Migraine Triggers:
Are You Listening To The Language of Pain?

Reader Question:

I have cripplingly painful headaches. I'm trying to keep up my responsibilities (family, job), but the pain is exhausting me. Any advice for relieving these migraines?

Nancy's Response:

Often with severe chronic pain, there are underlying emotional, life-style or energetic issues. Is it possible that your body is trying to speak to you? Is it asking for change in the language of pain?

Are You Willing To Listen?

Once I worked with a young woman who suffered severe migraines. She was very sad that the headaches kept her from living a normal life. She wanted to go out with friends, have a boyfriend. But the migraines were so frequent and severe that she just couldn't.

However, they always went away when she visited dry climates. It was clear that moving to the Southwest would improve her life dramatically. But she was extremely attached to her ill father, whom she had cared for most of her life. She was unwilling to relinquish care of him to other family members, so she chose not to relocate. She was choosing to sacrifice her life to care for her father.

You, too, are suffering greatly. Your headaches may be telling you something important. Are you willing to really listen? And then are you willing to do what is necessary to truly take care of your own needs, however inconvenient that might be? If not, ask yourself--why not?

To facilitate your efforts toward migraine headache relief, it might be helpful to keep a journal about migraine triggers by recording when the migraines come and what precedes them:

• what you ate and drank
• quality of sleep
• dreams
• people you interacted with
• schedule
• events
• stress levels
• thoughts
• feelings
• general feeling tone of the day, etc.

Keep the journal for at least a month, and see what patterns emerge. This could help you discover migraine triggers and other useful places to make changes in your life, if you are willing.

If you resist giving yourself the time and resources to make a serious effort to heal, it's important for you to shine the light of consciousness on that. It's important information. A mental health therapist might be helpful with this process.

More Migraine Trigger, Prevention And Relief Resources

In addition, be sure to see a medical doctor if you haven't already. Then try every complementary and life-style approach available, including

• energy healing,
• acupressure,
• avoiding common dietary migraine triggers,
• adequate hydration,
• massage,
• relaxation therapy,
• attention to rest and sleep,
• mindfulness,
• yoga,
• herbs and supplements (which you should check out with your doctor),
• and reading Dr. Gabor Mate's book, "When The Body Says No."

I wish you the best in these explorations.

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