Posted by Mike L (63.225.233.245) on September 05, 2000 at 01:50:52:
In Reply to: What is a headache? posted by VD on September 04, 2000 at 07:30:28:
If you don't thinl most of us have tried the lifestyle routine I think you are kidding yourself. I think it is easy to have this opinion if you have never had a Cluster attack. Having been a migraine sufferer most of my life. I can tell you that a cluster is not just another headache or me reading about it and deciding this is the worst pain. I thought I was nuts to have an attack at the same times of day lasting the same amount of time and having such a severe pain. I read about clusters long after I started having them. I then realized that it was not just stress or some other thing. My symptoms were so close to what I read it was a relief to know I was not just some physco. A cluster should not even be called a headache . It is a visious attack of pain. Some people seem to think if they can't understand it it must just be some lifestyle or phycological problem. Some people just need to justify what they can't understand or feel. Then they feel they can have a neat answer to a problem they can't fix. Sorry I just don't buy it. I have changed my diet, done stress relieving excercises, etc. They do help, just not with the pain and the knockdown punch of an attack. I have learned fantastic ways to help control pain. It is just not a cure. I realize that our minds control everything that goes on in our bodies. Theoreticaly we can cure all illnesses, cancer or AIDS included if we could control every bit our mind. But it seems unreal to withhold Meds from a cancer patient or a diabetic or parkinsons disease or whatever. Cluster headaches are a disease and the pain is the symptom.