chronic migraines

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Is pain your “old friend “?

I have been struggling with Pain for many years. There is a saying that that Pain is an old friend ,,,but I don’t know if I would call Pain my “friend”. Friends are nice, they like to do fun things with you, they like to celebrate accomplishments and they support you when your down. Pain does none of those things! When Pain is around,,,she’s not nice at all! She doesn’t like doing fun stuff nor celebrate, and when I need support,,,she kicks me while I’m down! So yeah, I debunk that saying. What do you call your Pain?
#Arthritis #DegenerativeDiscDisease #Fibromyalgia #ChronicMigraines #IBS #ChronicFatigue #Anxiety #Depression #MentalHealth #BackPain #ChronicPain #ChronicIllness #InflammatoryArthritis #chronicinflamation #chronictendonitis #Bursitis

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Chronic Migraines and Mental Health

If you have endured the struggle of chronic migraines and headaches, you know firsthand how awful the experience is. There is a lot to unpack when it comes migraines. For example, simply the anxiety of not knowing when the next attack is going to happen can be paralyzing for some. Or, the impact that chronic migraines can have on relationships. For others, it may be the frustration of people not being able to see their suffering on the outside, so they doubt you, or the severity of this experience.

What people don't often know if they don't suffer from migraines is that the experience of a migraine is an entire event. It's far more than just a headache for most. Many people struggle with auras (seeing visual flashes or patterns during an attack, being sensitive to light and sound, et al). Some will become confused and unable to speak or think clearly, a sort-of temporary aphasia. Vestibular migraines can cause issues with balance, walking, talking, or vertigo, and more. Each person's experience of migraine varies from one to the next (and triggers also vary), which is part of the reason that medical professionals have found it hard to treat and cure migraines. There are more options available nowadays. But, for many, it's still not enough.

Chronic Migraines and Chronic Pain: More than a medical issue

In my practice, I've worked with many people who struggle with chronic migraines and headaches. While people often tend to believe that migraines and headaches are purely a medical issue, chronic pain has a long history of being linked with mental health, as well. The two -- medical and mental health -- are often intertwined when it comes to the experience of chronic pain. Sure, sometimes migraines and headaches can have more of a medical origin. Such as the result of a traumatic brain injury, or hormonal shifts, et al. However, it's also become known that people can be born with a predisposition to migraines or headaches (genetics), and then events in life can trigger it.

For many, these pain triggers can be heavily tied together with mental health.

Chronic pain goes beyond just headaches and migraines. It can be back pain, or Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), digestive issues, and more. Stress, for one example, can cause unpleasant shifts to happen in the body even for people who aren't predisposed to an issue. Think of the times you've been stressed or anxious and experienced the tension in your body, or mouth drying up, body temperature increasing, stomach churning, head start to hurt, your upper back and neck starting to tighten, chest tightening, higher and more rapid breathing, etc. Not only stress and anxiety, but anger, depression, or various types of trauma (not only large traumas, but a series of relational traumas, such as bullying) can have an impact. The body not only responds to present stimuli and triggers, but the body has a way of storing old experiences when they are not emotionally processed. This storage of old emotional experiences can often trigger chronic pain into effect when the emotions either build up enough in the body, or when they call back to a parallel experience (and/or can exacerbate what's already possibly present medically into greater severity or frequency of attack).

Therapy as a treatment for Migraine Headaches

The interconnection between medical and mental health is actually positive for many. This means that people who struggle with chronic migraines and headaches have more options available to them than only medical. I have seen people reduce their frequency and severity of chronic migraines and headaches through therapy. As people, we store so much of our emotional experiences and carry them often without even knowing it. Eventually, we can't overlook them anymore when we start to feel these stored experiences. You may find yourself suddenly experiencing anxiety and panic attacks, or constant body stress, or physical and mental overwhelm that never used to be so present. The same goes with chronic pain.

For the sake of clarity, I'm not suggesting that everyone's chronic migraines are mental health related, however I've seen that it's also commonly the case that medical and mental health works together for chronic issues that don't have an otherwise clear medical explanation. Similarly to how depression can often be helped most by a combination of medication and therapy, I've seen with chronic migraines and headaches that a combination of neurological treatment and deeper psychotherapy can be more helpful than many might realize.

Unfortunately, one of the most difficult stigmas I have seen is the fear that acknowledging mental health triggers for migraines will somehow indicate that the migraines are "all in their head". Something many migraine sufferers have been told throughout their lives, which has been traumatic and dismissive of incredibly painful and lonely experiences of suffering. However, the struggles, the pain, the torture, the accompanying emotional and life impact is all very real. The underlying causes for these struggles, however they are triggered and reinforced over time, is what needs the attention and can ultimately lead to relief.

#Migraine #ChronicMigraines #Headache #MentalHealth #ChronicPain

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Looking for advice #ChronicMigraines #Fibromyalgia

Wanting to hear from anyone who has done the Vyepti infusion for migraines and what your experience was like. We have tried multiple medications and Botox and nothing helps for my chronic migraines. Vyepti is my next step but I’m reading a lot of terrible reviews. I’m not sure it’s worth it. I’d love to here from other #mighty warriors.

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Well what If you’re sick & tired of needing and or asking for help & you feel as if no one truly understands you or your pain, including yourself?! Trying to push through, but constantly being defeated on a daily basis 💔 #MajorDepressiveDisorder #Anxiety
#IBS #PTSD #Asthma #Insomnia #ChronicMigraines #ChronicSinusinfections #overwhelmed #sickandtired #PMDD
#Grief #tired #BipolarDisorder #MightyTogether

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Safety update

Hi everyone

I wanted to put an update on here really quick

(My anxiety has been sky rocketing so I am having a hard time communicating and checking in atm.)

My aunt responded and I will be able to stay with her. ❤️

I will be safe and with a relatively safe family member. I do not foresee obstacles with her. 💜

I’m going to be back in my hometown for a few months and I’m going to struggle a lot. But I will be safer than where I am currently/was planning on being 💗

I will put a more thorough update on here as soon as I can.

Thank you so so so so so much everyone for helping me get through this year.

You all on this app have been the single most life changing support I could ask for. Thank you so much.

#Disability
#ComplexPosttraumaticStressDisorder #CPTSD #PTSD #Anxiety #Trauma #DomesticAbuseSurvivors #Agoraphobia #PanicAttacks #ChronicIllness #ChronicVestibularMigraine #ChronicMigraines #Migraine #ADHD #CheckInWithMe #MightyTogether

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I asked my aunt if I can stay with her and I am scared

I am currently homeless, will be street homeless next week.

I have experienced a massive amount of trauma that I am trying to process. I’ve lost everything due to interpersonal trauma, medical trauma, and DV. Even though I did everything the way I was told. I am legally disabled.

I live in southern Ohio and my family is all up in northern Ohio. It’s about a 3-4 hour drive.

I have #Agoraphobia #PanicAttacks #ComplexPosttraumaticStressDisorder #CPTSD #ChronicMigraines #ChronicVestibularMigraine and #ADHD (currently unmedicated bc it isn’t a priority to get my meds due to more urgent needs 🙃🙄)

There is so much to explain. I just feel scared. I have to be out of her so soon. Like less than a week. And I’m paralyzed in fear. I don’t know how I’m going to be able to get all of my stuff out and I’m scared I’m going to have to just leave it like I’ve had to do so many times before

I don’t know if my aunt will say yes. She hasn’t responded yet. She offered but there have been so many offers rescinded that I don’t trust people.

I don’t know when I’ll be able to be back here
I won’t have my services in person
Travel is awful when I’m this sick
I’m so dissociative how am I going to orderly or logically pack up my stuff, move it to my storage, and physically drive all of those hours with my dog. I’m afraid I won’t have help. I’ve done so much on my own and I haven’t been able to eat because of how unsafe I am
I shouldn’t have to do this
My housing voucher was lost a year ago due to medical negligence

I am so so so scared
I don’t want to be back home
There are major triggers there who don’t respect boundaries

#CheckInWithMe

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Child-free sort of by choice, sort of nkt

TW: domestic violence

I don’t usually talk about this

I went into the education field when I was 15

It was a “great career to have while raising a family.” 🙄

I was pretty sure I wanted kids although I went back and forth some years.

I got my Ed.S. and began working. I had been in a stable, long term relationship. We were engaged for a couple of years after dating for a few. I was getting married and getting set up for my family.

Then I experienced domestic violence in the first year of our marriage. I temporarily got out the night it turned physical. I got my emergency protection order within a month of it happening. I didn’t wait. I did it all the way society wants us to do it. I fought for him to acknowledge we weren’t reconciling. I thought I was moving on with my life.

I became disabled. I dated someone else who was abusive. I never really got “safe.” I didn’t realize leaving meant I would be stuck here seemingly forever.

I tried telling people how scared I was about all of the critical years of my life were slipping away.

All of my friends were staring families. They didn’t have time to even respond to me. They truly abandoned me. For so many reasons

They almost all work in the education field. Their social medias no longer include much else than their kids. One (the one who treats me like garbage) even joked with her husband that she only married him to have kids. I believe that joke, now seeing how she treats everyone as stepping stones to get what she wants. (If you’ve read my previous posts this probably doesn’t surprise you).

They promised me I could be an auntie to their kids. It was such a lie because they wouldn’t even treat me like a friend, much less a family member. They just didn’t want to deal with their own concerns regarding possible infertility since they were all in their 30s and concerned. It hit too close until it didn’t hit at all and i became othered.

30 years of concurrent friendship, best friends with three women, all of it gone in months because they wouldn’t treat me like a friend, or even a human.

Their families mattered over the decades of friendship.

They no longer have the space in my life.

This hurts so so so much.

I won’t have kids. I’m 36 and I just don’t see it as something that would be a responsible choice as a disabled women with very little support. I don’t want to hear how I’m making the right choice. I didn’t really make it. Society made it for me. When I became disabled. By experiencing trauma. By other people. I can’t even get enough money to eat. Yet I have been told repeatedly I would get more assistance if I had kids. Welcome to the dystopian universe.

And all of the people I loved most just disappeared. Their entire identities just disappeared when they had kids. Their social medias have no history from their life before kids. My own history has been robbed as well as my future

It’s been so cruel.

#DomesticAbuseSurvivors #Anxiety #PTSD #CPTSD #ComplexPosttraumaticStressDisorder #Trauma #ChronicIllness #ChronicMigraines #ChronicVestibularMigraine #ADHD #Disability #DisabilityBenefits #Agoraphobia #PanicAttacks

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💔 🌺🫶Definitely needed to see this today. For anyone struggling, myself included I really hope this will give you some hope, even if it’s a little bit. #MajorDepression #Anxiety #ChronicPain #Stressedout #IntrusiveThoughts #Asthma #ChronicMigraines #MightyTogether

…will it ever be different?!

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Homeless nearing street homeless

Hi.
Idk if this is going to make sense
I just feel devastated right now
(Please see previous posts for more info)
I’m two years homeless. I’m disabled and cannot get my medical needs met. I don’t have the resources I need to survive and I’m experiencing a lot of medical trauma and be betrayaltrauma.

I don’t know how to catch anyone up on what happened today. But I just don’t have any plan for safety.
I thought I did but I found out the timeline is going to be even longer.
I’m devastated. All I want is safety
I cannot move on with my life until I have safety. I cannot do any therapy until I have safety. My life is seemingly forever on hold because of negligence and trauma.

I cannot keep moving my things from temporary place to temporary place.

I do it all without support and I am so weak because I cannot eat enough.

I am scared I’m going to never see my belongings again because I cannot go to my storage (massive triggers)
Can you imagine being without the simplest things that make your day easier or more comforting for years? Without things that make life bearable?

I have so many memories stored in there that I never want to remember again after this year.

This is torture
I don’t know where I will be in a week and a half
I have lost years of my life, years of simple things like accessing my every day things that provide me joy and comfort, because of negligence
I do not want to leave everything I own to go to a city I don’t trust with the medical conditions I have when I have already been failed by this system so many times.

#ComplexPosttraumaticStressDisorder #CPTSD #PTSD #Trauma #Agoraphobia #PanicAttacks #GeneralizedAnxietyDisorder #ADHD #ChronicIllness #Disability #DisabilityBenefits #ChronicMigraines #ChronicVestibularMigraine #CheckInWithMe

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I’m struggling

It’s really hard to accept the way I’m being treated. I refuse to just let these agencies speak to me the way they do without calling them out.

I have been experiencing extreme food or toiletries insecurities and shortages. It has gone to the point where I’m so overwhelmed with everything I’m not getting that I cannot figure out where to start with what I need.

The one agency that i consistently have gotten some supplements like noodles and shampoo etc has severely restricted my services when I advocated for myself. The told me “we work with survivors not for survivors.” WHAT HAVE I NOT DONE!?
I got confused by the email because of how wordy it was. They have known for years this is a limitation for me. No one called me. Then the reoccurring appointment kept getting missed. Despite knowing I needed to access resources. I told them in group about the barriers. They already know.
They aren’t acknowledging this is the only place I can access with my limitations. And they know I am in dangerous need. I bring it up every week. And no one has called me.
This has been a complete 180 from how it was a few months ago.
I had always been supported and encouraged by them. They didn’t even call me to fully hear what I was experiencing.
Everyone else I have spoken with are stunned this happened, they all know it’s not okay. But that doesn’t change how they are treating me because they are now another agency literally silencing my voice by telling me I can’t talk in group at risk of sounding too clinical. Before I even got to talk.

I’m so disappointed and I’m so scared. These are our helpers. These are our advocates. 🤮😱

#DomesticAbuseSurvivors #ComplexPosttraumaticStressDisorder #CPTSD #Anxiety #PTSD #Trauma #GeneralizedAnxietyDisorder #Agoraphobia #PanicAttacks #ChronicMigraines #ChronicIllness #CheckInWithMe #ChronicVestibularMigraine

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