Posted by pinksharkmark (206.105.238.200) on January 09, 2001 at 23:21:48:
In Reply to: Shroom therapy posted by Pixie on January 09, 2001 at 22:18:28:
It is not necessary to wait until you actually having a headache to take them. Flash sometimes likes to do this, more for the thrill of having the beast retreat with his tail between his legs than out of any medical necessity. Flash has sometimes deliberately taken a big glass of whiskey to ENSURE that a whopper headache starts before taking his "tea".
But don't forget that Flash is from Scotland. Enough said. (wink, wink).
On the other hand, for a few years he would take the mushrooms every six months, just before his twice-annual headache cycles were due to occur. This method prevented the cycles from even starting, and he had several years without any pain at all.
Pixie is right in that it is perhaps best to wait until you are SURE that you are in a cycle (or episode) before taking them, for two reasons.
1) You can verify that it was actually the shrooms that aborted the cycle, rather than the cycle just not starting at its scheduled time. Even for people whose cycles are regular as clockwork, it is always possible that for whatever reason this year was different.
2) The psilocybin seems to keep them away for a limited amount of time... from what we know so far it seems to be from at least six months to over a year for episodics. It stands to reason that the longer you wait to take them, the longer it will be before you have to take them again. This is a more efficient use of the medicine. It has been speculated that using them too frequently may eventually result in them not working at all. It is obviously WAY to early to know that for sure.... there is just not enough data available yet... but it always makes sense to take as little as possible of ANY medication.
pinky