I went to a brutal self-help seminar a couple of years ago (long story behind that) and the second night...after two 16-hour days of having the emotional crap kicked out of us...the facilitator asked who had a headache. Nearly every hand in the room went up. He then led us through a visualization exercise to get rid of the pain, and to my complete surprise, it really helped.
I'm thinking about it now because I have a cluster headache going into hour 13, and no OTC painkiller has put a dent in it.
My ex-husband once told me that I experience the opposite of the placebo effect...I'm so cynical that even things that should work on me don't. Now I'm much less cynical that I used to be, and after a dozen years in pharmaceuticals (employement-wise, not being an addict) I understand something of pharmacodynamics.
This headache should be gone.
It's all about chemicals, pain is. You get your cascading prostaglandins and histamine and what-not, jumping those synapses until the message gets to your brain that you have a giant ice pick being stabbed repeatedly through your skull. Then all those good drugs get in there and interupt the synthesis of the painful chemicals or mimic the structure of nice soothing chemicals...ah, endorphins. Or opiates...just bind to those receptors, baby, and make the stabbing stop.
My chemicals need some better titration, because this headache is not quitting.
So back to the visualization thing. I haven't suceeded at getting that to work well myself, but it isn't for lack of belief. After all, thoughts...neural activities...are just more chemical transactions in the brain, right? Why shouldn't I be able to cause the internal chemical transaction that will for the love of God please keep the ice pick from penetrating my brain one more time...
...because I am starting to think that the reason the nice chemicals aren't working is that they have leaked out of the holes in my head and are lying in a puddle on the floor.
Posted by Nic at February 10, 2004 07:20 PM | TrackBack