Although I do not generally blog about medical matters, except for the birth defects with which my children and grandchildren have to cope, I have run across so many complaints on the blogosphere about migraines that I thought it might be worthwhile to wander into new blog territory and share my experience at controlling them. My son, Shane, too, is prone to migraines and is able to control them. Perhaps our experience will help someone.
I had terrible migraines in 1980 as a result of a fall down a flight of stairs that broke my back (T5 compression fracture). The doctor said, though, that I should have had migraines all my life, given my car sickness as a child and other related conditions. I was in 3-day agony with each migraine and could not work, but ultimately I found a way to stop them before they began. Initially, I would fight the headache, as is my tendency to do with everything in life. However, that only made them worse. I tried to ignore them. No deal. Like others who suffer from migraines, I quickly learned that lying down in a dark room would help. What was happening, then, I realized was that I was giving in to my body and letting my body take over and readjust itself. Once I realized this, I was able to create the same feeling (condition) in my body without needing the help of the darkened room and sofa. I would simply momentarily blank out; in other words, I darkened my mind completely until there were no thoughts left and my autonomous system alone was in charge of my body. That allowed it to regulate the amount of blood flowing through my head, bringing everything back to normal. At first, I needed a few minutes of "blanking out," but with time I learned to manage it in just a second or two. I am fortunate that I do not get migraines in my sleep and wake up with them. They only sneak up on me in my waking hours, and when I feel that pain creeping toward me, even if I am in a meeting or talking to someone, I blank out for a second or two, and, shizzam, I am back to normal. (Of course, I also avoid the food triggers. Chocolate and caffeine are great pals of migraines, at least for me, so I avoid both, and so I have many fewer episodes of needing to stop the pain creep in its tracks.) Now, I sometimes have migraines attempt to start, but I have not had a real migraine in 29 years.
When I described what I was doing to the doctor, he told me that this was called biofeedback and that it could be taught. Since I taught myself intuitively, I had saved a lot of money on training, which typically takes about six months. (Even so, I think it would be time and money well spent.)
Ditto for Shane. At age 11, he had to come home from hiking the Appalachian Trail with his father and see a doctor because of multi-day migraines. The doctor put him on Inderal, which bothered me because it acts on the heart. Even with medication, Shane was frequently absent from school his 8th grade year from migraines that caused him to vomit for days (my earlier experience). I explained my "blanking out" technique to him, but even though he tried hard at it, the migraines continued. Then suddenly they stopped completely. I asked Shane what had happened, and he said that he had finally understood what I was doing in terms of biofeedback. The process is very hard to describe accurately, which is why it took Shane some time to figure it out. He had to learn to try easier, not harder -- and that is also something that is difficult to describe. But he finally got it. He, too, now can stop the headaches before they start and has been migraine-free for 21 years.
For those of you who suffer from migraines -- I know just how debilitating they can be -- it's worth a conversation with your doctor about biofeedback training. If it is at all possible to control your migraines, it is worth the investment in learning to do so.
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