After listening to this TED talk by Amelia Scott Barrett, MD, a lot of things resonated with my journey suffering migraines. I had to learn the hard way that triptans cause chronification, creating muscle tension, which leads to more migraines. Even when following all the rules to avoid rebound headaches, I still got them if I used triptans or Ibuprofen at all.
Dr. Barrett promotes DNA testing to see what genetic conditions you may be predisposed to and can therefore prepare for. Migraine sufferers often have a gene that makes them poor detoxifyers. So eliminating toxins and managing detoxing more often would be beneficial. I do foot zones and ionic foot baths for this purpose.
Migraines make the amygdala bigger which leads to people becoming more emotional, anxious, depressed, etc.
So what can be done? Physical therapy to help the posture. Chiropractic care can help. I found relief using a microcurrent device called Healy for a little bit. But the truth is that migraines are the body's way of trying to get your attention that something is out of balance. Almost always this includes emotions. If you don't address the emotional side of migraines, you will not find healing.
I found relief using Ubrelvy for the past couple of years, but no matter what I have found that works, it is always temporary because it's just a bandaid. It doesn't treat the root problem. I have found that my root problem is feeling unsafe. After several years of severe stress my nervous system forgot how to balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. I could either live in fight or flight or I could shut down and feel apathetic. The trick is to help your brain remember that it can run both systems simultaneously. This is best done through meditation and deep breathing. Acknowledge your emotions and recognize triggers in your life. Emotions that are associated with migraines include:Being unable to flow easily with life, wanting to take things at your own pace and and not being pushed, the inability to handle pressure or stress for too long, wanting to be in control or pushing for control (Truman, Feelings Buried Alive Never Die, Pg 258).
Physical Therapist Taylor Kruse (@Kruseelite) uses an analogy I find very helpful. Any kind of chronic pain can be caused by an overflowing threat bucket. We each have an imaginary bucket of how much we can handle. When the threats in our world overflow the bucket, our nervous systems experience dysfunction. Recognizing what fills that threat bucket and eliminating those threats is key to true healing. First and foremost on this list for me is when I feel a conflict of emotions such as I'm frustrated with my husband, whom I love. Another way to think of this is the stacking of emotions. When you feel angry, frustrated, hurt, betrayed... all of these things together overwhelm your nervous system. Acknowledging these feelings, but then letting them go instead of ruminating over them is an important part of the healing process.
Focusing on calming down the stress response through deep breathing exercises where you acknowledge the threats but also realize you are safe in this moment helps your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems regulate. With migraine there seems to be a dysfunction between the two where you can't easily switch back and forth without triggering pain. We need to remind our brains that life is like a rollercoaster. It can feel scary and exciting yet we can be safe all at the same time.
Rewiring this neuropathway of safety is key to being pain free. Why? Because for those of us who have experienced severe pain, the fear of this happening again is extremely threatening. The more we have experienced this pattern of pain/fear of future pain, the more likely we are to trigger it.
I like Sarah Jackson's approach to rewiring your brain. She said that rewiring your nervous system doesn't work if your attitude is that you need fixing or you have to save yourself. It works because of God's love for you. You matter and you have to believe that about yourself or your nervous system won't shift.
