Posted by Bob on November 20, 1998 at 17:43:08:
In Reply to: Any interest in mental/spiritual coping ?? posted by gary g on November 20, 1998 at 14:36:51:
Gary,
At the risk of reinforcing the (unfortunately common) medical belief that we're "imagining" these headbangers, I believe there may be some substance to a "memory" driven cause for them.
Thinking out loud here: suppose that the initial few CHs are caused by an actual physical disability - say a severe sinus infection or a trauma to the head or a TMJ disorder or a neck vertibrae out-of-place or even a really really bad hangover ... when that original cause is corrected/subsides could we be subliminally "remembering" the pain of that event during a future CH?
That is, what if the first/first few (valid) CHs have physical causes - and produce the well known (by us, at least) symptoms ... and then when we feel one of those symptoms later (like a stuffy nose or a watery eye or even the high of a few drinks) our minds reproduce the CH associatively?
I've thought about this a bit recently. The arguments against this are: why would the CHs be so cyclic/circadian/timed/regular? Why only on 1 side? Why does the water work?
I don't like the implication that medical ppl may take from such a theory ("it's all in your head") ... but i agree that all possibilities should be investigated if we're to be open minded (no pun intended As hard as it is to be distracted from the CH when it's up to bat - i know when i stub my toe badly while walking the "Pace of Dread" during an attack - i notice the pain in my toe can actually replace the CH for a few seconds. That would appear to be at least partially mental. All things are worth a shot - Pain Freedom IS a human right!
-bob