A Tough One - Headache Relief

This is a really tough post for me to make. Growing up I suffered from cluster headaches, I followed the pattern, started at 5 and stopped at about 30. They call cluster headaches, "suicide headaches" for a reason. I learned a lot about pain and self control from them. I also how to concentrate really hard. Whatever you think you understand about headaches, you don't unless you have lived with these. Migraines are bad; but, they don't call them suicide headaches.

How bad are they? Well, it took five years without experiencing before I stopped fearing they would come back and I don't scare easy. I have never given birth and don't know what it feels like. I have had a herniated intestine, I woke doubled over with my face covered in tears, it hurt a lot. I had tooth go bad on a trip and couldn't get a root canal for over a day, that hurt really bad. I have had frostbite and it is no fun. These headaches are different for three very important reasons, first their severity is extreme, second, they last a very long time. The worst reason is the third, you know you are going to have them again in a month or so. Imagine every month someone torturing you for a week and then saying, "See you next month". I lived in a house with five women, the pain is quite different.

Here is the dilemma. I no longer have cluster headaches, I get allergy headaches, stress headaches and just headaches; but, it is night and day. They have created a device that could have healed those headaches. Couldn't do anything for them when I was growing up, aspirin was a joke. The only thing that ever helped was self hypnosis and that only worked for so long. The device that can supposedly end them is a implant, a transhumanistic device and I don't believe in transhumanism or the melding of people with machines. I didn't have to make that choice because they didn't have anything for the headaches when I was growing up, so I can only talk about what I learned and why I would advise against getting the implant.

I thank my mother for helping me, by pushing me, to get over the unsocial tendencies of being autistic. Thanks mom. I thank my brother and sister for not making fun of my tics or stuttering, that helped me to conquer them, I never felt embarrassed by them. I thank my father for supporting me and teaching me the game. He was a brilliant and decent man. I have a great family. I thank my kids for teaching me forgiveness, I could never hate my kids. The headaches helped me to grow also. I absolutely would not be who I am if I had not lived through those years of crippling pain. If we can rise to a challenge, we can learn a lot. If we fail at a challenge, we can also learn about what our limits truly are and grow again.

I generally don't try and forget my past, I actually try and get the story straight in my head. I chose to forget the headaches. It is one of two pains that I wish to never remember. The other is a secret, shhhhhh. We are quickly coming to a place where we can stop all pain. It is a dangerous place, it a place where we stop growing, where we stop learning to overcome and where we rely on others for how we cope with the world. What does the song say? "The pain you left behind, has become, has become part of me". If someone asked me, I would advise against taking the implant and teach them self-hypnosis. Here is the article.

Yahoo News - A remote-controlled device to stop severe headache pain. By the way, if they were seriously considering suicide, I would tell them to take the implant, there is never a good enough reason to kill yourself and I lived with these headaches too.