life. Without them, I don't know if I'd still be here today."

"I met the Beast in 2004. My first cycle hit when I was 17, and it coincided with my first time flying on a plane and my first time leaving the country alone to make my own way in life. During my first month in England, I had 2 or 3 attacks a day. One day, on one of our trips to London, in Camden Town, we bought 3 portions of fresh psilocybin mushrooms and took them recreationally to have a trip. My roommate, some friends from the student residence, and I repeated the experience several weekends.

It never occurred to me that the attacks had stopped because I'd taken mushrooms. I was a 17-year-old kid looking for new experiences and a good time. I just figured I needed to get used to the English climate and that I finally had.

For the next 5 years, I had the same headaches (3 to 5 attacks daily for a month and a half to three months), taking ibuprofen that didn't touch the pain, without knowing they were cluster headaches. Many visits to the ER and my primary care doctor without being diagnosed; it was always treated as a regular migraine until 2009. That year, a neurologist saw me in the ER, and I finally discovered oxygen!

The first neurologist I saw told me I'd had very bad luck, that he was retiring in a few months and that in his entire career, he'd only seen about 7 to 10 cases of cluster headaches. He prescribed topiramate, prednisone, verapamil, and nasal zolmitriptan for the attacks, and also ordered a CT scan. I had a bad reaction to the topiramate, and the nasal Zomig did nothing since my nose was always congested when the pain hit. He eventually switched me to Imitrex, and I was able to stop the pain in 10 minutes. But over time, this made my attacks come even more frequently and with greater intensity.

I decided to start researching on my own and found studies by Dr. John Halpern at Harvard University about the response cluster headache patients had when using microdoses of psilocybin and other psychedelics. After talking with my mom (who's a veterinarian), showing her the studies I'd found, and speaking with another neurologist in 2013, I decided to self-medicate with psilocybin.

I'm not an overly methodical or organized person, so I didn't always have mushrooms on hand to deal with every cycle in the years that followed. But I can say that since that year, I've been able to control almost all my clusters, to the point of forgetting about the Beast… until it comes back to remind me it's still there.

I take microdoses of mushrooms 4 to 8 times a year, and for me, that's usually enough. If spring or fall is approaching and I haven't taken precautions, the Beast shows up. On those occasions, it takes me one or two full psychedelic doses with a few rest days in between, followed by several microdoses afterward to maintain. Going from 3 months of pain down to 2 or 3 weeks is a huge improvement (and that's only because I'm not very consistent with preventive microdosing).

In a cluster headache support group on social media, I found quite a few patients who had taken the same path as me. We decided to share our experiences with each other and with the world to help ourselves and to help others. What pharmaceutical company is going to be interested in a medicine you can grow yourself, costs €40, lasts you all year, and actually works?

I hope they legalize access for patients soon and complete solid studies that truly solve this problem."

"My name is David and I'm 42 years old. I suffered from ages 15 to 39 with cluster headache attacks. The attacks normally came twice a year, lasting approximately 3 consecutive months with 1 to 3 attacks per day, each lasting anywhere from 2 to 23 hours. Due to lack of information, I was never diagnosed. I didn't know what was happening to me or where it came from. I simply accepted it, because just as it came, it would go away. The day I found the cure, reading online about a Harvard study, I simultaneously found the name of the thing responsible for my suffering.

I once tried to count how many episodes I've had in my life, and I lost count at episode number 26. And by episode, I mean periods of 1 to 3 months where I get attacks lasting 2 hours to 23 hours straight, every day, for up to 3 consecutive months. My 23-hour attacks were attacks of approximately 1 to 2.5 hours with 20 to 30 minutes of rest before attacking again for another two hours, then leaving me 30 minutes, and so on for up to 23 hours. I would classify my condition as very severe. When these attacks start, I need to talk to my neighbors and explain to them why I'm going to be screaming every night from 11 pm until around 5 am if I'm lucky, when after so many repetitions of that relentless, sharp, stabbing pain, I finally pass out from pain, exhaustion, or overdosing on medications that don't even work.

I've tried all the medications, all the therapies, all the doctors, acupuncture, wires on my head... I've been inside a machine having CT scans while in the middle of attacks, and they found nothing. I've tried chiropractors, therapeutic massage, relaxation techniques, improving my diet, cutting out this or that, stopping going to work... yes, I also tried magnets, Bach flower remedies, triptans, 1 bottle of tramadol a day for months, anticholinergic treatments, cold showers, hot showers, ice, the rolled-up towel on the neck, inducing vomiting, banging my head against the wall, anything to find relief, and everything else you can imagine. NOTHING WORKS. What I do is find the strongest medication and overdose on it to try to pass out for a few hours so the Beast will stop attacking me.

Imagine that one random day you wake up in the middle of the night feeling like someone is drilling into your eye. Literally. No metaphors. As if they were slowly inserting a hot metal rod into your eye until it touches the back of your skull and then cruelly moving it around. The worst nightmare in terms of pain that you could ever imagine.

I can see how in ancient times, people with the same condition as mine were probably killed or sacrificed, with others truly believing they were possessed, since there was no explanation for this pain, which science describes as the most intense pain a human being can experience without losing consciousness. When I'm in the grip of the attacks, I sometimes think about that, or that I'm paying off some karma from past lives... it's really not pleasant at all. I feel so sorry for my family, for my wife, and for the people who have seen me in this condition, because there's nothing they can do. I can imagine the helplessness they must feel, because I feel it too.

While researching online, I discovered psilocybin. Since September 2017, it cured me, and since then... I'm no longer afraid to go to sleep."

"I don't remember my life without pain. From a very young age, I had periods when I couldn't get out of bed and I would hit myself because I couldn't bear the pain. You learn to cope. After three weeks, it became part of me. For the pain, they gave me painkillers and tranquilizers, but everything stayed the same, so I decided to only take painkillers when it came back. Twelve years ago, the cycles only came every three years and lasted three weeks, but that year they increased in intensity. I went to the ER several times, and unfortunately I was diagnosed with cluster headaches. I say unfortunately because that's when they started medicating me with topiramate, verapamil, and injections that I can't even remember the name of anymore (good riddance). The crisis cycle went from three weeks to three months. And three years later it came back, and of course so did the medication. This time they also did an occipital nerve block, and I noticed some relief from that. But three months passed and the Beast wasn't leaving. They increased the topiramate dose with no improvement. They increased the verapamil dose and I still wasn't getting better, so they gave me corticosteroids. After 6 months, I was still the same, trapped in my double prison: the prison of my illness and the prison of my medication. That's when they told me I was becoming chronic. I left the doctor's office and the word kept repeating in my head: chronic, chronic, my whole life like this. I thought about taking my own life, but I have two children and I couldn't do that to them. One day I accepted that for their sake, this would be my life. I still remember that afternoon. I cried and cried, calmly and without sobbing, but each tear was like a stone sinking my soul.

Then, in the darkest moment of my life, 'He' appeared. My Light. I thought he was just talking nonsense, but at the same time my heart raced with every word he said. I had nothing left. The doctor himself told me he had no more options for me, and I made the decision to try. I stopped the medication little by little, which made the Beast terribly angry. I went from two attacks a day to 8 or 10. But when I stopped the Imitrex (that's the name of that wretched thing), I went from a pain level of 10 down to a 3, which with oxygen, ice, and a lot of Red Bull would disappear like magic. Meanwhile, my mushrooms were growing little by little. I would spend hours looking at them and my husband would laugh at me. They're my salvation, I thought. And they were.

After 19 days of taking mushrooms in cycles of 5 days on and 5 days off, I had my first 24 hours without pain. How do I describe that feeling to you? I don't think I need to. The shadows didn't go away completely, but with high doses of vitamin D3, they disappeared.

The mushrooms didn't just save my life. They made me a better person. Throughout the whole process, my husband and my children supported me, along with my new family who, without even knowing me, didn't leave me alone for a single day. I think it's been the great adventure of my life. Now I know I'm a warrior. I hope I can help anyone who feels like they're on the edge of the abyss."

"I'm 36 years old and have been living with episodic cluster headaches for 22 years. The psychedelics I use are magic mushrooms (5 grams once a month for prevention) and DMT (1 gram microdose vaped to abort attacks).

For me, psychedelics are a reliable treatment for cluster headaches, with fewer side effects than conventional medication. The only side effect I notice beyond the psychedelic experience itself is occasional diarrhea the day after taking mushrooms.

Beyond the physical relief, psychedelics have had a meaningful positive impact on my mental and emotional state, which is crucial for me during a cluster episode. Psychedelics have given me my life back, which is why I'm a proponent.

I would like to see more studies being done on psychedelics for cluster headaches."