Migraine

hey,
well i am currently on leave from work go back to work on tuesday.
since my last visit to my neurlogist which was in december 2008. my daily headaches stopped and my gp wheened me off my endep (preventitive) the headaches stayed gone fron just after xmas 2008 until febuary 12th 2009. Now my headaches are not as bad as last time they are still occuring pretty much every day. in between the headaches stopping and starting i did have some chest pains, which i had a stress test and echcardogram which ruled out heart disease and ect, shortly after that was when my headaches reappeared, now last time i had the headaches i had a ct scan and an mri in december they were both clear. The neurologist told me in december that i was having chronic tension headaches and migraines from tension in my neck.
The gp has put me back on the endep i go back to the neurologist on 23rd of march which is on monday.My Gp seems to think i have genaralised anxiety disorder which is where she thinks my chronic tension headaches are being triggered from, she said that it seems evident that i am reassured nothing is wrong then the sympton goes away only to come back again,i am currently seeing an anxiety councellor her and my gp want to try me on aropax for my anxiety and they say that my headaches should hopefully subside when my anxiety is under control, has anyone had their migraines and headches triggered from being anxiuos or as a physical smptom of anxiety???
Thanks for listening.
aimes xx

quote:

has anyone had their migraines and headches triggered from being anxiuos or as a physical smptom of anxiety???

I have generalized anxiety disorder and I clench my teeth which can trigger a migraine. My migraine doctor gives me xanax to use as needed to help the anxiety that triggers the migraines.

We can experience all kinds of emotion with a migraine, including anxiety. It's also possible for anxiety to lead to muscle tension that triggers migraine. So...it can work both ways. I don't get anxiety with mine, though.

anxiety seems to make me more susceptible to a headache or make it worse. when i first started getting migraines i was having a lot of trouble controlling my GAD. Usually, I would get a headache while getting or around getting a panic attack.

I have always been the calm one in the family; my husband is the anxious one (which is funny, cuz he's a psychologist!)! I've never been anxious or gotten stressed easily, but since the migraines have ramped up in the last few months, I know I've suffered a few panic attacks (those are TERRIFYING if you've never experienced one, wow, I thought I was dying!) and my anxiety over my symptoms are making things worse. I'm noticing more and more that if I feel a little dizzy or nauseous I start to get overwhelmed by the "oh no, it's coming back!" feelings, which of course tends to be a self fullfilling prophecy and the panic tends to create symptoms which tends to create a migraine. Two days ago I found out that the doc found a mass on my brain on the MRI, and my eye has been twitching nonstop, plus last night I felt on the verge of a panic attack. Didn't sleep, woke up nearly hyperventilating and nauseous. I've been trying to distract myself all morning.

I've never dealt with these kind of feelings before...does anyone have advice on how to calm myself down or recommendations on maybe a medication to ask the doctor about? Everything seems to be directly related to anxiety about my health. It's quite scary, especially when I'm home alone all day.

ER's are beginning to make me panic. I just don't know what's next. Like last nite I yelled at my support person and the nurse giving me meds. I told her I just wanted to go home and everyone leave me alone. I just lay there and I feel like running away. Well after the meds I didn't want to run. My support said I made the nurse mad.

I guess she did slam the door pretty hard.... I really felt bad.

Dutchess

I've never had panic attacks, but I did have some transient anxiety here and there when I was first hyperthyroid. All those hormones made me quite jittery once in a while, and restless. Insomnia didn't help the situation, either.

I don't think it's always best to try and throw a med at something like this. I let them talk me into trying three different anti-depressants just to try and get some kind of squashing on the mood swings and restlessness. Each of them just made things worse. I felt emotionally flat and depressed because of the anti-depressants, where I wasn't to begin with.

I also tried a couple of short courses of Ativan for the restlessness. The first time, I took it for ten days following my surgery. I'd gone hypocalcemic, and was still fighting dregs of the anesthesia, on top of muscle spasms. The anesthesia alone left me anxious, just as a side effect. The ER doc I saw for the calcium drip put me on Ativan for ten days. It worked well at first, while I was still trying to physically clear out the anesthesia cobwebs, but beyond that, the second trial the next time I went hyperthyroid and wasn't sleeping was more of a bust. It really wasn't the best med for me, either.

What did help me wasn't meds at all. I just needed to be able to slow down and corral my thoughts and think rationally, which isn't easy when you're in hyperdrive 24/7. I had tons of questions and things I needed to find out, as I tried to find balance with thyroid, migraine, and fibro all at once. I found writing did the trick. I used it to slow down and really take stock of how I felt. I'd list symptoms and thoughts I had, as well as any questions that arose. As I grouped and organized, I ended up having a well-detailed ick journal. Just to see I had a "finished project" was a big help, because I felt like I'd been able to accomplish something in a very scattered world. It helped me focus a lot better, too, which helped me to better be able to channel all that hyperdrive energy for which there was no off switch. It got me through.

quote:

Originally posted by dizzygrl:

I've never dealt with these kind of feelings before...does anyone have advice on how to calm myself down or recommendations on maybe a medication to ask the doctor about? Everything seems to be directly related to anxiety about my health. It's quite scary, especially when I'm home alone all day.

I've always been an anxious kind of person, and though I've had my depressed periods, I'm more likely to get anxious/panicky than depressed. I have used relaxation practice and diaphragmatic breathing to calm the anxiety with a lot of success through the years and some of the work I do is to teach that to people.

Lately my anxiety level has been quite high and my relaxation has helped but not enough - I just started an anti-depressant as a migraine preventive - norptriptylene - and I have to say after just a week I'm a lot less anxious, so that seems to be helping.

- Megan