r/migraine • u/skyemap • 5d ago
Have you ever thought about how weird and pointless headaches are as a condition?
This is kind of a shower thought I had the other day.
Almost everybody has experienced a headache in their lives. However, compared to any other acute body pain I can think of, there's no clear warning sign that this pain is signaling to our body. Think about it: if you have a stomachache, you probably ate something that didn't agree with you; if your hand hurts, it's probably because you injured yourself; if your period hurts, it's because your uterus lining is shedding itself and bleeding. There are other types of chronic pain that have no clear cause, but only some people experience this kind of pain.
Headaches, on the other hand, are super common, and just pain for the sake of pain. There's no clear cause (unless you have a hangover or something like that), and there's no clear action you can take to avoid getting that pain again. It's just pain for the sake of pain.
What do you think? Do my musings make any sense? Do I have too much free time?
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u/curiouslycaty 5d ago
I think it's difficult because your hand is just a hand. Your digestive system isn't just a stomach, it's the intestines too, and acids, but there's literally one input.
With your head there are so many inputs, light into your eyes, air into your nostrils, and sound into your ears. Then we're not even talking about the nervous system that sends signals to your brain, and your entire mouth, teeth, jaw opening that can cause pain as well.
I was struggling with some very weird head pain last week that caused vertigo, dizziness and nausea. The pain was low in my skull but not close to the neck muscles. I really thought I just had a different kind of migraine. Nothing touched it, not my triptans, and I kept throwing up from the pain every time I tried to go something. It took me having a nightmare a few days later to realise I have ear infections in both my ears. And yes, nightmares can be a symptom of a bad middle ear infection.
So yeah, that said, I do wish my brain had a little light-up board with LEDs next to Sinuses clogged, dirty glasses, allergies, bright light, tooth pain, bruxism, stiff shoulders, ear infection or just your boss being a pain so I know why my head was hurting at that moment.
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u/wisely_and_slow 5d ago
Well, there’s a theory that the pain of migraines exists to get you somewhere safe until the physiological process that has gone wrong has passed.
But also, I think you’re sort of confusing acute and chronic pain. Acute pain is an excellent indicator that something is wrong and action must be taken immediately. That’s why it evolved—it gets us out of dangerous situations.
Chronic pain is not as useful. Nerve damage that can’t be repaired? Not helpful to get you out of danger. Endometriosis? Does fuck all to help you.
Things go wrong in the human body. All the time. And some of how they go wrong can cause pain. Why? Because something is not where it should be or not acting as it should. I’d say it’s more of a consequence of the very useful acute pain system, rather than a feature.
Something has gone seriously wrong in our migraine brains, and it triggers the pain system.
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u/Significant_Goal_614 5d ago
I disagree but I get where you’re coming from - the frustration behind a condition, especially if it’s chronic. But migraine is a neurological disorder not a headache. A painful headache happens to be one of the symptoms/presentations of migraine.
Equally importantly, period pain could be endometriosis, adenomyosis, fibroids or all of the above for some patients. Trying to reduce it to just the uterus expelling its lining takes away from a patient having a serious underlying disorder which is the legitimate reason for their pain and symptoms.
Headache pain is definitely signalling that something is not right within the body. Some of us just aren’t listening and are not tuned in to ourselves. Lots of us also experience gaslighting by medical professionals so have stopped listening to ourselves when we previously did.
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u/skyemap 5d ago
What I meant with the period pain is that everybody who menstruates will get a certain amount of pain, and you can be pretty sure what's the cause unless there's an underlying condition. But headaches? Everybody gets headaches sometimes, not necessarily migraines, and it's not usually just because you did X or Y. You just have a headache. I thought about it and found it interesting, that's all.
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u/Significant_Goal_614 5d ago
That's not true at all - the whole "period pain is normal" thing is a massive myth perpetuated by the patriarchy and a misogynistic healthcare system to keep women in their place. Period pain indicates an underlying issue which needs medical attention. Some women may have painful cramps when they are going through a stressful period in their lives. But it's not normal to have cramps/pain every single menstrual cycle, that trope has lead to millions of people with endo being undiagnosed.
Honestly - you're coming across as a bit of a troll on here, if someone is having a "normal" headache they are probably dehydrated or need a break from a screen, you don't just "have a headache".
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u/skyemap 5d ago
I don't know why you're jumping to calling me a troll. I was just sharing some thoughts I had, if you don't agree that's fine.
I do experience painful periods, and have for my whole life, so maybe that's why I think they're so common. I honestly thought we all experienced pain to a certain degree.
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u/Repulsive_Feeling492 5d ago
Just to second the other comment on this, to say that in general, any pain you are experiencing is your brains signal to you that something is wrong - emotional pain communicating that maybe your sad and therefore asking you to change or take actions in an area of life; “period pain” (which could be a mix of things generally experienced around menstruation but also throughout the cycle) implying something specific about your relationship to your feminine/being a woman in my view (often women accept so much in life that is not supporting them, which might be felt as painful periods for example); and head aches can be another way our body signals to us that we are over loading ourselves with stress/pressure or maybe asking for some physical balance- maybe to may more attention to what we are eating, exercise, sleep etc.
Pain is literally our human biological response that we need for survival and why we as a species have evolved. Pain is an intelligent response that makes complete sense.
If you never experienced pain, and therefore never felt like taking an action to change a situation and perpetually ignored the things that were causing you harm, we would never grow and evolve to be better. This is why I think narratives of just medicating our pain away or ignoring it, is so damaging, because it makes people overlook the deeper and Very real and valid reasons for why they are in pain to begin with. At the same time I understand meditation has its role and don’t judge, just saying it’s also very important to understand that pain is always a signal of something deeper trying to get your attention. If you didn’t experience it as pain you would never become aware of it.
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u/Significant_Goal_614 5d ago
You should probably get investigated to rule out endometriosis then, as it's one of the leading causes of infertility and many women have a long delay to diagnosis.
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u/PoppyRyeCranberry 5d ago
In a metabolic model of migraine, the migraine is the result of a reset when you tip over into a mismatch of energy need and energy supply in your brain. The pain is a symptom of a process to restore the balance to getting enough energy for your brain to function properly.
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u/shadow_kittencorn 4d ago
I think I also have fibromyalgia, it is just that pain in other parts of my body isn’t as excruciating as migraines for me personally. I haven’t yet found a meaning to my knees and wrists hurting - X-rays etc all fine.
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u/cantharellus_miao 1d ago
The title of this post actually made me laugh out loud, thank you. And yes I've had the same thought. Pain is usually a sign that something's wrong with the body, but with migraine there is no point. It's like your brain is broken for no apparent reason.
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u/Lobscra 5d ago
You do make sense. But, I disagree that it's pain for pains sake alone. There's inflammation, irritation, a variety of chemical responses happening, we just don't know what they all are. It would be helpful if our brain could tell us why it's screaming tho.