Posted by Flash (217.32.148.131) on February 28, 2001 at 04:27:02:
In Reply to: Shroom Update (five months): Clusters almost gone-Was it the 'shrooms'? posted by Graham on February 27, 2001 at 17:55:15:
I also wondered whether it was the hallucinogens or some other factor/combination of factors when I first embarked on this treatment. As you are probably aware I initially took LSD recreationally in 1993 and 1994, inadvertantly causing a 2 year remission. After an attack in spring 1995 I reached the conclusion that it was possible that LSD caused the remission, although I was skeptical! I then began using mushrooms and experienced another complete remission during this period October 1995-November 1997. The shrooms were ingested in Oct 96, Oct 96 & Dec 96. I admit that Dec 96 was for recreational purposes, I took them on the 31st!
It was only after I ceased taking the mushrooms between Dec 96 and October 98, that the headaches returned, in December 97. Then I started to believe I was onto something. Subsequently I have used this treatment every year, Oct 98, Oct 99 and Oct 2000 gradually reducing the dose each time from a recreational level to a subhallucinoigenic one. I have also waited for the episode to commence before taking the shrooms, so that I know for sure an episode had occurred (as opposed to my cycle being naturally altered with age).
In Oct 2000 I reduced the dose too far. What started off as a normal episode became absolute fuckin hell 48 subsequent to ingesting only 6 shrooms. IT remained hell for another week, then subsided over the course of the third week. Although the shrooms definately made the headaches much longer, and much more painful, the episode terminated after only 3 weeks (2 weeks after ingestion) as opposed to the usual 2 months. So something was definately different.
I now believe that the best use of hallucinogenic therapy is to ingest a reasonably large dose once every 12 months. By reasonably large I still mean subhallucinogenic, but enough to give a fairly noticable kick. I put this at 15-25 Liberty Cap. The further developed the episode, the more shrooms seem to be required. Chronics probably need to go the whole hog with a dose of 25. Please note these numbers only relate to Liberty Cap - try this with larger North American species and you'll end up in hospital!
Only time will tell in your case Graham - I suggest you visit the shrooms again in September/October/November, and take one decent sized hit.
Regards
Flash