Dealing with migraines in real time

Hi all!

For context I had TMS previously that manifested as elbow and wrist pain. I was unable to type for almost a year. I read The Mindbody Prescription and it addressed it within a few days, with symptoms cut by 70% literally day 1. It's been 4 years since the last time I had to deal with anything RSI related.

I've been dealing with chronic migraines for the last year and finally realized that they were following the TMS pattern. I did some journaling, found a source of clear rage, and the pain resolved. Had a great couple of days where I would feel the symptoms, realize they were just sensations, and not an impending migraine, and would move on. Day 4 I got overwhelmed and resorted to a triptan and slept for 11 hours. Day 5 (yesterday) I found a source of terror when I felt a migraine coming on, and it settled out.

Today my head is throbbing and I've got nothing. I know it's TMS in the sense that I can make the pain migrate if I carefully focus on it. But I can't find an emotional break through that gets it to resolve. Telling myself that it's TMS is not fixing it either. I'm not catastrophizing, and I'm not babying it, but my head does feel mighty uncomfortable at the moment even if it is TMS.

I think I was a little spoiled with my RSI resolving so quickly, so I don't have a bank of information on how to manage effectively and continue treating the TMS while still feeling discomfort, especially when it's manifesting as a migraine. I'm going to bust out book again, and I've started journaling (just got The Mindbody Workbook this morning), but I was hoping I might get some wisdom on making it through TMS that manifests as migraines.

I'm guessing no massage, cold caps, headache pills, etc until I'm able to consistently resolve it on my own? Just read and re-read the book, journal, and exercise even if I have the head pain feeling?

Thanks for your help!

 

Continuing to think out loud, I wonder how much of this is now just training myself to not interpret real sensations as pain. There's a big change in barometric pressure happening right now. I can feel it. But it doesn't have to be discomfort. It's just a sensation that I'm experiencing. I did have to go through this with my hands, where I would notice they would feel like they were burning, but it was actually just me noticing my skin moving over my muscles as a I typed, and interpreting that sensation as burning.

Maybe I just have to gut through getting a bunch of reps of "this is not real pain, I am not changing what I am doing with my life in response to it"?

 

My experience with migraines and TMS was limited only to the 'aural' type (i.e. visual) but once I made the determination and belief that they were TMS equivalents, they petered out in a few months. Boy when I got that first one it definitely got my attention - nothing like having blind spots in your vision to get your attention!

Later when I started to get them, I just leaned into it said to myself "bring it on migraine" and they would basically stop developing at that point and peter out. Maybe you can try that approach too? I mean, get really aggressive, use foul language with yourself if you think that will work, and just challenge it to come on. What that basically does is tell your TMS brain that you aren't afraid of this symptom and it may as well not even try.

If it still comes on then, try to keep a light heart about it and be confident it will work next time. The main thing is not to obsess over it and give it the power that TMS brain wants it to have. Good luck.