It still amazes me to learn how frequently they are told by their health professionals that their chronic headaches are "all in your mind," or given the message that, in essence, "You are a bad person if you can't cope with this problem on your own." For the most part, this is not true and the patients know it. If you approach them with the idea that this is an organic problem for which we have treatments which, though helpful, may be less than ideal, they seem much happier. I've also learned that these patients can benefit greatly from talking to other patients with the same conditions. These people have all been there and really know what they are talking about. And I've learned that people with chronic severe headaches are often surprisingly reluctant to tell their doctors things they think the doctor doesn't want to hear, including such essential items as how they really feel. Perhaps this goes back to the problem of not being taken seriously by their clinicians.

Comments (0)
Leave a comment...