Thank the op! And also just because some people are being a bit unkind in the notes and telling people that if this works for you, you donāt have migraines you have tension headaches:
Cervicogenic headaches are a thing and are just as debilitating and are not just simple tension headaches and are often sometimes lumped under the umbrella of migraine disorder.
They are caused by muscle dysfunction and damage to the nerves in the neck/base of the skull and they often represent as typical migraines in terms of pain intensity, pain pathways and also the longevity of the attacks. They can also cause nausea, vomiting and a whole host of other symptoms that are typically treated with migraines targeted drugs.
They can also become chronic or episodic depending on the cause and also result in the development of other chronic pain and neurological disorders such as occipital neuralgia which can also feel like a migraine and often trigger the brain into experiencing the exact same symptoms due to following the occipital pathway which is the most common representation and cause of migraine pain and other symptoms.
Youāre migraines might not be caused by muscle dysfunction, but for a lot of people it is a contributing factor or even a symptom of migraine itself as migraines can cause the muscles in the neck to tense up in response to the misfires going on in the brain during an attack, leading to other problems like the above mentioned.
My occipital neuralgia was likely caused by many facets of my neck injury, but my neurologist and pain specialist both agree my migraines going from episodic to chronic was also a part in it because of how my body tenses up during migraines. The migraine aggravates my neck injury, which then causes the muscles around my skull to crunch the occipital nerve, leading to occipital neuralgia which now causes me to have daily migraines if I canāt get my neck to give up the death grip it has on my skull.
Sometimes I can do this with stretches and massage which can lessen the pain. Other times Iām in the ER getting shot full of IV anti-seizure meds because itās the only thing that calms down the migraine which in turn stops the muscle spasms.
Migraines are a complex neurological disorder that represents differently across the spectrum of sufferers. Hell, some people donāt experience pain at all with their migraines. Itās a weird fucking disease.
I understand the desire to emphasize how much worse migraines are than normal headaches that respond to hydration and pain killers. Believe me. Iām one more āhave you tried drinking water?ā away from going on a justified murder spree. But we also donāt get to look at stuff like the above and say āwell thatās not a migraineā when yeah, actually, it can be.
Thereās a reason neurologists will often try sending patients to physical therapy for severe migraines. And itās because the sternocleidomastoid is a cunt and that cunt being fucked up can make migraines worse.
Yeah, maybe some of the people in notes just have tension headaches. Or maybe some of them have got fucked up neck muscles from their migraines and learning how the neck is involved in migraine management might be helpful for some. Is it going to help everyone? No. Does that mean itās not a relevant thing to discuss in context of migraine disease? Also no.
