104. Chronic Migraines and the Grief No One Talks About

In this episode, I walk through an article about grief and migraine disease, and I share why grief is such a real part of living with chronic migraines. When migraines keep taking you out of your life, from work, relationships, travel, and everyday moments, of course grief shows up.

I also talk about denial, anger, anxiety, and depression, and why so many women feel stuck between being told their migraines are just genetic and sensing there has to be a deeper reason.

I explain how I see the difference between the allopathic model and the naturopathic model, why symptom suppression often leads to more frustration over time, and why taking a deeper look at what your body needs can completely change the way you think about healing.

If you’ve ever felt like migraines have slowly taken parts of your life away, this episode will help you feel seen,and help you think about your next steps differently.

If you’re ready to address the root cause of your migraines, you can book a free consultation below.

https://www.drlesliecisar.com/apply

Free Training: 5 Proven Steps to Being Migraine Free (Even if you think you've already tried everything.)

https://www.drlesliecisar.com/5SHMN

Connect with us:

Website: https://www.drlesliecisar.com/

Free Facebook Group: Healing Migraines Naturally, with Leslie Cisar, ND

Ready to try something radically different that actually works? Read more about my approach here: https://www.drlesliecisar.com/map

In health,
Dr. Leslie Cisar

Episode Transcript

hi there welcome to the migraines naturally podcast
I'm your host Doctor Leslie Caesar
and I'm a licensed naturopathic doctor
former chronic migraine sufferer
and I've dedicated my life to helping other women
with chronic migraines rediscover a migraine free life
so welcome back to the podcast
if you're new here
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please give us a like a subscribe a comment
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so today I want to
walk through an article that was just sent out
by migraine.com
I'm on their mailing list
and I've done another podcast on migraine.com
where I talk about actually
I've done a couple reviews of some of their articles
but one podcast will link it in the notes here
the show notes
I did a deeper dive on how migraine.com is funded okay
so um
it's funded by the pharmaceutical industry OK
so
I'm gonna talk a little bit about that
as we go through the article
one thing that I have been trying to
to highlight on the podcast
so our dominant system of medicine
which is called allopathic medicine
so this is the type of medicine that's practiced
when you go to your medical doctor
your neurologist even most um
osteopathic doctors DOS
most of them practice allopathic medicine
they used to not
but now they predominantly do allopathic medicine
is based on the belief
that once your body starts generating symptoms
once you've been diagnosed with a disease right
which a disease is basically
the identification of recurring symptom patterns that
that play out across
across people right
those patterns have been identified
given a name to name the phenomenon
and that is what a a diagnosis is okay
so once your body starts generating symptoms
you have a diagnosis of a disease
in allopathic medicine
the foundational belief of that medicine
is that once that happens to someone
that's it they're gonna have that disease you know
for most diseases
they're gonna have it for the rest of their life
you know chronic disease right
that means you have it for the rest of your life
and that there's really no particular reason why
people develop disease
you know
acute disease is the cause of that
is considered to be like viruses or bacteria or
you know something like that versus chronic disease
in allopathic medicine there's really no explanation
as to why people get a chronic disease
sort of like you're just bad luck you know
now things are blamed on genetics
which is just a scientific way of
saying that you're unlucky okay
so in allopathic medicine it's sort of like well
these things happen
we really don't know why
it's probably has something to do with your genetics
and the best hope that we have is to find
chemical agents that will manipulate the biochemistry
so that you can't perceive
the symptoms that your body is generating
or we overpower
the biochemistry that's generating the symptom
we sort of overpower it with an external agent
so that the biochemistry that's generating
the uncomfortable symptom
can't happen anymore
so that's
that's the framework that allopathic medicine operates
under okay
so many people in America
because this is the dominant belief that we have
culturally the allopathic model of disease
is the dominant cultural
framework or belief
so I would say most Americans believe that this is true
I you know
I think the number of Americans that are
that don't believe this is growing
um but there are some of us that sort of intuitively
we don't believe that this is true okay
and I was one of those people so
you know
I was raised in a very like Midwestern American home
I'm a Gen Xer you know
I was a kid in like the 70s and the 80s
my parents are very conventional
they're not you know
they were not
like hippies on a commune or something like that
suburban Chicago uh
you know
upbringing like nothing like wacky or or out there
but I kind of had this just intuitive sense
that this was not true
and when I started getting migraines
and I went in to my medical doctor
I thought that she was going to
sort of dig in to what was going on
because intuitively
though knew that I was
probably getting these migraines
because of something that I had control over
not that I did it to myself right
but if there was something not right
there was something off there was something
you know just a little untuned
and if
you know an expert like a doctor could guide me
could figure out what it was that was
you know kind of missing or lacking or
you know
something that I was doing that I could stop doing
some something that I could change
that would improve how my body functioned
you know I thought that's what doctors did
so I had this intuitive sense
right that there was something that I had control over
that there was something I could do
there was something causing this
hi there
I wanna jump in real quick and tell you about my client
Beth she was getting 15 to 20 migraines
and headaches per month and as you can imagine
this was impacting her work performance
and her confidence she also has two small children
and she was
starting to feel like she was a horrible mom
because she had nothing left for them
at the end of the day but she reached out
and she booked a free consult call with me
and after I asked her about her migraines
and her health history
I felt confident that I could help her
I help women
uncover the root drivers of their migraines
and follow a step by step plan
to dramatically reduce the frequency by up to 90%
without adding more medication
or taking a bunch of supplements
so we built her personal migraine map
followed the plan
and now she will get one to two migraines per year
which she uses ibuprofen to treat if she needs to
verses up to 15 to 20 per month
when we first started working together
that weren't responding well to any medication
she just reached out to tell me that
she got a promotion at work
she's on top of her career again
and has been able to come off all of her migraine
medication but most importantly
she's a confident mom again
and she's attending birthday parties at Jump Zone
with her kids and saying yes
instead of saying maybe later
I've worked with women like Beth
from all over the United States
who were told this is the best we can do
but they were still willing to dig deeper
so
if you are serious about changing your migraine story
go to Doctor Leslie Caesar dot com slash apply
or tap the link in the show notes
and on our free consult
we'll map out why your migraines keep coming back
and the first three steps you can take
over the next 30 days
I do cap new client spots each month
so if the calendar is full
the doors are closed for now
but if you're done feeling helpless
and ready to do the work to heal
pause this
episode for 30 seconds and book that console call now
and that if I went into my doctor
the doctor would dig in
and she would investigate things and ask me questions
and we'd probably run some lab work or something
and then she would tell me oh
you need to do this you need to change this
this is this is why this is happening
and this is what you can do
I had this vague vague intuitive sense of this right
and probably
I wouldn't have been able to articulate it very well
at the time
but there was some intuitive sense like that
because when I went in to my medical doctor
and she spent you know
the 10
12 minutes with me and then handed me a prescription
I was pretty shocked I was pretty surprised
it didn't meet my expectations
of what I thought was gonna happen in that appointment
if you're listening to this podcast
you're probably sort of how I was right
you kind of have this intuitive sense that you know
there's something causing the migraines
it's not just genetics right there
but there's something that
if I just knew what I could do
what I could change right
there's something that
I have some level of control over here that
you know if my body was functioning better
I would feel better I would have fewer migraines
so what is it right
and more and more Americans are coming around to
this line of thinking around their health
which I will tell you from my own personal experience
you know uh not only with myself but with clients right
the allopathic conception of disease is incorrect okay
the naturopathic conception of disease
I'm not gonna say is 100% accurate
I'm always gonna leave room open for new learning
and new discovery but it is profoundly more accurate
than the allopathic conception of disease okay
because when you intervene
when you
understand the symptoms that the body's generating
and you know how to intervene
and you know how to address what the body needs
the body responds and starts functioning better
and then we feel better
and this happens over and over and over again
just because
millions of people believe something is true
doesn't mean that it's true
you can determine what is true if I do something
and then this outcome proceeds from there right
it starts to give us some clues as to what is true
this is part of the scientific method okay
you know a lot of people have this conception
that naturopathic medicine is not scientific
I can't tell you
just how scientific naturopathic medicine is
because you
you know when I go in I start working with a client
I have a incoming hypothesis as to what is
causing their body to generate the migraines
and that hypothesis is continuously being tested
because based on the hypothesis
I'm going to make a recommendation
and my client is going to implement that
and then we're going to see what happens as a result
and if the body starts feeling better
and the migraines improve
and all the other symptoms start to improve
that's a pretty good indicator
that we're moving the body towards health
and that the recommendations
that were based on the hypothesis right
it validates the hypothesis
the going in hypothesis
and sometimes I will make a recommendation
based on this incoming hypothesis
and yeah
do migraines don't improve
the other symptoms don't improve well
what does that tell me hmm
my hypothesis going in here isn't correct
what do I need to adjust right
how do I need to adjust this hypothesis
and then how are the recommendations
going to change as a result
and then we see the outcome right
so this is the scientific method at play
when it comes to our
you know our own
you know human body biochemistry right healing journey
whatever you wanna call it I can tell you right
the naturopathic model is much much
much more accurate than the allopathic model
and we can see the fruit of the allopathic model
when we give these external substances
we call drugs and medication
when we give that to people
so in in an effort to either
prevent the person from experiencing
the uncomfortable symptom
or to alter the biochemical processes within the body
so that the body can't generate the symptom
we see the fruit of that
and that is worsening of the condition
I have done so many podcasts on this
I have a free training on this
when you suppress symptoms
cause that's what you're doing
you're suppressing the biochemistry of the body listen
we may not like the symptom
it may be extraordinarily uncomfortable
uh we may be suffering quite a bit from the symptom
but the body is generating that symptom in response
to the environment that it's in
if the body is in an environment
where it doesn't have everything
that it needs to function properly
it's not going to function properly
it's going to adapt to a less than optimal environment
and the trade off is what we call
symptoms and discomfort
so when you alter that process
you are further diminishing the health of the body
you are further
impeding the proper biochemistry of the body
and the symptoms are going to get
worse and worse over time
I have a hobby and I like to listen to Youtubers
like content creators that create content
and one of
the content creators that I like to listen to
she has shared that she's a migraine sufferer
I knew that she was taking nurtec
as her migraine abortive medication
and she probably started taking that about a year ago
low and behold right a year later
she was kind of working on her craft and
and just kind of talking about her life
as she was working on it and she said well
this has been a hard week because
you know as I've talked about before
I suffer from migraines
and I have been taking nurtec for the past year
and it had been working so well for me
but this week
I got a migraine and I took my nurtec and I could tell
uh oh this isn't working like it used to
oh no
now what am I gonna do and she
I mean she just described the classic
classic thing that we migraine sufferers go through
when we suppress symptoms right
all these you know
quote unquote miracle drugs
they come out and for most people at the beginning
they are very effective
at suppressing the biochemistry of the migraine
but over time our body says
you know what I gotta keep functioning
in this less than optimal environment
and now it's even more less than optimal
so now
I've got to figure out
how to keep making these migraines
and then the drugs stop working
I mean it was like a textbook
textbook scenario
that I have talked about so many times
on this podcast
I have a free training dedicated to this phenomenon
right it's a recurring phenomenon
so this is the fruit of the allopathic model
worsening of the symptoms
worsening of our health right
you know I
I feel so much for this woman
I mean what are you gonna do now
now we're talking Topamax
we're talking right
preventative medication that we're
notorious for making people feel worse okay
so you know
you can judge the tree by the fruits
and again
allopathic medicine believes that
there's really no rhyme or reason for your migraines
how many of you have gone into your neurologist
and said asked
you know can you just tell me why I have these
and the neurologist looks at you like you're crazy
why are you asking me this question
we don't know why you have these migraines
probably genetic right
who knows
just quit bothering me and take your prescriptions
that's the response that I got from my doctor right
so
if you believe that the migraines are occurring
because you're unlucky
and there's really no rhyme or reason
it's just one of these you know
mysterious chronic diseases
and there's nothing you can do to alter the course
of this
if you believe that to be true
it makes total sense to administer a drug
or a medication
to try to shut off the biochemistry behind the symptom
it's highly rational it's highly logical
our behavior is driven by our underlying beliefs
and so
if this is the underlying belief as to why we get sick
why we develop a chronic disease
this approach that we
Americans have all been suffering under
allopathic medicine right
that approach is highly rational
but what's the fruit the fruit is worsening disease
Americans are much sicker than they were
when I was born
in 1972
what is the fruit the fruit is
not that people are healthier and feeling better
the fruit is poor the belief is
the underlying assumptions
the belief driving this is false
it's incorrect okay
so I say
all of this to set the stage
for what I want to go through
when I share this article from migraine.com
okay very good
so this article it really caught my eye
like I said I'm on their mailing list
and so
they mail out to their list multiple times a week
and I like to stay on top of
what migraine suffers are being
told
um the article is how do I process grief
resulting from migraine disease okay
now this is a very
very real phenomenon for chronic migraine sufferers
there is a tremendous amount of grief
that migraine sufferers experience okay
because migraines
are literally removing us from our life okay
so you know we're missing
things like you know
maybe a coffee with a friend
we're missing big things we're missing weddings
we're missing vacations right
I I have taken vacations and laid in bed for a day
out of the you know
six day trip I'm in bed for one day with a migraine
right I've experienced right
you know we're missing accomplishments
I can't tell you
how many women have told me over the years
you know I
I don't really enjoy what I'm doing
my boss is a you know
is a total moron but I can't look for another job
not with these chronic migraines
I would never want to do this to my next employer
because I can't you know
I can't participate I can't contribute 100%
and I would never want to do that
I you know
I have too high of ethics
to do that to another employer right
I mean
so I mean
the grief the loss right
grief is an emotion that's generated
when there's a loss right
and so if we can't attend our daughter's wedding
that's a tremendous loss
if we have to cancel with friends over and over again
right there's
you know I couldn't go to the coffee
I couldn't go to the movie
I couldn't go to the night out
I couldn't go on the you know
on the girls trip right
I mean
all of these things are losses that we experience
and grief is the emotion that's going to be generated
so absolutely grief is a very
very common emotion
that chronic migraine sufferers experience
when I saw the title
I was like oh
you know let me read this cause this definitely
this definitely hits home
Tom Pacerno is the author here
and so he says few events in my life
have caused me to carry a burden of grief
the passing of a loved one
a friend a pet
is a common event that comes to mind for most people
right of course
but again right
with chronic migraines we know the grief that you
know somebody that doesn't have chronic migraines
they're gonna think you know
the loss of a pet a loved one that's grief
right it's a whole another level
when you have chronic migraines
migraine disease has caused me to experience a loss
due to its impact on my life
absolutely right for me
migraine
has been a slow goodbye to many aspects of my life
yes yes absolutely
this has taken me through the typical grieving process
which was sometimes painful as it settled into reality
right um
so then we go into when did I experience denial okay
so now he's kind of pulling in the stages of grief
while in my episodic days of the disease okay
I lived in the first stage of grief denial okay
so again let's look at the framing here and again
I can't emphasize enough
this is not a criticism of the author
I totally understand where he's coming from
I have the utmost compassion for him
I'm I'm not criticizing him or where he's coming from
okay
but while in my episodic days of the disease right
so what he's describing here is how most migraines
progress right
when we first start getting migraines
they're not that frequent in medical language
it's like episodic
so you know
get a migraine couple times a year once a month right
they don't happen that frequently
and when they don't happen that frequently
a lot of times we don't realize they're migraines right
like he said
I would write off my attacks as bad headaches right
so a lot of times we don't realize that it's a migraine
right
we think wow
that was that was a crazy headache
right or huh
that's funny I
that's my head hurts
kind of like how it hurts when I get the flu
but I don't have the flu like what's going on right
and he says
their frequency wasn't impacting my daily life
and this is this is how things go right
if I'm just having a migraine a couple times a year
I go whoo wow
that was bad that was horrible
I don't know what that was
but once the migraine remits once it lifts and the
our brain fog goes away right
the clouds part we kind of feel why
we just feel like ourselves again
and we kind of forget about it right
we said well
that was horrible but hey
you know what hopefully that doesn't happen again right
like you know who as they get worse right
and we start saying well um
gosh uh
I guess if this only happens once a month
I guess I can get through it right
I can kind of cover I've got enough sick days
I can you know
hide out in my cubicle like this is how I was cause I
you know would get them at work and I would
I was in like a corporate cubicle environment
so it was like okay
let me just kind of lay low here in my cubicle right
and just kind of wait till 4:00
and then I could try to get home right
so that's sort of the denial aspect
now what he is describing as denial
is a little bit different than what I would describe
as denial okay
so um
as he continues here okay
let's unpack this so he says
you know I would write off my attacks as bad headaches
and their frequency wasn't impacting my life daily
I treated them with over the counter pain relievers
and push through
and this is exactly what most people are gonna do right
they're gonna take some Advil
and they're gonna take a nap
and they're gonna probably at the beginning
you wake up feeling pretty good
now he says
I was unaware of the dangers of leaving this disease
alone to progress
I kept telling myself and those around me
it was fine or I'm fine
as time went on
the disease progressed and impacted my life
for days at a time
I knew I needed to get checked out by a doctor okay
so again this is the standard progression
they're episodic they don't happen that frequently
they're not impacting us that much
we go who that was bad but oh well
feel better now well
I took some of leave and took a nap
I guess if I have to do that
you know once a month
it's not ideal I wish it wasn't happening
but right it's not significantly impacting our life
the denial right
he says his denial made him unaware of the dangers
of leaving the disease alone to progress okay
so um again
I wanna highlight some of the underlying assumptions
I wanna highlight some of the underlying assumptions
he's already called his migraines migraine disease
I was unaware of the dangers of leaving this disease
alone to progress okay
so again the allopathic medical model
the allopathic conception of chronic disease is
once you get it
you're stuck with it and it's only going to get worse
and you can hear that in what he's writing here okay
so let's keep going
um when did the anger come
um I never looked forward to going to the doctor
but I thought this was probably nothing
one visit LED to another
and another for me with no definitive answers
again in allopathic medicine
they don't believe you have the migraines really
for any reason other than bad luck
so you're not gonna get definitive answers
that's what I went into my doctor thinking
I was gonna get definitive answers haha
people go to a neurologist
thinking they're gonna get definitive answers
people go to the Cleveland Clinic and Mayo
and headache centers
thinking they're going to get definitive answers
you're not going to get a definitive answer
within allopathic medicine
because they don't think you have the migraines
for any other reason than you're unlucky
it was time to seek out a headache specialist okay
then I got my diagnosis of intractable migraine
and new daily persistent headache right
oh my goodness right so yes
if your body is giving you these early warning signs of
you know a headache every couple months other symptoms
and again most Americans have a whole host of symptoms
that they don't think even think are symptoms
they just think
it's normal for their body to feel this way
it those are early warning signs
that your body doesn't have what it needs to function
properly now
when our body doesn't have what it needs to function
properly thank goodness we just don't drop dead
the beauty of the body the miracle of the body
is that it will adapt to less than ideal conditions
a less than ideal environment
but that
adaptation to survive in less than ideal conditions
comes with some trade offs
that's what we call symptoms okay
so unfortunately
because he I'm assuming he's an American
the typical American the way that we were all raised
the way that I was raised
we don't realize this we don't realize that we're
those episodic headaches and migraines
that's the early warning symptom
the early warning sign we we do go into denial
we totally go into denial all the time
it's not that bad well
you know
I feel good today it's only gonna happen once a month
I guess I can live with it right
our denial prevents us he's saying
from getting on more medication
I'm saying from intervening
and taking the steps that we can take
before the problem gets even worse
okay so unfortunately
um unfortunately
his use of over the counter medications
then going into the doctor
I'm sure he got prescriptions right
probably Imitrex or something like that or Tryptin
um unfortunately
because those medications
were further altering his biochemistry
not really addressing the underlying issues
it got worse and worse and worse
absolutely that's what's going to happen
until the point that he had daily head pain
okay and about half my clients have daily head pain
this is an absolute real thing
that happens to people all the time
when they follow the allopathic model
so again what is the fruit of the allopathic model
intractable migraine and daily persistent headache
okay
so um
by then I was also firmly entrenched in a medication
adaptation headache cycle that needed to be broken
fancy medical terminology for rebound right
the dreaded rebound that all migraine sufferers
are working so hard not to get into
the dreaded rebound
I was angry by the diagnosis
or the outcome of these conditions
yeah absolutely
that anger is usually the catalyst okay
it was my shock and anger of going into my doctor
thinking I was going to get answers
and only leaving with a prescription
it was that shock and anger
that jolted me out of the allopathic
model out of the allopathic mindset
I already had that kind of intuitive
intuitive knowing but that anger
shocking anger what do you mean
this is it haha
10 minutes and a prescription
what that anger
jolted me out of
the false conception that I had about my migraines
and my headaches
and that anger is what drives
the overwhelming majority of my clients
to reach out to me right
it's like we finally get to the point where we're like
you know what
now I'm mad because I followed all the recommendations
I did everything they told me to
and now I have daily persistent headache
and now I'm in a rebound and all like
now you want me to do a cold Turkey withdrawal right
it's that anger that is ultimately beneficial to us
because it gets us out of this false model
that's not gonna help us
so let's continue here
um I was angry by the diagnosis
or the outcome of these conditions
there is no cure for them currently
right you cannot suppress your way out of this problem
it's never gonna work look at the outcomes
look at the outcomes
over decades and decades and decades
things are getting worse
not just for people with migraines
for people with all sorts of chronic conditions
the fruit is rotten
this approach does not cure anything
it makes it worse over time
absolutely
that frustrated me well yeah
of course
I resented the illness because at that time I
felt I was to blame for not caring for myself
now here's where people get angry
and this is the No. 1 reason why
people will not shift out of the allopathic model into
into the naturopathic model
because inherent in the nature pathic model
if there is
some underlying root cause
and I can take some action
to address those underlying root causes
and if I do that my
my body will respond and I'll start to feel better
this reality actually makes a lot of people angry
because it sounds like we're to blame
and right because
migraines there's no reason for it
it's genetics I have no control over that
it was sort of just you know
the roulette wheel that got spun
universes roulette wheel
there's nothing that I can do then
there's nothing that I did that caused it
but there
there was things that we did that impacted our health
um
we may not have been aware of it
had we known better we may not have done it
but let's face it
we self sabotage ourselves all the time
I mean you know
even if we did know maybe
we wouldn't have been able to implement those changes
maybe we wouldn't have been able to muster up
what we needed to do to take better care of ourselves
that happens to us all the time
it happens to me
so
within the concept of disease
that naturopathic medicine holds
we do have some responsibility for how we are feeling
and that hurts that hurts
that can that can feel a little rough
but if we don't have any control over how we're feeling
then we can't make any changes and feel better
so the allopathic model which is you just got
you know
cosmically unlucky when the role of the dice was
was thrown at conception for you
then we have nothing to blame
but we can't do anything about it
those two things go hand in hand
versus in naturopathic medicine
the body generates symptoms
when the conditions are not optimal
the miracle of our body is that
when conditions are not optimal
we just don't drop dead
we can adapt to less than optimal conditions
but there's trade offs
well
who generated the less than optimal conditions
some of those things we had no control over
but some of the things we did have control over
some of the things that were not optimal
we had control over but we
maybe for lack of knowledge
maybe for lack of motivation
maybe you know
unconscious mental and emotional factors
we weren't able to create a better environment
so there is a little bit of
um
conviction within that model
but because of that
we can actually change we can do something different
we can give our body what it needs
and we can feel better
so within the naturopathic model
you have to have that little bit of
a little bit of conviction
in order for the change to take place
and in this article
I resented the illness because at that time
I felt I was to blame for not caring for myself
that's not the case at all
but at that moment I was dazed
so there was a little bit
again I can't read his mind
but just sort of reading this
and knowing what I went through personally
knowing my own mind
right when we have that little intuitive sense
hmm I think there's a reason for this
and I think if I knew what to do and if I could do it
I'd feel better ooh
flip side of that is ooh
I must not have
done the best thing for myself in the past
ooh that hurts
right
from what he's describing here
again I can't read his mind
I'm making an Assumption maybe incorrect
but he seems to be describing here that little ugh
that little intuitive knowing
and that little intuitive knowing
it comes with a little discomfort
it comes with a little bit of a punch
but you gotta take that punch
in order for there to be the ability
the capability
the possibility that you could take different actions
you could care for yourself differently
and feel differently do you see that
you have to have both in right
you gotta have the little bit of ugh
the little bit of the gut punch
in order for the possibility for you to
feel better to be there
so again I'm presuming here
but it seems that he had that little bit of inkling
but because it hurts maybe he kind of pushed that down
because in the allopathic model
if you're just unlucky
if you're just sick because you're unlucky
bad genes it's not your fault
but there's nothing you can do
so which one do you want right
there's nothing you it's not your fault
but it's nothing you can do or ooh
I could do something differently
maybe I could have made different choices
and if I do now I will feel better
which one do you want
so when did I overthink and feel anxious okay
so he says this was a problem I needed to solve
I told him I told myself
I spent many hours playing the game of
if I would or should have done
the overthinking was consuming me
when I could stay focused
all I thought about was these illnesses
my attack cycles were brutal
and were now spanning weeks at a time
I was missing work missing out on life
I was anxious about the next attack
when would it come how long would it be
was I ever going to gain some control in my life again
okay so this is absolutely what
what chronic migraine sufferers do now
it's called Doctor Google okay
let me go on Google right
I gotta have answers I gotta investigate right
we drive ourselves crazy looking for answers
and again this is that intuition
that little intuitive spark that says
you know what there's an answer for this
if I could do something different
I would feel better right
and we just try to figure it out
figure it out figure it out
so again again
I can't read his mind
but it seems like this stage that he's describing
there
was a little bit of him sort of trying to figure out
what could I do differently
because if I can do something differently
I could feel better
hi there
I wanna jump in real quick and tell you about my client
Beth she was getting 15 to 20 migraines and headaches
per month and as you can imagine
this was impacting her work
performance and her confidence
she also has two small children
and she was
starting to feel like she was a horrible mom
because she had nothing left for them
at the end of the day but she reached out
and she booked a free consult call with me
and after I asked her about her migraines
and her health history
I felt confident that I could help her
I help women uncover
the root drivers of their migraines
and follow a step by step plan to dramatically reduce
the frequency by up to 90%
without adding more medication
or taking a bunch of supplements
so we built her personal migraine map
followed the plan
and now she will get one to two migraines per year
which she uses ibuprofen to treat if she needs to
verses up to 15 to 20 per month
when we first started working together
that weren't responding well to any medication
she just reached out to tell me that
she got a promotion at work
she's on top of her career again
and has been able to come off
all of her migraine medication
but most importantly she's a confident mom again
and she's attending birthday parties at Jump Zone
with her kids and saying yes
instead of saying maybe later
I've worked with women like Beth
from all over the United States
who were told this is the best we can do
but they were still willing to dig deeper
so
if you are serious about changing your migraine story
go to Doctor Leslie Caesar dot com slash apply
or tap the link in the show notes
and on our free consult
we'll map out why your migraines keep coming back
and the first three steps you can take
over the next 30 days
I do cap new client spots each month
so if the calendar is full
the doors are closed for now
but if you're done feeling helpless
and ready to do the work to heal
pause this episode for 30 seconds
and book that console call now
now the problem is the typical person
you're not gonna figure this out okay
I've dedicated my life to figuring this out
I'm continuously learning
more and more all the time okay
so this can be very draining for people
the constant searching okay
if it were on Google everybody would feel good okay
again what's gonna be on Google is gonna be heavily
heavily oriented towards the allopathic model
and like I've talked about on the podcast
just because you're taking a natural substance
it can manipulate your biochemistry just like a drug
and that's what most natural practitioners
are actually doing they are using natural substances
like drugs or medication
and just manipulating your biochemistry
but people think because it's natural
it must be improving their health
and that's not necessarily the case okay
so again what's very typical for people is
they're kind of driving themselves crazy right
they're draining themselves tremendously
by trying to find these answers
on their own why
well they went to the headache clinic
they went to the neurologist right
why doctor why do I have these
I don't know right so it's like okay
let me figure this out
it's you it's going to be very very difficult
but this is probably what LED
has LED you to this podcast right
trying to get this figured out so you know
many of you listening
might be experiencing how draining
this is
and then certainly the anxiety right
this is what I call the post traumatic migraine
response right
okay
I'm feeling good now but you know is the sun too bright
is the way are we gonna have a storm come through
oh no I got a presentation at work
am I gonna get a migraine right
it's like constant worrying and you know
what's gonna tip me into a migraine
how do I protect myself
I gotta wrap myself in bubble wrap right
it's it's a whole whole thing right
and so
so then he thanks his wife right
so he's got a supportive spouse um
who came to all of his appointments advocated for him
stood up for him right
that's that's wonderful if people have that
when did depression enter my life right
time slips away quickly with this disease
absolutely right
how many hours are spent in bed in a dark room right
not 100% white knuckling it through the day right
time does slip away very very quickly
um and so then depression right
very common phenomenon for chronic migraine sufferers
I hated having the constant feeling of helplessness
and disappointment my life was drained out of me
as a result of this disease
I was losing hope that it could ever be refilled
even today depression and anxiety sit inside me
they are treated as comorbid migraine conditions
using combination therapies
have been very helpful in managing
both migraine and my different needs
so again for most of my clients
part of the recovery from migraines
is recovering from this
post traumatic migraine response
I had to go through this
I've talked about that talked about this on the podcast
even when people restore their health
and their body stops generating the migraines
maybe took
maybe they haven't had a migraine in a very long time
maybe they've gone from daily migraines to getting
you know a headache once a month right
significant improvement
even with that we will still fear getting a migraine
we will still bubble wrap ourselves
because that's what we're so used to doing
so with my clients most of my clients
we are consciously working on recovering from
the anxiety um
and if it's their depression
that the migraines generated
okay so this is a very real phenomenon
and then um
have I accepted migraine with more effective management
and again what he's talking about here
I'm sure is medications okay
preventative medications right
this is called managing the migraines
so with more effective management
so you know
probably more and more preventative medication
put on board because again
as we've talked about over time
you know you move through your abortive medication
now the migraine frequency has become so
so much you can't take that many abortives
so now you gotta go on preventatives
and again for most people
that first preventative it works for a while
stops working now we need a second preventative right
a third a fourth
right on and on and on
mindfulness and reviving my self
compassion were excellent tools
I started to rebuild my life
it was different for me
since I had never reinvented who I was
or this much of my life
the positive self talk helped me to be okay
with being vulnerable and tolerate my emotions
I developed coping skills
and my self portrait looked better
I was once again good enough
and ready to begin living in my new reality
my new normal
it was still really good most days
but different
most of my previous life had been laid to rest okay
so I'm happy that he's in a better place
mentally and emotionally
have I fully grieved and rebuilt my life
healing has come at many levels for me
since my journey has begun
it's so interesting right
you know
we talk a lot about a healing journey and so on
it's kind of like a meme kind of like a stereotype
I've had clients tell me right
that have gone from you know
daily head pain
to maybe having a headache a couple times a year
life changing
I've had so many clients tell me healing you know
part of this healing process
was working on so many different levels
and it was really a journey
and I it was a journey of self discovery
and it was you know
we had to work on a lot of levels to really get it
right
same language
different process totally different result
isn't that fascinating isn't that fascinating
I had worked through my grief stages
and embraced the changes in my life
it wasn't easy rebuilding my sense of worth and purpose
I had chosen to live the whole life I could
with migraine disease
and all that comes with my version of it
I am not my illness they do not define who I am
hope is a driving force in my life again
I know a cure is coming one day
I hope I'm here to see it
thanks for listening we'll see you soon