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San Diego Therapist Specialties:
Headache, Migraine, Cluster Headaches and Tension Therapy and Treatment
Common Concerns for Headache Sufferers:
- Concern that other people do not believe your pain complaints or take your pain seriously
- Discouragement about the prospect of ever getting better
- Worries about medications becoming less effective, meds side effects, and “rebound effect” (headache returning when medication wears off)
- Losses of leisure, hobbies, relationship, days at work or ability to work as usual
- Frustration or trauma about the way you are treated at the E.R.
- Dealing with “compassion fatigue” among caregivers within your support system
- Fear and anxiety about future attacks
- Sleep disturbance
Headache and migraine sufferers often struggle with distressing beliefs, such as: “If I don’t perform perfectly, I am flawed,” I am a mess,” “I cannot relax until things are finished,” “I’m spoiling another event,” or “I can’t function.” Feelings of discouragement, depression and fear to even hope for improvement may be familiar for those plagued by migraines and other varieties of headache.
When headaches interfere with your ability to work, are you thinking: “I have to call in again . . . Will they believe me at work again . . . Am I going to get in trouble at work due to missed days . . . I worry whether they will really understand me and the seriousness of the pain.”
Though headache sufferers often feel very alone, the fact is that 90% of people admit to headaches. 40-50 Million Americans get recurring headaches. 35% of Americans get tension headaches, and 15% get migraines. It may surprise you to know that 85% of women, and 77% of men see an MD at least once in their life for a migraine. The annual cost of headaches in America is estimated to be $1 billion. Sadly, for 60% of sufferers, medications are not of much help.
The good news is that Stephen Marcus, Ph.D., through a grant by Kaiser Permanente developed and researched Phase 1 of an Integrated EMDR Protocol for Headache, and found it was very effective, that is, able to stop a headache in progress for 70% and more of patients with “primary headache”. Additionally, it could reduce intensity and frequency of migraine headaches, tension headaches and cluster headaches due to primary causes, which can include stress and tension, worrying or perfectionism habits, habits of Type A personalities, overworking, poor breathing habits, lack of regular aerobic exercise, poor sleep hygiene and poor diet.
Additionally, primary headaches are those that are not due to a medical condition such as diabetes, tumors, hypertension, aneurysms, strokes, and so on.
While the vast majority of migraine patients (70% or more) will be helped, those with chronic daily headache (CDH - a condition defined as 3 or more headaches per week) have a lower success rate. We actually do not know which patients will be helped and which will not be helped. We can only give it a try. The good news is that research on this issue is currently underway in Turkey. What usually causes CDH is the rebound effect from medications, and/or medication overuse. Thus, some CDH patients must completely get off all meds before they could truly ascertain whether they could benefit from this treatment.
If you are one of millions of Americans who is a headache sufferer, and are not getting relief from medications or other treatments, please call one of our specialists today.
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San Diego trauma therapists treating headache, migraine headache, cluster headache, tension headache |
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