1Know your enemy
Before declaring war on stress, migraineurs should channel their inner Sherlock Holmes and uncover the sources of their triggers.
“ I always ask my patients,‘ What’ s your number one stressor?’” says psychologist Kathleen Farmer, PsyD, co-founder of the Headache Care Center in Springfield, Mo.“ And they look at me as if they have no clue.”
Some migraineurs find it helpful to keep a headache journal or just a simple list detailing the actions, events and emotions that precede a migraine, says Farmer, who has worked with headache sufferers since 1996.
“ You need to recognize your behavior and see how you can prevent that stressor from affecting it,” she says.
After a relatively calm period, Kubasak noticed an uptick in her migraines about two years ago, coinciding with a period of increased anxiety at her job. As a child life specialist at a comprehensive cancer center, Kubasak is tasked with helping kids— many of them terminal— cope with their diagnosis.
“ That’ s when I started listening to my body and finding out what causes it stress,” Kubasak says.“ I knew immediately what was behind the change.”
2Get serious about sleep
Most overextended adults treat a good
night’ s sleep like a luxury instead of a necessity. But even something as seemingly minor as missing a bedtime or logging fewer than seven hours of rest each night can disrupt a migraineur’ s hyper-excitable nervous system and produce stress, Farmer says.
Good sleep habits elevate your mood and equip you to better handle the day’ s stresses. They also aid in the production of migraine-alleviating brain chemicals, such as dopamine and serotonin.
To achieve better rest, Farmer recommends going to bed and waking up at the same times each day— even on weekends. Sheep-counting migraineurs also should follow the National Sleep Foundation’ s tips for ensuring optimal sleep. These include maintaining a quiet, cool and dark place to sleep; engaging in a relaxing activity, such as reading a book or chilling out to music, before bedtime; and upgrading those flat pillows and lumpy mattresses, which can cause overnight discomfort.
CAREER THERAPY
Many people are extremely susceptible to their stress triggers during the perilous hours between 9 a. m. and 5 p. m., Monday through Friday. Migraine sufferer Jessica Kubasak offers her go-to stress reliever when work anxieties pile up and she feels the onset of a migraine headache.
1 Find a quiet, dark place.
2 Lie on your back or, if the office floor is too heinous, cross your arms on your desk and rest your head on them.
3 Focus on the location of the pain.
4 Take long, deep breaths and hold them to the count of 10 before exhaling to the count of 10.
5 Imagine a blue light that cools your entire body. Picture a beam of that light starting at your toes and working its way up your body to your head, relieving the pain and tension as it moves.
6 Do this three to five times until you feel your heart rate return to normal and your body loosen up.
7 Drink a cool glass of water.
www. headwisemag. org | National Headache Foundation 33