Psychosomatics Of Migraine. "Simple" Migraine

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

I started writing this article several times and in each new version I was buried and drowned in a variety of symptoms and causes of migraines. According to the neurologists I work with, only about 11% of cephalalgias are associated with one or another organic pathology. Everything else is very vague and unpredictable, and then a certain period comes, and migraines that torment a person for almost his entire life suddenly disappear as mysteriously as they once appeared. This is probably one of the main reasons why migraines are considered psychosomatosis. The second reason is that with migraines of various etiologies, people react differently to specific (point) treatment, and some do not react at all, while improvement in the condition of patients as a result of psychotherapeutic measures is almost always observed. Therefore, I will not dwell on the description of the symptoms, course and somatic causes of migraines, for most people they are quite different. I propose to proceed from the fact that migraine is not a joke, therefore, the one who suffers from this ailment has not only an established diagnosis, but also selected drugs that help alleviate his condition.

As for the general psychological reasons, the popular psychosomatics taught us that migraine is associated with the rejection of one's own self for the sake of others, since the head is associated with a person's personality. At the same time, the practice of scientific psychosomatics and work with people in the clinic is more inclined to the version of excessive pressure on oneself and the absence of a subjective feeling of pleasure, since the head never hurts itself (the systems and tissues around are involved in the mechanism of pain, and not the brain itself). And the very fact that each type of migraine can go in a different opposite direction always adds to the vision that people suffering from migraine are upset with feedback from themselves. This is a very strong generalization. In our practice, each individual variant of the development of migraine offers completely different stories, in some way echoing the official "picture of the patient's personality", and in some ways significantly expanding and clarifying it. I will write about the most common types of migraines in a few notes, I'll start this one with the most common case - migraines without an aura unrelated to other physiological symptoms.

Migraine without aura

Migraine without an aura is most often associated with psycho-emotional overstrain, fatigue, so it is often confused with tension pain. However, we are not talking about muscle overstrain, but about moral fatigue, when people carry a problem in themselves for a long time, constantly replay the solution in their head, plan a lot and tensely wait for permission, are afraid of not being in time or being untimely, etc.

Also, such clients often have gaps in the skills of effective planning (they seem to take on too many responsibilities for periods, or on the contrary do nothing and start the course of certain work processes). Self-esteem is often violated (not so much that it is underestimated, but also in the fact that a person overestimates his abilities, from which he undertakes what is not always within his power, and at the peak of the subconscious resolution of this conflict "I cannot cope ! "there is a headache).

Basically, people with "simple" migraines do not always understand their resources, both physical and psychological, and therefore often show symptoms of addiction (both from other people, and from food, etc.). Also, in the process of psychotherapy, they very often have difficulty in describing their feelings and experiences, they hesitate with the answer and constantly choose between two opposites "on the one hand, I feel this, because …, but on the other hand, I feel this, because…". It is difficult for such people to make decisions and make choices, so they prefer to go "on the knurled", buying the same products, clothes, listening to the same music, watching the same programs and films, etc. This is probably one of those options when a person's connection with himself is broken more as a result of upbringing than as a result of innate features, character traits, temperament, etc.

At the same time, this type of pain is often associated with the conflict experienced the day before, stress and is associated with the release of cortisol. Psychologically, this is due to the fact that, for one reason or another, the client has impaired communication skills. I cannot say that these are people who suppress their needs and do not know how to say "no", because Among the cases of really increased anxiety and avoidance of conflict, there were also clients who, on the contrary, in the dialogue behave overly self-confident and even aggressive, and often themselves are the initiators of the conflict.

One way or another, we correlate a "simple" migraine without an aura not so much with personality traits as with situational psychosomatics, where the disease manifests itself as a result of a specific event and a learned destructive model of behavior. Accordingly, depending on what became the starting point and what behavioral strategies the client uses, we select methods of psychocorrection. Since the onset of seizures is cyclical, and not one-time, it is important for us to identify which specific attitudes and actions make a person react in this way to the identified problem and offer constructive options for changing them.

At the same time, the migraine attacks themselves mainly come not in the process of the conflict itself (both within and interpersonal), which is more characteristic of tension headaches, but after a while, which takes away from the client's awareness of the connection with the conflict situation. In such moments (as in general in the diagnosis of "chronic" headaches), an observation diary plays a very important role. It is thanks to him that not only the psychologist can confirm or deny the connection of the disease with certain life events, but the doctor can also note important diagnostic criteria (for example, what drugs and how they work, is there a connection with food, allergies, what effect physiotherapy measures give etc.).