How to Cure Migraines?

So you wake up in the morning and it’s there throbbing, pulsating migraine and it may stay with you all day. Your maybe fine in the morning only to have it come on in the afternoon for some reason. You may experience them monthly, weekly, daily, or even all the time.
Your take drugs to cope with them which works in the beginning, but overtime these interventions may wane until they just don’t help at all anymore so you just stop taking them.
The pain may come and go where it doesn’t affect their life too much, then in someone else it just seems to take over their life to the point where they cannot work, socialise or do anything you would do in your life.

It can intensify to the point where you may experience nausea or vomit; you may even become sensitive to smells sounds or even light. It can take over your life to the point where you are constantly taking sick days and using up all of them each year. 
Then, over time, you cannot even hold a full-time job anymore. You may be a prisoner at home just coping with the symptoms of the migraine, depending on others to look after you.
I have even known people who have started their own business, so they could manage their migraines more easily and work around the migraines so they can still pay the bills.

But one thing is clear: As you get older, they just seem to get worse.

What Is an Emotional Migraine?

It is a one-sided throbbing or pulsating headache and can be aggravated by physical activity. It can cause nausea and vomiting and increased sensitivity to light, sound and even some types of smell.

Triggers

There are many triggers that can cause a migraine, and everyone has different triggers that may set off a migraine here are a few.

Food

Chocolate, cheese, coffee or other caffeinated drinks, nuts, citrus fruits, processed meats, additives such as monosodium glutamate (MSG) and aspartame (an artificial sweetener), fatty or salty foods, and alcoholic drinks (red wine and beer).

Other Triggers

Bright or flickering light, motion, loud sounds, strong odours (especially perfume, but also paint and smoke), changes in weather (atmospheric pressure), fatigue or lack of sleep, stress, hormones (especially around the time of period for women), skipping meals and some medications.

So Why Do I Call It an Emotional Migraine?

Well, most pain we experience is interconnected with emotions. You cannot separate them as the pain increases so will the emotional distress and, of course the reverse. Emotions amplify the pain; your emotions act like a booster rocket on the pain and physical symptoms.

Let me give an example from one of my clients who had migraines, and his migraines were 24 hours a day 7 days a week. He was managing to cope with them but it was also taking a toll on him, he had tried all current normal medical interventions, but nothing worked any longer. So I was amazed at how well he was doing.
Anyway, in our first session he said something to me that caught my attention just one small sentence. He said as soon as I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is look for the migraine.
Well, that really caught my attention, so I asked a question that would not be obvious to others.
I asked, and where do you look for the migraine? He pointed to a spot on his head. I then asked why that spot? He responded because that is where it hurts the most.

Let me explain how this works, so in the past he had a headache and he felt it in that one spot and at the time he got all emotional about it anxious, angry, sad, helpless, etc. These emotions then amplified the physical tension in the area and other associated physical symptoms associated with the headache. This has the effect of anchoring the headache to that spot on the head. The emotions act like glue they anchor our thoughts, emotions and physical symptoms to that spot on the head.

Now over time as he has more headaches he focuses on that one spot more and more, and anchors more and more emotions to that one spot and subsequently the pain and other physical symptoms. So imagine the pain and emotional distress is on a scale of 1-10 so over time this level rises to the point where he is focusing on that spot of his head subconsciously all the time and nothing works to stop the migraine because the emotions keep it active all the time.

So this gave me the biggest clue on what I had to do to cure him of his migraines permanently, which I will go into later.

What Is a Tension Migraine?

Tension headache is usually felt on both sides of the head. It is a pressing or tightening sensation rather than a throbbing headache and can be made worse through activity. The source of this headache is different from the emotional headaches. What happens with this migraine is the muscles and tissue in the neck, base of the skull at the back and all the muscles covering your entire head become too tight. This then triggers off the symptoms of a migraine.

I have unfortunately suffered from these types of headaches in the past and once I realised what type of headache I had, in my case over time I have discovered the cause of the tight muscles can be varied and not what you would expect. I will offer a few examples of how my headaches were caused.

The first one I remember the most is I was having problems with tension headaches where I also had other symptoms like foggy brain, pain behind my eyes. So this is when I decide to research the problem online to see if I can find a solution to the tension headaches.

Anyway through my research online over several days I found one article that really caught my eye where they described how the sub-occipital muscles which are the muscles at base of skull at back of head can cause the all the symptoms I was experiencing with my tension headache.

However, it is not this simple, over time I experienced tension headaches and always the cause was the muscles all over my head and the Sub-Occipitals and neck but now we couldn’t fix the tension headaches. Muscles elsewhere in my body were tight, which were causing these muscles to remain tight. So we had to work out which muscles were causing my neck, head and Sub-Occipitals to remain tight. The range of muscles that were the cause ranged from muscles in the ankle, knee, glutes, hamstrings. What the hell do those muscles have to do with my head.

Well we have lines of muscles and facia in our bodies and they interconnect with each other for example hamstring tension can cause glutes to be tight, which causes muscle in back to be tight which causes the muscles in neck to be tight that causes the Sub-Occipitals to be tight and then all muscles in head.

Now that is not all lets throw another factor into this mix tension headaches can also be caused by joints in your back or neck being out. This usually causes the nerves to be pinched which then send out corrupted signals that can cause muscles to tighten up when they shouldn’t be tight which can cause muscles in head and neck to be tight and give you a tension headache.

This is another factor that has to be accounted for in treating a tension migraine.

But Also Emotional Migraine

Now everything we have said for tension migraines are true, but you also have to add to it everything I have outlined above for emotional migraines. So you can get a double whammy so not only do you need to treat the cause of the tension migraine you may also have to treat it as if it is an emotional migraine because all I described in emotional migraines is also applied to tension migraines.

Migraine Reviews

How to Cure Migraines?

So below, I will outline a few options on how you can treat and cure migraines.

Tension Migraines

This is the simplest one to approach but can also be the one that takes the longest to solve potentially.
The first thing you would need to do is go to a chiropractor and get them to check your back and neck to see if any joints are out and if they are well get them to adjust them to put them back in. Also make sure they check the whole body most people don’t know you can get your ankles and feet adjusted, knees, elbows, wrists and any of them could contribute to the tension migraine.
If this is the cause of the tension migraine or a contributing factor, then the migraine should disappear with in the next day or two or at least some symptoms should disappear.

Next you need to find the muscles responsible and the first course of action is the obvious ones you will need to massage the muscle in the head, Sub-Occipitals and neck to ease the tension and the migraine. I would suggest you start the whole process yourself by doing some self massage. Get a massage device called a Knobble It 4 Ways Massager available from following links. https://66fit.com.au/products/66fit-four-way-massager or Original Jacknobber II Massager https://www.badbacks.com.au/rehab-equipment/massage-tools/self-massager/original-jacknobber-ii-massager also available elsewhere.

You use the knobby ends along the back of the neck, especially the Sub-Occipitals make sure you press hard against the bone of your skull at top of your neck. Then run the device over the entire head, including forehead to eyebrows forwards and backwards. Now, when doing this, you may experience pain in some spots more than others because the muscles are too tight and they need to be released so you need to focus on these spots. Press as hard as you can, I would also do this several times a day and every day until you no longer have the migraines this process can take weeks but while you're doing it, you should be able to stop the migraines before they start. For maintenance to stop the problem occurring again, you will want to do this regularly at least once a day.

When I am doing this self massage of my head, I usually lie down on bed or floor I then cradle the knobblier in both hands under my head I then start under and behind my ear at back I then slowly move the knobbler a little at a time towards the centre of the back of my neck or head, I then move it up my head a little and then back towards my ears, I slowly go back and forwards moving upwards to top of my head using the weight of my head to help press the knobbler into my muscles and tissue. While doing this you may have to turn your head from right to left slowly to help apply pressure to your head by keeping the area your pressing on horizontal to the bed or ground to maintain maximum pressure. When I get to a point on the top of my head, I cannot use the weight of my head to help anymore, I have to just use the muscles in my arms to press in firmly against the tissue on my head.

This may ease the migraines and tension in the muscles, but the muscles may not soften completely and let go, in which case other muscles in the body are preventing these muscles from letting go. This is where I suggest you see a massage therapist to help locate and release the muscles keeping the muscle in head, Sub-Occipitals and neck tight, they can also work on these muscles more effectively than you can yourself.

Once you have released the muscles and the migraines are gone your all good unfortunately, this problem may reoccur at times in the future so you just have to follow same process again to eliminate the migraines. Another option is to continue to do self-massage and get remedial massages and chiropractor sessions to make sure the problem never returns.

My remedial massage therapist has even told me of instances with his clients where he has cured there migraines by accident helping them with another problem in their body, and on purpose when he has known of the migraines and looked for the muscles causing the problem.

Lastly, you may even have to treat the emotional part of the tension migraines to permanently eliminate the migraines because everything I have described above for emotional migraines also apply to tension migraines. See below for options.

Emotional Migraines

Well, the only way I know to eliminate these types of migraines is to do hypnotherapy.
Referring back to my example client above in his session what I needed to do was remove all the emotions and physical symptoms he has associated with the migraines and more importantly stop him from focusing on that one spot on his head. Which I proceeded to do in the first session.

He came back for a followup session 3 weeks later so I debriefed him on everything we did in the first session then I asked him if he had any migraines since the last session and he said no but I am getting one now. I knew why he was so I asked a question why are you getting one now? He said I am focusing on the spot on my head, and I responded you see your creating the migraine yourself by focusing on that spot on your head. So we did a little more work on the migraines and he has not had one since.

So the solution is to remove all emotions associated with the migraine the physical symptoms and their focus on the migraines to eliminate them permanently.

Conclusion

People suffer all the time from migraines and it can be really debilitating for them to cope with and in some case incapacitate them to the point they cannot leave the house or function.

I have helped many people over the year with migraines and I must admit I didn’t make the distinction between Emotional and Tension migraines but I was able to help them eliminate their migraines. On a personal note I have been also able to help myself with migraines in past but when I have had a tension migraine well, I was unable to help myself through hypnotherapy alone I had to take all the physical treatments above to resolve these migraines.

Now you have an alternative route of treatment to explore to help eliminate the migraines instead of relying on the conventional medical practice of using drugs which only at best manage the problem.