Migraine

Hi Everyone,

I am planning my wedding and since I started my migraines have been at an all time low. Crazy right? That is what I am thinking. I am waiting and very afraid for them flare back up. My worst fear is to have a migraine on my wedding day. I guess I can't live in fear right?

I have been a member of mymigraineconnection.com for some time but my participation in forums has been limited. As some of you know from our few interactions, I am a psychotherapist (aka psychologist). I am very intrigued by this recent occurance in my headaches. I am wondering if my euphoria over being engaged and getting married in a few months has caused this lack of headaches. Is there anyone out there with any similar experience with a positive life event and a reduction of symptoms?

Thank you, I look forward to hearing anybody's ideas about this.

Tami Owens, MA, MFTI

I've got lots of positives, but can't really say they've had a whole lot of impact on migraine decrease.

I suppose it makes sense that when you are having positive experiences on the whole, you're more apt to look after yourself better and take better of yourself in general. We know stress can make us more susceptible to our triggers. It's not illogical to figure that if we lose the stress, such in times full of positives, our susceptibility might just decrease. So...essentially what's happening is that there's an impact on your susceptibility to triggers, which follows naturally with taking good care of ourselves.

That said, I don't think euphoria or any other emotion can be directly tied to how many migraines a person is having. Migraine is a genetic, neurological disease by nature. Euphoria can't tweak that. Positive or negative thinking or responses can only have so much impact, and I think it's a more superficial thing, since it can't change the nature of the disease itself.

This happens to me when I travel- even on overseas flights which are triggers for a lot of people. I can be gone 2 weeks without a migraine, then get back, and wham! I still can't figure this one out! Congratulations on your upcoming wedding!

Valerie

Best wishes on your engagement and upcoming wedding!

Remembering back, except during law school finals [my last one that semester was 10 days before my 12/27/80 wedding], my head behaved pretty well during my engagement. It was short by today's standards. We set the date in April, with the wedding at Christmas, our second year of law school. [I married a classmate. He started talking marriage 6 weeks after we met.]

I think happy times can make migraines improve. You've still got the genetics for migraine disease, but the joy of being in love might be overriding some of your triggers. Or you're avoiding them, without knowing.

Migraines involve seratonin, and happiness increases it.

Please let us know how it goes. I love news about weddings.

Completely off topic for migraines, and a personal soapbox:

My dad's uncle married us. He married my parents, too. But he said he wouldn't marry us unless we went through a marriage preparation program in our college parish. It was the best thing that could ever have happened to us. It completely changed the direction of our relationship and deepened our love in more ways that I can describe. It affected us so much that for several years, we counseled couples under our parish's program.

If your minister or church requires a pre-marital program, or even suggests it, do take them up on it. I'm sure some programs are as dull as dishwater, but ours was great. A marriage preparation course is now required in the Catholic church in Mississippi.

Gretchen in Mississippi

Congrats!

Oh wedding planning! I didn't do much of this....my DH and I just kinda knew we wanted to get married, picked a date, and two weeks later we did!

I don't think my head would have handled the planning. I'm glad that I did it the way I did, although there are some aspects of it I missed.

Good luck to you! Pawn a lot of the stressful stuff off on your bridal party! LOL That will help with some of the tension!