Hey everyone! My name is Bryan. I'm 23 and from Palm Harbor, Florida. I have not yet been diagnosed with CH, but I have also not been to see a doctor about them yet (anxiety issues). I have an appointment scheduled with a neurologist later this week so hopefully that will shed some light and be my first step to finding some solace as the headaches have been getting increasingly worse and not even anxiety will keep me from finding help now. Lots and lots of research have led me to believe that what I'm experiencing are cluster headaches because I suffer from quite a lot of the same symptoms as most of you.

I began getting headaches in '07 during the end of my fourth semester at art school, it also happened to be the same week as finals. I was not able to attend any of them and even had to bail out on the rescheduled make-up exams. So that ended my first college stint. Just recently while attending community college I was put on academic probation and lost my grants due to poor attendance from the headaches. My headaches have been the cause of the end of two of my relationships, as well as a sharp decline in friendships.

As I enter a new cycle now I am beginning to fear losing my job because of attendance problems. It just sucks because the support I get from everyone around me right now is at absolute zero. I get friends calling me a girl thingy because I can't go out drinking with them. My family just doesn't understand at all. Mom likes to attribute anything and everything to the cause of the headaches, and is real accusatory in doing so. Life in the cycles is just really rough and I think it's awesome to have this community of people who understand you completely.

I'll report back after my doctors appointment and let you know what he has to say. Hopefully I can finally get some relief instead of forcing myself to ~just deal with it~.

Hi Bryan,

What Linda said!

So many of us have been helped tremendously by the info and advice found here.

Linda and I are starting to have kind of a tag team thing here today where she informs 23 year olds about O2, the most effective prescriptions, etc., then I come along and talk about more various and sundry non prescription items. 

If you have night hits that wake you up, melatonin from 9 to 21 mg will prevent  those hits for some of us.

The cluserbusterbusters.com approach can be more effective than any med for prevention. it doesn't necessarily play well with anxiety though. In this category of prevention, Rivea Corymbosa seeds are quite mild acting though, not to mention legal to order and possess, and I don't believe anxiety is really an issue with them as typically you take 'em before bed, then proceed to have a better than usual night's sleep. Here's a Newsweek article about clusterbusters: Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or

Also, check out the relatively new topic here where folks are reporting success with a high dose vitamin D3 regimen: Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or

About your neurologist appointment - I don't want to cast a negative pall or anything, but it should be asked: is this neurologist a headache specialist? Asking because garden variety neuros commonly don't know jack squat about CH, but will pretend to, and prescribe wrong stuff. A headache specialist is absolutely your best bet for am accurate diagnosis.

Hang in there Bryan - things are going to get better now.