Yesterday, after a comment from Alex that maybe I was taking too many painkillers, I tried to tackle my migraine via natural remedies. So I drank lots of water, had some caffeine because I know I am addicted and my brain needs it, had herbal teas, used my migraine stick and played with the skull pressure points. What I normally do, but I did more of it, and without the help of painkillers to actually take the pain away.
Was I successful? It certainly dimmed the pain, but it was always there. I found that noises bothered me more than lights and the computer screen (which was good, because I still needed to work). I also felt fairly sad during most of the day. I know that the main reason for that was being told off when I was just trying to help, but being in pain couldn't have helped that.
I ended up just curling up in the sofa with knitting and a movie, Enchanted, and that cheered me up a little bit. And I am now half-way up the back of Sizzle, which is coming on very well, and very red.
Going to Tai Chi did make me feel a lot better. It lifted me, and it also made me the good kind of tired. I have noticed that I better at my Tai Chi classes the more depressed I am when I go. Being down makes me concentrate on the movements, and it makes me push through the pain (ok, to enjoy the pain, fine), and reach a bit further, hold my back a bit straighter, hold the positions a bit longer.
However, half way through concentrating on the pain because I am down, I change to concentrating to hold the position, and then I forget that I am low, and just feel the Tai Chi. And the water; I see water everywhere when I'm in class.
So I think this Tai Chi is helping. If only, it lifted my mood yesterday. It also helped to make me tired, and then I had the first half-decent night of sleep in several weeks. Sure, I am still tired, but not as much. It feels niiiiiiiiiice.
Wednesday, 6 August 2008
No painkillers, and some Tai Chi
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you're brave - I'm addicted to painkillers and have no courage at all to try to battle migraines without them...
ReplyDeleteOh I know I'm fortunate that the few migraines I've had in the last ten years were mostly just the visual effects. If I catch it at that point and quickly drink a large amount of soda or coffee, the caffeine seems to prevent it from going any further. (And in normal life I consume very little caffeine, so a large soda is a big bump.) But the one time I didn't was because it started just as I was getting on a plane at Charles de Gaulle and couldn't backtrack through security. I regretted it for many many hours to follow, the flight from Paris to Los Angeles are looooooooonnnnnggg and I was miserable. I now carry caffeine pills along with any other drugs!
ReplyDeleteBut I am very glad to hear that Tai Chi is having such a positive effect. That's marvelous.
my neurologist once told me that the chemical imbalance that gives migraines also gives depression.
ReplyDeletehope the migraine hangover wasn't too bad.
Oooh, Kath, I wish my migraines had an aura, or something to fix them (sadly, I'm pretty sure it's not coffee). My brain just has and ON/OFF switch for them.
ReplyDeleteAnd, as Robyn says, migraines and depression seem to be related. Back when I had chronic migraines, I used anti-depressants to treat them (tricyclics, I belive, which also have an SSRI-like effect, what I'm taking now).
I've given in to painkillers today, but I've still managed to held the pain and controlled levels for quite a while. But mmmm, drugs....
When I have a migraine I always feel depressed. The funny thing is that I don't realize HOW depressed until the migraine is over, and then suddenly I realize how bad I felt. It's like, when I'm IN in I can't fully see it. So don't worry, it's normal - well, as normal as a migraine can be anyway.
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