Before you reach for the Excedrin Migraine, you might want to take a look into the past to find the root of your migraines. Recent studies by the American Headache Society’s Women’s Issues Section Research Consortium suggest that women who suffered childhood abuse and trauma, especially emotional abuse and neglect, were more likely to suffer from chronic migraines, as well as other chronic pain conditions like fibromyalgia, endomitriosis and arthritis.
In a survey consisting of 1,348 doctor-diagnosed migraine patients from 11 separate headache clinics, more than 58% admitted to having suffered from some form of childhood abuse. The majority of patients cited migraines as the first sign of chronic pain, with onset of other chronic disorders forming later into adulthood.
Interestingly enough, the studies also showed links between certain types of abuse and different pain disorders. For example, women who were physically abused as children were more likely to suffer from arthritis pain, while patients who reported claims of emotional abuse and neglect listed conditions like irritable bowel syndrome, uterine fibroids and fibromyalgia.
Repression of emotion causes physical suffering, so if you’ve spent years of your life suffering from migraines or other chronic pain disorders, perhaps it’s time to change your approach to healing. This study suggests that the solution may lie in cognitive behavioral therapy, rather than prescription pain medication. Cognitive behavioral therapy is believed to help the patient reprogram her emotional behavior, and sometimes consists of activities like diary keeping and individual and group counseling to get in touch with hidden emotional triggers and exercises designed to help patients get a handle on the emotional triggers that make them feel helpless.
Many of the women I know who suffer migraines also endured childhood abuse. The sad thing is that despite years of doctor-prescribed treatment, most of these women rarely find relief or solution. Some become dependent on pain medication, while others find themselves laid up in bed for days on end.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if the solution were really as easy as keeping a diary or talking to a therapist? Anyone who’s ever suffered a migraine will probably laugh at the notion, but when you’ve reached and surpassed your pain threshold, you find yourself willing to try just about anything to make the pain subside.
Who would have thought their was I link. Very interesting.
Hmm my DD has migraines, started at 8yrs till 15yrs now. Wonder what this means to her, did she suffer some abuse in utero? Sorry I’m being silly. This is definitely a new approach. I believe that many physical ailment have roots in our emotional well being. More us being learned every day.
I will read this study, but as a long-time consumer of cognitive/behavioral therapy – it has not “solved” my fibromyalgia condition. While I believe trauma is a trigger it has been shown that there are physiological propensities and abnormalities that make one prone to these conditions. Once they triggered it is very difficult to get the body “back” by cognitive/behavioral therapy alone – I don’t know of any other study that has shown a “solution”. This article is wrong and it is harmful to state that this might be an “easy” solution.
Sylvia, I appreciate your comment and insight into the study’s findings. On another note, I wanted to point out that I did not list cognitive behavioral therapy as an easy solution, but said specifically said: “wouldn’t it be great if it were so easy.” I am both a sufferer of occasional migraines and someone who suffered childhood abuse, and am well aware that there are no easy solutions to any type of chronic pain, or emotional healing after suffering abuse, neglect or childhood trauma. Regardless, I think it is an interesting study, and I hope to see more of their findings as it continues to unfold.