I’ve suffered from migraines since I was 5-6 years old at least. I remember coming home from elementary school and having to go straight to bed with and icepack on my head to try to ease the pain. I couldn’t do anything else, I barely got through the school day.
I’ve wondered a lot about the link between my migraines and the emotional abuse, then I stumble across this post about this study. I’m not surprised to find that there IS a link.
According to a study published in the Jorrnal Headache (2010;50:32-41, http://tinyurl.com/HA-and-abuse) childhood abuse is highly prevalent and has been associated with recurrent headaches. “Abuse is associated with many of the same risk factors for chronic migraines, including depression and anxiety, female sex, substance abuse, and obesity. A total of 1348 migraineurs were included. Diagnosis of migraine with aura was recorded in 40% and chronic headache (≥15 days/month) was reported by 34%. Prevalence of current depression was 28% and anxiety was 56%. Childhood abuse was reported as follows: physical abuse 21%, sexual abuse 25%, emotional abuse 38%, physical neglect 22%, and emotional neglect 38%. Physical abuse and emotional abuse and neglect were significantly associated with chronic migraines. Emotional abuse was also associated with continuous daily headache, severe headache-related disability. After adjusting for sociodemographic factors and current depression and anxiety, there remained an association between emotional abuse in childhood and both chronic and …
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defying ptsd 