Doctors usually don’t know
Most migraine sufferers have nothing physically wrong with them that a doctor can identify. If there is an underlying physical cause, then you already know why you get migraines. But for most, migraine is not a disease or an injury that happens to the body. The body itself, produces the migraine. It is a kind of seizure that starts in the brain stem and spreads across the surface of the brain, eventually resulting in intense pain for most sufferers. Why would an otherwise healthy body do something like that?
Pain is a protective mechanism that our bodies use to keep us safe. Pain doesn’t actually come from injuries. The brain gets signals from injuries and then makes us feel what it estimates to be the appropriate amount of pain, based on the severity of the injury, past experience, knowledge and beliefs about the world, and many other considerations. The brain generates pain to make us do something – to get away from the danger or deal with the injury.
But why?
Why would the brain generate a something as horrible as a migraine? At some point in the your life, the brain found some situation or emotion so dangerous, that it created a migraine to get you out of it. It did it to protect you. And it worked. In that instant, a new protective part of you was born. It wasn’t something you decided to do. You didn’t mean it to happen or want it to happen. It just happened unconsciously.
It’s just doing its job
That protective part takes its job very seriously. It is always on the lookout for a similar situation or emotion, so it can save you again. Like an over-jealous bodyguard, it looks for anything that might even hint at danger. Maybe you ate a certain food just before your first migraine. So the protective part will see that food as a sign of danger and trigger a new migraine when it sees it. Even the odor of that food could begin to serve as a trigger. Anything that reminds the protective mechanism of the original danger can become a trigger.
That protective part has been doing its job all this time, desperately trying to keep you safe, based on what your brain thought was dangerous at that time. It is like the Japanese soldiers marooned on islands in the Pacific who kept on fighting World War II long after it was over. That protective part has the best intention for you, but it’s doing a job you no longer need.
What can you do about it?
It sounds crazy, but treat the part of you with respect. Assure that part that it will not be going away. You would not want to get rid of such a vital protective part. But you do want to give it a new job – a better way of protecting you that has nothing to do with pain. You can try to calm it down. Reassure it. You want to help it do its job better, more efficiently.
A model that works
This is all a model or metaphor, if you will. We can’t understand the impossible complexity of the brain. But thinking about migraine as a part of you that wants to help is is a very effective way to finally be free. Who hasn’t said, “A part of me wants to start working out every day, but another part of me wants to watch videos?” Every part wants the best for us, just like well-meaning friends and family. Sometimes you have to gently tell them that what they are doing is not working, and ask them to change that.
For some people, just knowing that migraine is a misguided protective mechanism is enough to greatly ease the pain and frequency of migraine. Others may have to do more digging into their past to re-evaluate what the mind considers danger. But everyone should practice letting the body know that everything is ok. Whether through meditation, mindfulness, mindful breathing or hypnosis, continuing to be optimistic and letting your body know that you are ok will lead you toward better health.