[Foofoobar12345]

I used to get frequent migraine attacks - there were times when I would be down 3 days in a week, just unable to be productive. A lot of it was induced by stress.

I then tried something novel - I took some LSD. I had an intense psychedelic trip, dug deep into my psyche, realized I was a giant ball of anxiety. The anxiety's root cause was ultimately a fear of mortality (around the same time, my dad was going through a terminal illness, we spent many years in and out of ICUs, so a lot of that had soaked into me). I had to come to terms with my own mortality, which happened when I just "melted" away and lost sense of self momentarily, and once I did, I felt so much lighter as I came out of the trip.

My migraines stopped right then and there; I kid you not. I didn't get a single headache for the next 4-5 years, and in general, I was also a lot more balanced and at peace, even though I went through some highly stressful times. It was miraculous.

Of course, life has a way of creeping up on me, and I do get migraines occasionally, but when I do, I know how to stop them - I just need to slow down, meditate (not feel-good meditations all these meditation apps promote, but actually meditate and feel your muscles relaxing). That single LSD trip taught me how to relax myself physiologically.

Not saying this is going to work for everyone, just sharing my personal experience. Please keep in mind that playing with psychedelics is like playing with fire. Exercise caution.

[Aurornis]

As a counter-antidote: I know several people now who have experimented with psychedelics with the goal of addressing mental health issues who ended up significantly worse.

One of them got stuck with a nagging feeling that the world wasn’t quite real that lasted for a very long time, which resulted in a lot of anxiety.

[tkzed49]

Depersonalization and derealization are truly awful. Having experienced them for non-psychedelic reasons, it's almost indescribable.

Sometimes people say "seeing events in third person". My experience was that my consciousness and actions were completely disconnected from my observations of reality. Like, I questioned whether I had any influence at all over my existence. Basic, predictable events were suddenly uncertain and terrifying. It left me with no mental capacity to do anything but uneasily exist.

With treatment, it goes away gradually over months. I never want to go back there.

[quackscience]

It definitely depends on the person and the state of mind they have when they go into it. I've had really overwhelming de-personalization episodes on LSD as well and they were extremely positive, life transforming experiences. I had studied and practiced Buddhism for years prior to having those experiences, though, which helped me integrate what was happening. It was like all of a sudden getting a direct experience of what was previously just words and philosophy -- "oh, this is what he was talking about."

Had I gone into it totally blind with no way to frame it it probably would have been a nightmarish scenario though. There's a reason why Right View (samyak-drishti) is the first of the 8 Noble Truths [1] and the one really emphasized in the beginning of your Buddhist practice.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/View_(Buddhism)

[vasco]

One wonders if that's how it actually is and the rest is just the brain fooling us into having control by way of rationalizing the actions we were going to do anyway.

[encipriano]

We kinda know its like that dont we. Perhaps those who suffer such condition see throuh the abstractions our brain makes. Like seeing things in a rawer form that doesnt align well with more normative views of society.

[Galaxeblaffer]

> Like seeing things in a rawer form that doesnt align well with more normative views of society.

Psycedelics in a nutshell

[shkkmo]

Without the lies our brain tells our consciousness, we couldn't function. Even core stuff like the way that we see or our experience of choice, are dependent on our brain fooling us in some way.

Luckily, we an pretty good at being hypocritical. This allows us to learn and think about this stuff while still believing the lies.

[iamacyborg]

There’s certainly a lot of research and a lot of philosophical thought leaning in that direction.

[lo_zamoyski]

This suffers from the homunculus fallacy.

[Foofoobar12345]

Yup - they can also give you migraines (or worse) if you introduce bugs into the "software", just as I was able to debug my problems away.

[chenlian]

I firmly oppose the use of LSD under any circumstances, as it often marks the beginning of self-destruction, no matter how justified the reasons may seem. In my experience, those who have used LSD inevitably see their lives spiral into chaos.

[dmos62]

There's something to be said about psychedelics and introversion in general being a two-edged sword. There's also something to be said about how we get into trouble when we consider beliefs or abstract feelings as something outside our control.

[xvedejas]

Even sub-psychedelic doses of tryptamines is known to have an effect on certain migraines and cluster headaches: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triptan

[ulrikrasmussen]

Can this family of drugs even give a psychedelic experience at higher doses? They are acting on 5-HT1B and 5-HT1D, not the 5-HT2A receptors that psychedelics act on.

[3D30497420]

I take a triptan for mine (naratriptan) and it has helped. Certainly not a cure though.

[ddmf]

I had a headache that seemed like a cluster headache and I took lsd every week for about 3 years, I'd get 5 days headache free out of 7 - was wonderful.

Then I met a gp who actually helped and mentioned indometacin and because that worked I was diagnosed with chronic parosysmal hemicrania.

PPIs didn't work, so I took ranitidine but eventually my stomach couldn't take the indometacin anymore and I had to stop it - the headaches returned.

Then I had an abcess in my jaw that almost killed me of sepsis and had to have two surgeries on my jaw and spent a month in the hospital on antibiotics. CPH didn't return.

Now I take a mild dose of propranolol daily and I rarely have headaches or migraines.

[specialist]

Damn. That's awful.

Methinks dentists could be doing a lot more screenings for diseases.

[ErigmolCt]

Stress is definitely a huge migraine trigger for me too, and it's really interesting how that trip helped you get to the root of it. I haven't tried psychedelics, but I can relate to the idea that learning to truly relax (not just surface-level relaxation) can make a big difference

[DiscourseFan]

Psychedelic treatment of migraines has nothing to do with the trip, however. Be careful of confusing your feelings with your actual health, they are not always related.

[smeeger]

true. the one time i used lsd i had a horrifying bad trip, like a waking nightmare. the kind of bad trip that people die from. but my migraines completely stopped for five years afterwards.

[snozolli]

Psychedelic treatment of migraines has nothing to do with the trip, however.

What does this even mean, and where is your proof?

Be careful of confusing your feelings with your actual health, they are not always related

Why are you talking down to people, oh sage one?

[DiscourseFan]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triptan From a comment above.

And to respond to the latter, how many people are diagnosed every year with terminal cancer after a routine doctor’s appointment? I didn’t believe I needed an example.

[wonderwonder]

I had a similar experience but with simple Marijuana. I was getting migraines every week for months. Specifically my eye would catch light at some strange angle and it would almost burn itself onto my retina (massive light sensitivity). I was also highly stressed at the time.

I was laying in bed with a migraine on a Saturday early afternoon. Smoked some pot (I am not a day smoker, generally pretty sober during the day) and then sat down. I just told myself that this was stupid, I live an incredible life, have a family that loves me and its all self induced and I was done with it. Forced myself to get out of bed and just started moving. Trudged my way through it that day and have not really had a migraine since. This was years ago.

I have occasionally had that initial flash of light that tells me a migraine is coming (always while sitting down to work so I know its stress related). As soon as it hits, I close my eyes and just will it to go away. Has been pretty successful. A couple of times I have had to sit there for 10 minutes for the lens flare (for lack of a better word) to go away. This has happened maybe twice a year for the last ~4 years.

Not saying its self induced / stress for everyone but this worked for me.

[amelius]

> actually meditate and feel your muscles relaxing

Could you provide a short description of how you approach this? E.g. how do you start and which muscles do you focus on, etc.

[slibhb]

This is where pseudoscience comes from. You dropped acid and think it helped you but you probably tried many different things before acid which "didn't work". In all likelihood the acid had nothing to do with it; it was just a coincidence that your symptoms improved.

Also, it's common to have a lot of migraines for a period in your life and then stop having them. Or sometimes the reverse. I used to get very painful migraines about twice a year. Eventually that stopped. I still get migraines a couple times a year but they're quick "silent migraines" i.e. not painful, just annoying and disorienting.

[quackscience]

Possibly, but there are a lot of people that self-administer LSD for migraines who say it helps tremendously. I'm also one of those people. Between occasional LSD and daily magnesium supplementation, my migraines are very infrequent these days.

https://www.science.org/content/article/lsd-alleviates-suici...

[AnthonBerg]

Are you aware of the ample research and scientific knowledge on the interplay between the 5-HT2A receptor and inflammation, vasomotor effects, and effects of 5-HT2A activation on migraine and cluster headaches?

In… all likelihood you do not?

This review paper is particularly interesting, especially because nobody is discussing this and nobody has read it: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10....

The author is a serious person and this is a significant review paper of a solid and broad research foundation.

There are also studies on 5-HT2A agonists (“psychedelics”) on migraine and cluster headaches directly.

[dimal]

This is also how many scientific discoveries start. An n=1 observation. Then more observations, then more validation. This is how we ended up getting ketamine for depression.

[mettamage]

> This is where pseudoscience comes from.

I disagree, if it stopped it stopped. It could be from something else, but his LSD intake is the most likely candidate. It would become pseudoscience if he or she would claim that this will work for everyone.

Also, don't forget that science can make a similar flaw. Just because a drug works on average, doesn't mean that it will work for you or that it won't have any negative side effects. Human variation can be quite big with certain things.

[shaky-carrousel]

Stress is a common migraine trigger.