No, emotions are not causing your migraines

I simply had to share this.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/07/health/debunking-migraine-misconceptions.html

"“When you let someone (maybe yourself) get away with thinking of migraine as caused by a trigger,” he wrote, “it either makes it your fault (you ate that cheese after all) or hopeless (you are screwed; you can’t control the weather).

When people blame migraines on a person’s failure to control something in their life — be it anxiety, stress or environmental factors — they are succumbing to this same scientifically flawed logic. This misconception is potentially dangerous for migraine sufferers and those advising them, Dr. Young and other neurologists emphasize.

“If they succumb to the myth that people get migraine because they can’t cope with stress,” adds Dr. MacGregor. “They are, one, completely wrong and, two, will not get optimal treatment.”

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I know where your mind is at the moment, I go back in forth with thinking I have control and then thinking I have no control over this mess. I’ve found it best not to take either extreme position, you obviously always have some amount of control over your situation. How much can never be figured, but it can always be improved a bit with training I think.

For example, yesterday I had a migraine likely due to sun exposure. In pain I thought “crap, a migraine, I can’t do anything about this”. And then I fought back and thought, “well, I could be nice to myself, lie down and take a couple aspirin”. And obviously that made me suffer much less than trudging through the rest of the day with a migraine. And that was one good example. I have many bad examples that I will not be posting…

You are right, the problem is not emotions, but I do believe we can overcome some of the migraine suffering by getting better awareness our emotions.

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Emotions don’t cause migraines directly. I would never have imagined they did but our emotions cause us to react in a certain way in the face of migraines and other, er, challenges to our organised way of life and that can cause stress which can lead to migraines and/or exacerbate symptoms. @ander454 is right, a calm reasoned approach is always the best way forwards. Helen

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