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Title: PLAN B - not shroom related Post by Flash on Apr 22nd, 2003, 3:35pm PLAN B is what I do when the shrooms are not 100% effective for me. This should be of use to everyone battling CH. PLAN B is based on my experience with computer systems, and also what I will carefully refer to as 'hidden knowledge'. First off PLAN B is not going to provide 100% relief. At best it will reduce the frequency, duration, and intensity of attacks. It may to some extent help people to recover some quality of life. In order for PLAN B to work, the practioner must make efforts to control the usage of any medication known to cause rebound headaches, specifically triptans (Imitrex etc), ergotmaine, and analgesics (aspirin, paracetomal, ibuprofen etc). This doesn't mean going without them altogether though... Now for the unexpected. First off it is important not to view CH as 'the beast' - it's really just a poor communicator! The pain in CH is caused by blood vessels swelling up and pressing down on the trigametric nerve on one side of the head. We think this swelling is related temp changes in brain chemistry somehow brought about by a malfunctioning body clock - the slightly deformed hypothalmus. In order to bring about a remission it is important to try and bring the body clock back into a regular cycle. This goes against typical CH behaviour: Try only to sleep between the correct times. Make sure you get 7 hours a night, but try not to get too much more or less - especially more! Compensate for each headache by advancing the alarm clock, but don't go sleeping 12 hours a day. Try an ensure the sleep takes place between the correct times... go to bed an hour earlier than usual and then perhaps compensate by adding an hour on at the other end. This means 9 hours in bed and anticipating 2 hours of HA. When a HA occurs during the night do not just lie there. This is VERY important. It is usually possible to abort a night time attack without resorting to meds. The worst thing you can do is stay in bed though! As soon as the pain cause you to regain conciousness you need to wake up fully and get up out of bed. Next you must undertake the following ritual behaviour (this can be modified according to personal experience): 1) Boil a kettle. 2) Put some bread in the toaster. 3) While this is underway visit the bathroom and take a leak. 4) Make a cup of 'green tea' - you'll need to purchase some 'gun powder tea' before hand. Gunpowder tea contains virtually no caffiene. Use only a little sugar (or none) and no milk. 5) Spread the toast thinly with some low fat butter substitute. 6) Drink the tea and eat the toast. 7) Massage the entire head, paying special attention to the affected side, and especially the back on the neck. There is likely to be a little boney lump midway between ear and spine, just above the neck on the back of the head - pay close attention to this area. It is best to get someone else to perform the massage if possible. Do NOT press hard into the temple area. Use the flats of the hands to vigourously but lightly rub the temples and sides of the head. 8) Try and read some magazine article or something. The attack is a result of your body clock screwing up. Go along with this it's not a beast. It's a short circuit trying to say 'wake up' or 'eat', or 'visit the bathroom', or 'you should be alseep by now'. The HA is a screwup - the result of it's inability to send the correct signal. The problem is that we don't know what exactly it wants so I suggest doing it all. Now a few important points. 1) You must achieve full and total awakeness. 2) Speed is of the essence. Get moving fast and keep moving fast. Catch the attack as early as possible. 3) Make the direct objective of the ritual to abort the HA within 15 mins, with the HA never reaching it's peak. Make it clear to yourself that the ritual will succeed provided it is performed to the very best of your ability. 4) Make the broader objective to calm any inflamation of the trigametric nerve by reducing the frequency, intensity and duration of attacks. Make the ultimate objective to break the cycle within a reasonable timescale - in my case 2 weeks. Mentally set a specific timescale. 5) Do not plan exactly how the objectives will be achieved, just perform this nightime ritual. This does not require faith. What it does require is an act of will. An act of will is where the will is focused on the objectives for a short but intense period each day. The best way to do this is to imagine that you can speak with divine authority, and force change to occur in line with your will. continued... |
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Title: Re: PLAN B - not shroom related Post by Flash on Apr 22nd, 2003, 3:35pm continued... Most people will be hard pressed to digest that last part, so I'll try and explain where I'm coming from... How hard is it for a person to prevent WWII? Well you'd require a time machine, so pretty hard. How hard to prevent WWII in 1938? Well easier because it doesn't require a time machine but there would still be considerable momentum to overcome, so I doubt anyone would suceed. How hard to prevent WWII the day after Hitler was born? Relatively easy, but still messy and with it's dangers. How hard to prevent WWII the day before Hitler was concieved? Easy - nobody has to die, you just need to temp separate his parents for a few hours. So if you catch something early enough even huge things can be either prevented or ahcieved. Remember that the chain of events that ended with 2 atomic bombs being dropped on Japan started with a single thought (if traced back far enough). A thought has no known mass nor energy, and therefore may be be something that we can influence with our will - provided we catch it early. By the same token each CH attack starts with something very small. Probably the equivalent of a primitive thought in the hypothalmus. Thus it can be influenced by very small (or even none existant) forces. The purpose of the night time ritual is to alter brain chemistry and shock the body out of a CH attack. Also useful is some self hypnosis, especially prior to sleeping. Self hypnosis is very easy to learn and just an extension of the standard relaxation ritual. So what about the daytime? Similar, but the attacks can be pre-empted at an earlier stage. I suggest the following: 1) Avoid hunger. Eat 6 small meals each day. A meal can be a banana, a small bowl of salad, a cold chicken breast, some beans on toast. The important thing is to avoid hunger. Hunger is indirectly linked to the body clock, so avoid that trigger. 2) Caffiene is low doses. Drink coffee or coke at the very first whiff of an attack, but avoid drinking it too excess. 3) Stress. Avoid serious discussions or situations. Someone starts to bug you then walk away from them. Avoid using the phone. Avoid driving the car. 4) Concentrated excitement. Be it a rollercoaster or getting the highscore on a pinball machine, or sex... try doing something each day to give you a thrill. This creates a nice type of stress. I doubt if anyone ever experienced the onset of a CH attack whilst undergoing a thrill. Avoid video games or anything that flickers though. This type of experience leads to a release of endorphines - these kill shadows, claming any inflamation of the trig nerve. 5) Avoid alchohol and smoke/smokey places. 6) Variety, take you mind off CH as much as possible. 7) Even after a bad day, keep fighting. Get back on track, this treatment doesn't rely on an unbroken record. Bounce back. 8) Exercise and fresh air. Go for some long walks. Should you start to feel a HA on the way then walk faster, but further away from home (I know this goes against conventional wisdom). Remember YOU can't have a CH in the middle of knowhere - YOUR body will not permit exposure to that level of danger. It just won't (no doubt some fuckers has though :) I await the story with gritted teeth). 9) Avoid gritting your teeth, or screwing up your eyes. Don't do anything that is an associated side effect to CH. PLAN B does work for me. That might be because of the shrooms - I don't know. However in spring 1995 I had temp no access to shrooms and that was when I first started work on this approach. It worked well then even in it's embryo form. When PLAN B hicups resort to the abortive medication, but use it sparingly. Some of this will make sense, some of it wont. Suck it and see. Faith counts for shit, the only thing that matters is that which can be demonstarted to oneself by oneself. Hope this helps someone. Email me direct if you'd like to discuss any particularily sensitive part of this post. Flash |
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Title: Re: PLAN B - not shroom related Post by kissmyglass on Apr 22nd, 2003, 6:50pm fuck it...I'll just take an Imitrex shot.... ;D Kev |
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Title: Re: PLAN B - not shroom related Post by Roxy on Apr 22nd, 2003, 11:39pm Kev....you have to prepare people for a remark like that.... You just made me spew iced tea all over my monitor..... :P ;D (ok....I lied, it was wine instead of tea) |
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Title: Re: PLAN B - not shroom related Post by NewHeadPLZ on Apr 23rd, 2003, 3:13pm Wish mine was a beer Roxy, but I had to clean my monitor as well. That's just to much to go through, on top of everything else, which I had some damn shots, but I'll stick with O2 Art |
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Title: Re: PLAN B - not shroom related Post by jdownes on Apr 24th, 2003, 6:54am Whilst I don't think all the things you mentioned I could have success with(particularly the creation of tea and toast while I have one), I definitely agree with the aggressive approach to aborting each and every one. Once I get a really bad one in a cycle, I know that my cycle will be elongated(though I never thought it out, it seems the pounding of the trigemal nerve makes sense;takes time to recover). I have cycles as little as 2 weeks, and as long as 4 months, and the 4 month ones were when I did not know about O2 (or for that matter that I had clusters), and medicated through massive amounts of OTC drugs. I for one appreciate anyone who takes time to relate their own experiences. I try to take away any nugget I can. Thanks |
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Title: Re: PLAN B - not shroom related Post by Wendy1 on Apr 25th, 2003, 5:54pm "Stress. Avoid serious discussions or situations. Someone starts to bug you then walk away from them. Avoid using the phone. Avoid driving the car. " I have found that this sort of stress is a HUGE trigger for me! I have had a few started this cycle getting worked up on the phone, and when stressed out. Does it have something to do with my blood pressure rising? I also have had incidents in the past of triggering one while driving, I was becoming to think it was the position I was in, or is it just the stress of driving? This cycle I have been taking a Xanax the very minute I feel like I'm getting upset and uptight. Any thoughts on this? |
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