I wish our understanding of how trauma affects our health was around when I was a kid.
My Migraines started when I was 6 years old. Exactly the same time my Mother decided to divorce my alcoholic birth father.
Unconsciously, getting sick: aka Migraine, was how I was able to get attention and to feel special.
And in 1977, no one had a single clue how to deal with a migraine, especially for a 6 year old.
My mother’s answer was to stick me in a dark room with a bucket to throw up in until it passed. And also, don’t over exaggerate, you’ll be just fine.
I’m not sure when my Mother’s migraines began. Her answer, as well as her doctor’s, was to treat them with Valium, alcohol, and an assortment of other pain medication.
No consideration that the alcohol, Diet Pepsi {in a glass bottle of course}, and cigarettes might be contributing to her migraines. It was also chocked up to the fact that her father got migraines too, so it must be something hereditary that you just have to live with.
We now are in a time where we understand that just because someone in your family has a condition, doesn’t necessarily mean YOU are automatically going to get it too.
In researching more about my own migraines now at the age of 53, I am excited to know that while we still don’t know everything, we sure know a LOT more than we did 47 years ago!
The medical community can’t seem to come to a solid conclusion about what causes a migraine. But, they are more aware of how it is a condition of several factors…
Stress
Trauma
Food
Lifestyle
Weather
Environment
Relationships
Thankfully medicines have been created to be more specifically targeted to potential vascular and neurological causes. And many of them are quite helpful.
The main reason I choose my career path at a very early age as a Bodyworker and Reiki Practitioner was to help people get out of pain. It was my way of connecting to my mother in some way. And I wanted to help.
I KNEW that the body is a reflection of what is going on emotionally and energetically in the mind and emotions.
So, I became a Dance major in college. I wasn’t really of performance caliber, and I was more interested in how and why movement made me feel better, so I took classes on Laban / Bartenieff Movement Analysis, Dance Therapy, and Body Mind Centering.
Basically, all the fundamentals of what we refer to now as Somatic Movement Therapy.
A whole Mind, Body, Spirit system approach to healing is something that I am very passionate about and I love. It is what is helping me in healing myself and my Migraines.
On the path of healing a chronic condition that really doesn’t seem to have any specific cause, this Mind Body Spirit is seemingly the most effective route. It fills the gaps where the medical community can’t fill.
In the graphic below, The Ins and Outs of Chronic Pain, number 12 is the path of self discovery. That is what this post is about for me. I think I am a crappy writer. But, writing some of these things out, no matter how disjointed they are, are helpful for me. And I hope they can be helpful for you.
#12 Self Discovery
“To help the nervous system feel safe again, it is critical to understand what made it feel unsafe. This can be completed through guided writing exercises or with the help of a professional. An understanding of the nervous system’s journey into the pain will provide a clearer map out of the way out.”
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