Here you can read a collection of testimonials of patients who have used psychedelics to treat their cluster headaches. If you are one such patient, we'd love to feature your testimonial here! Submit it here.
"I have tried many of the psychedelics commonly used for Clusters. Seeds didn't really work, mushrooms did help some during a cycle but were not a game changer. LSD seemed to lessen the frequency and intensity a noticeable amount. By far, the most help has come from DMT vapes. While I can't say they offered me any preventative effect, they sure worked fantastically as an abortive. I have excellent results using high flow O2 as an abortive, but the DMT has been even better. 2-3 minutes tops from the first pull to complete pain relief was my experience on average. I've related the experience of using DMT as being almost too good to be true. Anything that can abort the intense pain of a cluster headache attack this quickly is a God send. At 67 years old, I've never been someone who has (nor wishes to be) a recreational drug user. I have come to believe that psychedelics do have legitimate medicinal uses particularly in the treatment of Cluster Headaches and should not be considered "off limits". I have seen firsthand how they can have legitimate uses in medicine."
"For over a decade, I struggled with chronic cluster headaches, trying various treatments like LSA, Psilocybin, LSD, and DMT. 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."
"One inhalation [of DMT] will end the attack for most people. Everybody is reporting the exact same thing. […] It could end that attack in less than a minute. […] You can take one inhalation, you can wait 30 seconds, and if that cluster is not gone completely, then you know it's time to take another inhalation. You don't have to wait 2h into a psilocybin trip."
"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 suffer from chronic cluster headaches and I've been receiving ketamine treatments for almost two years. Often combined with magnesium (a study is currently underway in France), and sometimes with nefopam. Ketamine reduces my attacks from 12 a day with 10/10 pain to 3–4 attacks with 7/10 pain (only one reaching 10/10). My attacks are also shorter. Psychologically, ketamine helps me cope better with the attacks. It eliminates some of my chronic pain and reduces the rest. I have no side effects except a bit of fatigue, but far less than with 12 daily attacks. I'm able to work again and take care of my children in a calmer state."
"Mushrooms at high dose every 5th day repeated over 5 weeks made my chronic cluster headaches 70% less painful and 50% less frequent. No other medicines offered lasting relief, mushrooms worked to start reducing the intensity of pain from after the first use. I found the method through Clusterbusters and it has saved my life. Cluster headaches is so intensely life destroying that it has to be considered important to grant sufferers access to this known effective treatment as soon as possible."
"DMT, the smallest microdose of maybe 5mg with a vape pen stops the worst pain known, in literally 10–20 seconds. Acid and mushrooms as well, but they take time to come up. Even the smallest sub-perceptual dose of DMT stops the pain."
"I had such extreme traumatic stress disorder that in itself was disabling, and after using psychedelics as my primary treatment mechanism I don't deal with that anymore. At this stage in my life I have my life back with all those burdens that I lived with before now gone."
"I spent 15 years trying everything available in the form of pharmaceuticals, and I had surgical operations done. But my cluster headaches got steadily worse and eventually I turned chronic. […] My daily 6-8 severe cluster attacks had been happening for 500+ days straight. My second dose of mushrooms made my attacks stop completely."
"I use the word 'game changer' because a lot of times our attacks will come at night after we go to sleep. Usually after an attack, half hour to 40 minutes later, I try to go back to sleep knowing full well that in another hour or so I'm going to get another attack. But having a DMT vape pen right next to my bedside allowed me to hit that pen and within a minute or two I'm closing my eyes and going back to sleep."
"My condition is described as VERY SEVERE and when these attacks began, I needed to talk to my neighbours and explain why I would be screaming every night from 11 pm until more or less, if I was lucky, 5 am, where already after so many repetitions of that incessant and sharp stabbing pain, I would faint, either from pain, exhaustion or from overdose of medications that are useless. […] I had already tried all the medications, all the therapies, all the doctors, acupuncture, cables in my head... I had been with the attacks inside a tomography machine. And nothing worked... I had tried with chiropractors, therapeutic massages, relaxing, improving my diet, cutting this or that, stopping going to work, tryptamines, one bottle of tramadol a day for months, anticholinergic treatments […] Researching on the internet, I learned about psilocybin. In September 2017 it cured me, and since then... I am no longer afraid of going to sleep."
"Psychedelics have been a god send for my pain, both as an abortive and prophylactic. Compared to traditional meds, which are expensive, take time to get prescribed, and often come with a host of side effects, psychedelics like psilocybin and DMT offer clean, uncomplicated, and effective relief. The biggest thing hampering my experience is having to illegally purchase (and risk getting tainted drugs) or grow it myself. Legalization and regulation of such an important medical resource would be very valuable to the cluster headache community."
"I started with clusters at age 20. Absolutely disabling until I tried LSD when I was about 44. 2 tiny doses 6 months apart. I have been headache-free and able to maintain on meds since then. I had to go the illegal route, but I swear by it. It was a miracle."
"When my Dad started begging me for help with anything or he was going to shoot himself, I immediately got on this site and found mushrooms. […] He has not had one headache since. […] It IS a LIFESAVER for him, microdosing. Months and months of begging and crying from a tough 79-year-old farmer. He is fine now."
"For me, growing up in the 60's-70's, the propaganda machine worked, and although I knew people were using psychedelics to treat their cluster headaches, I was way too fearful to try any alternative options. When a new cycle started in 2008, I stuck with traditional medicine and increased the dosages, but I continued to scream nightly, feeling as though I was in a knife fight. I finally decided to try psychedelics. Sub-hallucinogenic doses of psilocybin tea gave me some substantial runs of pain-free time, but the clusters always returned. In 2014, I heard about 5-MeO-DALT and bought some online. I measured out 16 mg using a jewellery scale, put it in a gel cap and took it. That was it. Not another cluster headache. This month I will celebrate 6 years of being pain-free."
"I am the mother of a 10-year-old boy who has had cluster headaches since he was around 3 years old. He gets a 9-day cluster twice a year, every year, within three days of the date the year before. Due to his age there aren't very many pharmaceutical options for him to try. We have been preparing ourselves for his April cluster, which hit last year on the 19th. So last month we started microdosing magic mushrooms… and so far no cluster headache!! We are over the moon about this!!! This is the first time he has had a break in about 5 years!"
"I am a chronic cluster headache patient and am using psilocybin. I haven't eliminated my attacks completely; however, my attacks went from daily, averaging 1-4 per day, to 1-4 per month currently. So it's been a slower road for me, but the results are nothing short of a miracle considering where I was just 6 months ago, not even thinking where I was a year ago!"
"People don't talk about this enough. I busted last summer after my worst cycle ever, and 15 years of suffering, and I haven't even had a twinge since."
"I've been doing this for 4 years now. I used to get cycles in the spring and fall. Now the only time I get a cycle is when I can't find mushrooms. I usually take them a month or two before a cycle is supposed to start. They have truly changed my life. Finally a cage that can contain the beast! Freedom!"
"The mushrooms did exactly what I was told they would do. The only 'side effect' is realising I should have done this a long time ago. This is the first time in five years I leave my dwelling without an oxygen tank – the fear is gone, the trauma is under control."
"I prevented a whole episode in 2014 using 5-MeO-DALT. I was busting with psilocybin every two weeks for two months to prevent increasing shadows, two 15mg doses of 5-MeO-DALT stopped the shadowing completely and haven't had to bust since. Psilocybin was keeping the episode away, but I had to repeat the dose every two weeks."
"I went to several doctors and they gave me several medicines. It continued like this for 25 years. […] Then I found a Facebook group where people told me that there are mushrooms that work. […] Now four years later I use mushrooms when I feel it coming, and I don't remember when I last had a cluster attack. I would not be here if I would not have found mushrooms."
"I've been battling the beast for many years, twice a day, with no relief. But on New Year's Eve 2019/2020 a friend gave me a couple of magic mushrooms and bingo! No more headaches! As of now it seems like I got my life back without the cluster headaches occurring."
"If you really want your life back, look into psychedelics. Mushrooms, LSD and DMT. With mushrooms and LSD, if taken in the correct regimen, you can bust a cycle. DMT will abort an attack in 5 seconds and back to sleep."
"I am a chronic sufferer. Mushrooms have made my life liveable again. I microdose as an abortive."
"Psilocybin mushrooms have been the only thing that has ever worked."
"The [psilocybin] sessions clarified a lot of my problems, and I was able to realize their roots. I was able to see and learn how to control my attacks. The session was very impressive and enriched me. My attacks after the session disappeared for 1 year."
"I am the mother of a young man with chronic cluster headaches who was resistant to all traditional treatments. Thanks to psilocybin, he got his life back: psilocybin and Clusterbusters literally saved his life. Microdosing didn't work. He found his effective dose at 1g of Penis Envy. He has now been pain-free for two years and takes his 1g dose once every 3 months (4 times a year), with no other medication. The method used was the Clusterbusters protocol every 5 days."
"Zero anxiety. Zero planning for treatment dosages. Prior to 5-MeO-DALT treatment my anxiety levels were very high. I've been able to take the 5-MeO-DALT treatment (without having to set aside hours while involved in a hallucinogenic state), participate in life AND be completely pain free."
"I was very happy during the [psilocybin] sessions and I laughed a lot. We did 4 sessions within 1 month and my attacks went down from 3 attacks daily to [7] very mild attacks per week. After the second session I already noticed a significant improvement in my headaches."
"The experience with psilocybin was something completely new. I was very emotional. The psilocybin helped me a lot with my cluster attacks. At first they reduced a lot, from 7 heavy attacks to 3 mild attacks daily, and after a little while they completely disappeared for a whole year. I am very happy with the result of the treatment."
"I already did 2 therapy cycles with psychedelic substances to treat my cluster headaches. I was cluster-free for 2 years and came back and got psilocybin. I always enjoy listening to music during my treatment. In total I did 4 sessions [with psilocybin] and am cluster-free since then, now 1 year since my last session."
"My decision to use 5-MeO-DALT while NOT in cycle was due to constant shadowing. Three weeks in, I am only experiencing random jolts and minimum shadowing. I will continue the process until I reach a status completely free of any CH activity."
"Best part about [5-MeO-DALT] is it works, no tripping, minor side effects (cold fingers and toes). Inexpensive and easy to administer."
"I take psilocybin relatively regularly as a preventive measure, especially if I feel like I'm on the way to a relapse but experience the 'side effects', i.e. the psychedelic state is too stressful at times, so it depends a little on my mental state."
"I only did 1 [psilocybin] session. Before the session I had 2 attacks per day. Right now, I am cluster-free since 11 months. I am very happy with my decision to do this."
"5-MeO-DALT is life changing. Nothing has given me the peace of mind and comfort DALT has, ever."
"I had 16 attacks per day. After 3 [psilocybin] sessions my attacks got a lot milder and now I only have maximum 6 attacks daily."
"I'm a French user, among others, 5-MeO-DALT since August 2014 with excellent results. The main problem is the dosage that was rough at first, then I bought a scale. I find that the DALT works as well as psilocybin, but much less well and as fast as LSD. I could not keep taking LSD as often, it had become too restrictive, then the DALT is my savior!"
"If I'm starting to experience a CH and I vaporize as little as 3mgs [of DMT, sub psychoactive] I feel the pain subside almost completely within 3 to 5 seconds, and it doesn't come back for a few days."
"I was toward the end of my headache cycle when I took my first dose [of 5-MeO-DALT]. It did give me relief. I took 5 more doses every 5 days, and 1 more after 7 days for a total of 7. It has been 33 days since my last dose. All pain free!"
"If I start to go into a relapse, I take psilocybin about once a week. Every three months or so if I have no problems."
"I had to use mushrooms every two weeks and was still getting shadows. After one dose of 5-MeO-DALT I was shadow free for a month. After second dose no shadowing yet. Going on three months."
"This chemical treatment [5-MeO-DALT] is the answer I have been looking for for 5 years when no doctor could tell me what the answer was."
"I've gone years without getting hold of LSD or mushrooms and those periods in life have been heavy or heavier than usual."
"One of the most incredible experiences of my life was when I first aborted a cluster headache with DMT. That feeling of going from a place of excruciating pain… and feeling the pain fizzle away and die in a matter of seconds."
"My attacks are down to ONE EVERY EVENING. Down significantly in frequency and down dramatically in intensity. I believe this treatment [5-MeO-DALT] needs to be shared with every sufferer."
"The [psilocybin] sessions are always very intense and emotional. I already did multiple sessions and it helps me well with my cluster headaches. Since my last session 6 months ago I am cluster-free."
"I've gotten complete prevention of cluster headaches with 25 micrograms of LSD lasting for a couple weeks, and then I just need to take that amount again, and do so every few weeks until the end of the cycle and I don't experience any cluster headaches."
"[5-MeO-DALT] is by far the best treatment I've ever used in 20 years of being episodic. Currently I'm out of a cycle but occasionally I will get a shadow, when I do I take 15mg and I'm good, no shadows whatsoever. This last cycle was the absolute worst I've ever experienced and was truly contemplating suicide. Thanks to this incredible 5-MeO-DALT my life has changed."
"This has been the most effective treatment I have used. Minimal side effects and a very mild drug. Two hours and I barely notice anything. Psilocybin has become difficult to use because of the frequency in which I need to bust, and the side effect of chronic pain in my body during the trip. Also inconsistencies in effectiveness each bust. I have tried most preventatives minus lithium with none of them working. 5-MeO-DALT has truly been a life-saver."
"I had 12 attacks per day and I was suffering from it. I did 3 sessions [of psilocybin and ketamine] in total. My attacks completely stopped for one and a half years now."
