case study
Jenn Rutledge
“ I didn’ t realize it, but when I was having migraines, I always felt cold in my fingertips, my nose and my toes.”
Breaking the cycle with biofeedback
BY THE TIME JENN RUTLEDGE TURNED UP FOR AN APPOINTMENT at the Headache Care Center in Springfield, Mo., she was desperate.
The 31-year-old mother of three from Summersville, Mo., had suffered from migraines for more than a decade. With her husband stationed overseas in the military, the stress of day-to-day life was taking its toll, and her migraines had gone from bad to worse. Doctor after doctor provided what she calls a“ Band- Aid” approach: They’ d listen to her story, hand over some pain medication and tell her she’ d feel better soon. She didn’ t. Until her appointment at the specialty clinic, Rutledge had never heard of biofeedback. After getting a general explanation— that they would monitor some of her vital signs and teach her how to change her body’ s reactions to stress— she was a bit skeptical. But she was still willing to take the risk.
At the initial session, which took a couple of hours, the biofeedback practitioner hooked a thermometer to one of Rutledge’ s fingers and explained that she wanted to monitor the temperature. Cold fingers are associated with migraines.
With the thermometer on, Rutledge was asked to envision different scenarios in her mind. One in particular, in which she thought about cool liquid, prompted a negative reaction. The more she thought about water, the more anxious she felt. When she finished the session, her finger temperature had dropped by a few degrees— the exact opposite of what the session was trying to accomplish.
Rutledge went to her hotel room frustrated. She wondered about what went wrong until it suddenly dawned on her: She had a near-drowning experience as a child, and thinking of water was a major stressor. She considered the way her body reacted to the scenario and realized she felt the same way when a migraine was coming on.
“ I didn’ t realize it, but when I was having migraines, I always felt cold in my fingertips, my nose and my toes,” Rutledge says.
After a few more sessions of focused breathing with guided visualization, Rutledge found she could use the technique on her own. She learned to pinpoint her migraine symptoms— cold fingers and shallow breathing— and she would take a few minutes to go to a quiet place in her home, imagine a peaceful setting, and slow down or stop those reactions.
It hasn’ t been a cure, but Rutledge says she can manage her migraines more effectively by identifying the warning signs early. She is even using biofeedback to help manage other stressful situations.
“ Part of it was just breaking the cycle of the headache,” she says.“ The way I treat them now is different.”
www. headwisemag. org | National Headache Foundation 39