Mental Illness and Migraines

Well I thought I had this sorted - the jaw clenching and twisting in my sleep - but apparetnly not quite.

A couple of weeks ago I reinitiated the process (after stoppping midway late last year) to go to Eastern CASA for specialist counselling to help me deal with the sexaul abuse I suffered as a child - I just feel it's time and I am now strong enough to work on it directly.

So as soon as I managed to tee up a time that my PHaMS mentor could go with me for the intake appoiment - guess what happened?

• trouble going to bed at night plus I have to read for at least a half hour before going to sleep - so I don't actually get to sleep until about midnight instead of 10.30/11
• waking with headaches in the mornings (not quite to migraine stage thankfully)
• aching shoulders, worse rather than better after sleeping
• waking in the night with pins and needles in arm or leg or both because I'm trying not to move into the old head-twisitng position which is one of the causes of my migraines

I find this process of healing is ever iterative, things I think I've "dealt with" take time and repeated work to sift through the levels of damage.

Cheers, Kristin

Hi Alessandra,

Re weather affecting migraine: my son doesn't usually suffer from migraines, but he does get them when there's a dramatic change in barometric pressure (like with a storm coming).

I hope your mum enjoys her retirement 🙂

Best regards,

Kristin

Well good for you both. BTW I think we should be helped to work for as long as we want to (rather than forced to until 70).

My dad is in his 70s and in his 3rd career as an author (having been a lawyer and a nuclear physicist). My paternal grandfather is in his 90s and he and his wife still buy a few head of sheep or cattle to fatten up and sell. Yhey are pretty amazing.

Best regards,

Kristin

Hi,

I have suffered from fairly severe headaches since I was child, just always seemed to have a headache when I was a small child. Some years ago the headaches became much more severe and resulted in nausea and vomiting occasionally.

Two things have helped nearly eliminate headaches from my life, very thankfully!!!!

1. A doctor(GP) I didn't normally see at my old clinic in Brisbane discovered that I had high circulatory pressure and for a time the circulatory pressure medication made the headaches go away. Some months later they began to return to my life.

2. Thru discussions with my acupuncturist in Brisbane, I started taking milk thistle tablets regularly and that has put an end to the headaches nearly permanently and I rarely get headaches these days. The reason my acupuncturist sugggested milk thistle tablets is because milk thistle is a liver tonic and detox and in Chinese medicine headaches are seen as being caused by a dysfunctional liver. You may very well say that it is just placebo effect but if I keep taking milk thistle I have very few headaches but I've stopped taking it a few times and after a few weeks to a month the headaches inevitably return and going back on milk thistle makes them go away????

I can't say that the above might help you and it's no good taking circulatory pressure tablets unless you do have high circulatory pressure and milk thistle may not work for you either but both the above have helped me, that's all I know, sorry!!!!

Hi Geronimo,

Thanks for sharing those ideas. You are right of course, no good trying to reduce circulatory pressure if it's not hight to start with, but maybe worth getting it tested. Same with the milk thistle, as long as it's not going to have unwanted side-effects or isn't contraindicated (eg in combo with other meds) then it might be worth a try.

Best regards,

Kristin

Yes, indeed have your circulatory pressure checked when next at your GP. If you happen to be over 50 years of age your GP should really check your circulatory pressure each and every time you visit them!!

As for milk thistle it is simply a herbal supplement that is even available in the major supermarkets these days where they keep their vitamins. I probably can't name brands in this forum but a good value one has a red and green label with a green screw-on lid that flips up once you have opened the bottle and removed the stuck on paper seal which is there for your own safety - don't remove it in store!! Don't be fooled into thinking that the higher the price the better, I've had good results from the value brand that I have described. Often higher prices simply mean more profits for the company selling the item and that applies to many things other than vitamins and herbal supplements.

Cheers,

Clyde.

Oh yeah... a vagal nerve stimulator also works on depression and there is a lot of research going on in regards to other mental illnesses....may be a win/win