Breakthrough flash of insight!!

After having a dream last night that kept recurring in different forms, I’ve had a real breakthrough insight into what my depression is all about!! Amazing! Now this may be a real no-brainer to everyone else, BUT, I’ve discovered that [due to my upbringing] I know fuck-all about relationship maintenance!

My relationships become un-rewarding for me because I DON’T PROVIDE ANY RELATIONSHIP MAINTENANCE in the way of affection to my partners. I don’t put more than the slightest bit IN so I eventually find I’m getting nothing OUT. Gradually my poor bloke becomes more and more discouraged about his input efforts with me, ergo I feel the zip is gone and I shut down and get depressed.

Now I’ll have to set about being demonstrative and that will be difficult and may not work immediately, but it’s POSSIBLE, so I’ll give it a go.

Flash of insight

How’s that? I feel quite proud of myself for sorting that one out after sixty years living in a black hole!

We need this program in Oz: Ruby Wax’s Mad Confessions

Ruby Wax

Ruby Wax’s Mad Confessions | Channel 4 goes mad | Documentary | Blog | Time To Change.

Reading the summary and readers’ comments on this British TV program from their Channel 4 made me think about how I am coping right now with my own head.

Crepe myrtle from L Street

In the midst of a few physical health issues I’m not doing too badly. As the people in the above program and the commenters pointed out, I could do with some company and a  bit of real-life support. I feel a bit stigmatised as people don’t invite me to stuff. Now maybe they’ve just forgotten about me because I’m not around much or maybe I DO make them feel uncomfortable. That must be the difficulty about having a mental illness that doesn’t make you think or behave in  unexpected ways – you can never quite tell if a drop off in friends is just chance or if they’re deliberately avoiding you.

As I’ve said before, I never really feel lonely and I AM alone during working hours; I just feel the need for different environments and social input from different human beings. Now I can’t drive or walk to the bus stop, my lack of regular company apart from Spotrick and the cats has become more salient. What strategies could I use, apart from spending even more time on the Interwebs?!

What’s affected me this week?

I was chatting to a friend at aquarobics this morning and he said that I tend to promote a lot of causes and “sad cases” on Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus. He thought this was all very noble but he felt that I should try to communicate about happier themes, since I am becoming like the national news! Maybe I would be able to dig myself out of my frequent depression by latching onto cheerful topics.

Bird & lotus

Now, I hadn’t noticed that I was negative in this way before and it hurts a little to think that the things I am most passionate about – affordable health care for all, looking after our ecology and food supply, reducing the use of manufactured chemicals in our food and environment which could enter our bodies, using discussion not weapons to solve national, tribal and territorial disputes and being at least civil (if not kind) to each other and to animals – seem negative. All these things tend to occupy my mind during the day, when I am mostly alone, since I don’t go to work like my partner. How am I going to change these themes around? Perhaps I could seek out positive stories or I could blog about other topics altogether. Would anyone like to weigh in?

Bronwyn Clee was saying, in her blog announcing #52b52w that:

Ideally all posts will be authentic and informative and have a clear message.

I’m not so sure about sticking to all three guidelines all of the time. However, I’m being authentic in asking for some ideas on how I can be more positive. I’m just not into positive affirmations like “I write uplifting blog posts” for motivating myself, although I’ve adopted the

Almost 22

practice of putting Smiley stickers on lots of things. Some friends have been mildly shocked by finding the Smileys on my laptop, phone and handbag! For a long time I had an excellent Smiley on the kettle so that I could smile at it every morning. It even had a name, Edwin, and I would say good morning to Edwin & grin cheesily as soon as I got up. One positive step I can take is to put a replacement Edwin sticker on the kettle right now!

Ending on a positive note! How did I do?

Finding hope

I’ve joined the 52 blog posts in 52 weeks blogathon started by Bronwyn Clee, so I thought I would announce my theme. My personal goal is to find hope for the longer term future for myself.

If you’ve ever visited this blog before you might have noticed I get visited by the Black Dog quite a lot, although less during the past 12 months [yayy!]. Hearing about my miseries may have put you off coming back, so I’m resolving to pursue a happier path if I can, blogging about daily events and topics that take my fancy, tying it all back to the “HOPE” theme.

Just a bit about the “setting conditions” so you know where I’m starting from this year:

I’m now over 60, feel as though I’m about 30; I live with my partner Steve, aka “Spotrick”, and currently, three cats: Moustiers [nearly 22 years old], Mogadon [six] and Bendix [four]. No kids or grandkids courtesy of mistaken genetic instructions. I’ve had several “careers” and I had been hoping for a new one, but it hasn’t happened. Firstly I was a junior sort of university lecturer (in developmental psychology), then I was a researcher in mental health (mainly on a psychiatry ward of a general hospital with eating disorder patients), then a general public health and computer network dogsbody all over the place. I’ve been doing a Masters in Public Health over the last several years and have finished except for the details that I and my supervisor need to decide about my dissertation/journal article. Hopefully I can sneak into the April Graduation Ceremony.

I V

This year has a loose plan of generating some longer term hope for me and I don’t plan on applying for any more jobs because that could mean pressure and negative mood triggers. My application to volunteer at the South Australian Museum for one day per week is being considered right now and I hope to get that so I can introduce some outside structure into my week. If successful, I will be part of one 4-person team among several, which will digitise the non-written Aboriginal artefacts the museum holds in storage. Only 2% of the collection is ever on display, so we have the other 98% to record in detailed photographs and notes before they need to change the display again! It sounds like quite an intriguing project. We will be cataloguing everything from tiny pieces of bark cloth to whole canoes hewn from trees.

When I get this structure to my week, there are other things I would like to fit around it such as doing more online courses to keep my brain alive, rallying people in the field of public health around Australia to use online social media to keep up to date and have short meetings, my various crafty hobbies, continue my Street Name Alphabet photography project started last year, keep socialising with friends every second day on my shrink’s prescription[!] and make our small garden beautiful again by looking after what’s there and adding to it. That’s plenty to do, I reckon, without having any pressure or time limits and should keep me moving forward while I search for long term hope.

Knowing that most of the other bloggers in the  #52b52w crowd have jobs/careers/family commitments to occupy their time, it might seem a bit weird to have my sort of goals, but that’s the way it is and I’m sticking to it.

Hopefully I can gain some ideas that will lead me towards my goal by seeing how the rest of you are travelling towards your goals and futures in your blogs. Happy blogging  #52b52w crowd.

 

Generous me (?)

I’m a bit sensitive, I can over-think & sometimes worry about what I’ve said or done later on. I’m a lot better than I used to be and more certain of the “rightness” & “ownership” of my thoughts, words & actions. However, I can get “attacks” of self-obsession when I’m more depressed, but nowadays my victories are far more often than my defeats.

As I reminded a blog-friend [?fiend?], I can be very assertive about discounts when checkout operators ring up the original, non-discounted price- I just say “No!, I’m sure you’re mistaken. Please check.” Always works.

As readers of my blog might have noted a few weeks ago, I have had a rough patch on the artistic side of my life, involving a cafe owner who went back on their word to hang my photographs AFTER I had spent Spotrick’s money on the frames. It upset me a lot for a day or two, I felt so exploited and guilty as well. Then I decided to  take a positive step and approach the local Council Arts Officer, who came up with great solutions for me and I’m fine about all that now.

Two of my sushi dishes

This week I even fought off a gallery owner who had mistakenly deposited $800 in my bank account when they asked for it all back. Previously I had celebrated selling some glass work at their gallery after having zero income from it for many years. I’ve been pleased & happy about the sales for weeks now- told all my friends etc. But THEN I got a phone call from the gallery proprietor saying the mistaken deposits had occurred. Although I explained that I had no job or independent income she asked if I could make an arrangement with Centrelink to pay the money “back to her” gradually! Great idea- except I don’t get any benefits through Centrelink- I’m totally dependent on Spotrick. There was no way I could pay back all the money, although there was half of it remaining in my bank account. I told the woman I was willing to pay back half voluntarily but there was little hope I could obtain any more money for the rest. She called me mean, unethical, a thief & other things, which I felt very hurt about.

However, armed with the mental strength from all my recent therapy, thyroid level correction,  fish oil & Vitamin D oil supplements, endorphins from exercising & renewed strength & less nagging pain in my hands due to arthritis treatment, I was determined to stand up for myself. So I calmly & assertively said to her (after nearly crumbling & bursting into tears),“YOUR MISTAKE LADY! I’m keeping half because I’ve already spent it quite innocently.” Buggered if I was going to make Spotrick pay for their mistake in not being able to distinguish a glass artist from a printmaker who had the same name! And “Perhaps you can let me speak to the other artist and we can come to an agreement that both of us have sold things through the gallery & we can share the losses as well as the sales?” But no, she wanted the whole lot back, without a legal leg to stand on. She told me I would get a call from her accountant but I didn’t. The accountant probably told her she’d done her cash by depositing it in my account! I have voluntarily deposited half the total in the gallery’s bank account & I’m totally happy with the outcome & my own behaviour now.

Two bee rose

 I reckon they are lucky I am a fair person by actually giving half back. I said NO & I’m happy- no guilty thoughts at all. Yayy!!!

PS. You wouldn’t believe it, but the gallery has now rung me a few days later saying they deposited ANOTHER $800 by mistake in my account. I was just about laughing my guts out, but I demurely got online right then, during the phone call & transferred it all back to them. Talk about incompetence- they’ll have to pull up their socks in their accounting department! They didn’t even notice when I thanked them via email for the original unexpected deposit by saying “Wow- thanks for selling another piece of my GLASS” when the stuff they had sold were prints! Any more deposits will immediately be spent on more frames for my photo exhibition!

REPLY

I’m glad I’m not Matthew Newton

The local press have been full of comment and criticism about an interview of a minor Australian “star” [Matthew Newton] by a popular current affairs reporter [Tracey Grimshaw]. The main division is between people who think Matthew was brave and is doing others a favour by “coming out”, and others who think Matthew should be held responsible for and explain his “domestic violence”, committed while apparently ill. [He assaulted and injured two former girlfriends, Brooke Satchwell and Rachel Taylor and has faced court over these incidents]. Many insist that he has a bad personality disorder and is just simulating mentall illness in order to get away from assault charges, including a psychiatrist and a Mental Health Case Manager! [see the comments on the Meshel Laurie article].

Here is a link to the TV interview: 
http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/celebrity/8377461/matthew-newtons-tell-all-interview

Here is the article by Meshel Laurie containing some rather negative views about Matthew Newton. Matthew Newton: The day after.

Lastly, my response to the interview and article:

I thought Matthew Newton was very brave to admit his illness and shortcomings in the interview. Tracy obviously didn’t understand his type of mental illness by the way she asked her questions, but he coped admirably in the segments shown. IMHO Matthew didn’t go into the domestic violence/assaults in any detail because he simply has no memory of the details of the incidents. That what usually happens in the “brain storm” of a psychotic “frenzy”. The brain is firing off in all directions and anything that might have become a memory is totally mixed in with the feeling and actions going on at the same time. He could well be very shocked at what he did to those unlucky women because he seems a gentle and reticent soul by nature. I suggest that he may have written or recorded apologies and explanations privately or intends to do so with advice from his lawyer. I don’t think he would be the sort of person to write it all off as bad luck for Brooke & Rachel- his personality seems full of shame & guilt and depression about his lack of “perfection” and feeling he hasn’t measured up to his parents’ expectations. He is an adult, his former partners are adults and I think we should let them deal with their previous troubles privately and whenever they choose- it’s none of our business nor Tracy’s.
Matthew appearing on TV and describing his symptoms will help other young people to “come out” and/or seek help for their own mental difficulties they will identify with him and may tend to follow his example in seeking longer term help. On the other hand some aspects of the interview could have been frightening to parents and friends of people with similar diagnoses to Matthew’s. With bipolar or manic depressive illness it IS true that the sufferer will have the problem for life, it’s almost impossible to predict manic or depressive episodes and the medications can control it, but not cure it. I don’t think Tracy made it clear enough that Matthew was NOT cured and will never be cured of the psychotic condition, but could fully recover from the OCD.  I wish she had asked him about having friends and supportive people around him that he is NOT in an emotional relationship with, as these sorts of people are essential to living life with mental illness in the community.

Lastly, why would anybody [even someone with money to spare- which I doubt Matthew would have after his manic episodes] spend 7 months cooped up in a small psychiatric hospital with their daily activities continually supervised and scrutinised, if they didn’t need to? You wouldn’t get me staying there more than 2 nights with a bunch of other troubled and miserable people (no offence intended)- and I DO have a mental illness [major depression]. Think carefully, critics.

Cutting the rave short to post!

Today some of my Twitter friends seemed to be getting very concerned about what has happened and what may be happening soon, to the Australian health system. I am a little worried about progress on mental health care, but not convinced that the government can force much privatisation on the populace.

First, several Tweeps were convinced that the article by Mark Metherell in The Age newspaper http://m.theage.com.au/national/health-group-lures-private-patients-from-public-system-20111104-1n04h.html
Health group lures private patients from public system, meant that the government was quietly divesting itself of publicly-funded healthcare and “forcing” people to buy into the private system. The article also implies that the private hospitals will “lure away” people who need particular types of care by demonstrating a better record on several health measures, eg. rates of hospital-acquired infections, higher recovery rates from some surgery etc. As I read it, there ARE some advantages to private hospital care for some conditions, but ONLY for younger, less complex cases. Public hospitals take the sickest people and are often willing to risk complications in the hope of saving a life that others might not see as worth the extra investment of time and effort.

On the other hand, hospitals already co-operate in the use of resources and specialists. For instance, when my partner needed an emergency operation to have his gall bladder removed, the health system did lots of juggling between different surgeons and hospitals so that he could be operated as soon as possible.The public hospital that gave him 24 hours of doctors, nurses, drugs & accommodation didn’t charge him a cent for this care! Meanwhile they rushed him by ambulance to a private hospital where the surgeon got theatre time, operated swiftly, and only had one extra day there.
If he had been able to stay in the public hospital and have the same surgeon operate under his “public hat”, then he wouldn’t have paid a cent for anything.

This sort of cooperation is the norm.

At a public training hospital...

NONE OF THIS WILL CHANGE for publicly funded patients under the health reform arrangements in Australia. If you need care, you will get it as quickly as possible and necessary. For people who HAVE PRIVATE EXTRA INSURANCE [only NECESSARY if your income is over $140 000 for a family, or you pay an extra 0.5% tax], the government will require them to USE it if hospitalised in the public system. Previously you only had to claim on it if you used extra private services while in the public hospital. Soon people will have to draw on it when it’s available. That’s all.

Touch of the Henries

[This post is also Day1 for NaBloPoMo]
No this is not about unwanted sexual touching in the workplace. Nor is it about the Annual Henry Mancini Musical Theatre Awards; nor the greeting card industry’s awards; nor even the standard unit of electrical inductance! It’s about motivation.

Large dose of the Henries

*”A touch of the Henries” = ennui. Haven’t you ever heard that feeling described this way?

IRL this means I can think of millions of things I could be doing but I can’t be f**ked. It’s not to be confused with procrastination, as I know why I do that! This is an awkward feeling of being motivated in one part of the brain and disinclined in another. I guess it relates to procrastination, but it’s a feeling of general hopelessness rather than some fear of failure that stops the action from happening.

Surrounding me here on the sofa are stacks of little projects I could attack, and others that need completing, but somehow none really appeals most of the time.

Pile of crafty stuff

My stickability at really simple routines and habits makes me take my pills every morning; my hatred of pinging sensations in my head soon reminds me if I miss! Guilt about putting off various tasks because I can’t commit my whole head to them makes me think about re-starting. But then I remember that half a head’s commitment will not get those tasks finished with any sort of quality, so I put those aside fairly legitimately.

The boring, routine things like housework are the most easily put aside as rarely does anyone die from my neglect of this! I’ve seen houses where there WAS a risk of the owner dying (like the one with the blind 83 year-old who had to negotiate a backyard obstructed with huge vines and tree-roots to go to the toilet), but I manage to wash the basic utensils and kitchen bench so we don’t get food poisoning! Vacuuming, mopping, tidying, changing quilt covers and window-cleaning are the things I let slide.

I Tweeted a minor victory today because I put Spotrick’s black T-shirts through the wash for the week, he mopped the [yesterday flooded] laundry & I followed up with the bathroom floor. This is a good day!

Righto- I wonder what I’ll attack tomorrow; any bets? I could sew a skirt, plant out some seedlings, de-pot tulip bulbs or a dozen other things. I’ll see what I feel like tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

For the psychologically and/or philosophically inclined [which I am when not suffering an attack of the Henries], here is a diagram by Csikszentmihalyi showing how ennui (which, to me, is halfway between Apathy and Boredom), fits into the spectrum of emotions:

Diagram of the Henries plus other emotions

Try Wikipedia for starters, or go to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s separate entry to track down his writings.

*For the unenlightened, my own use of the term “henries” is derived from the works of one John Clarke, a local writer/philosopher/comedian.

My mental health is interfering with this Mental Health Day post

I wanted to do a really interesting post, but my motivation is totally crap at the moment. This is what it’s like having depression and I continue to learn to live with it. The weather here has something to do with me not perking up as summer approaches [here in the Southern Hemisphere]. It has been fairly cool and grey for two weeks after a few very warm days of almost 30 degrees C! The gardens started growing madly, the depressed people cheered up and many started visiting the beach. Alas, it didn’t last and I have had a little hiccup in my climb towards January’s brightness.

Cool & cloudy at the beach

I’m at the stage in my depression where I know I CAN feel better but I can’t force it. I was really good last year when I was taking my pills and managing my thoughts while being occupied with study and other interests. Since  that time various delays have had their effects on me so that I can’t finish things to which I had committed. I have been having a rather hard time, in spite of the efforts of my partner and friends to entertain me and add some spark. However, I try to do the things that keep me more cheerful, like meeting friends for coffee or a meal, going on walks to keep a bit fit and having photographic excursions to the beach. For instance, last week I met two old friends from uni and had an extraordinarily cheap lunch at the Casino! We got lunch for $6 each, including a 600ml drink! One friend was feeling very down about her job, post uni as it is far too much being an unpaid social worker with indigenous people and no data crunching as she had foreseen. We tried to get her to focus on the money & experience for the meanwhile and think about changing jobs when she is performing well in this one. My other friend, an Indonesian pharmacist, is doing postgrad work with an established group at one of the local unis, so she just has to put her nose down and get moving! I was setting her straight on what to concentrate on so that she gets her proposal in quickly- she was trying to read the entire literature without putting pen to paper. I said she should make a list that said “Wanna know” and another headed “Quickest way to get there”. She thinks I saved her life!

Anyway, back to me. I really love photography and it is one thing I can make myself do even when I’m at my lowest ebb. When I can’t even be bothered getting dressed properly, I take photos in the backyard and inside the house. I take photos of odd things like rusty bolts or I take photos from strange angles to make it difficult to recognise the subject.

At the end of the jetty

Last time I ventured to the beach a girl tossing sticks and balls into the waves for her dog asked me why I was photographing them. I told her “This is what I do to make me feel happy. I photograph things and people at the beach”. She seemed OK with this, so I captured some more shots, then headed out along the jetty for alternative subjects.

Waiting for a stick

It was a cool, windy day, but the sun was shining often enough that lots of people had ventured out, hoping that Spring had sprung.

I was hoping the photos of this dog, happily jumping about in the waves would cheer me up a bit and I think they have.

Come on

Must get it

I’m hoping for more sunshine in my life so I can enjoy myself as much as him.

The Hunter

Day 20 NaBloPoMo:

Lately several people I know have had migraines. One friend used to get them a lot, but now only occasionally, while the other gets them rarely and unpredictably. I used to get terrible migraines from the age of 10 to 34, but none since then, and boy am I pleased!

 

Apparently almost 30 million Americans suffer migraines each year with a similar prevalence in Australia. Here are some statistics about  migraine in Australia from Headache Australia:

• up to three million migraine sufferers (10% – 15%  pop June 2001, 19.387m, ABS)
• prevalence of migraine increases from 12 years to about 40 years and declines thereafter in both sexes
• 23% of households contain at least one migraine sufferer
• up to seven million tension-type headache sufferers (36% for men and 42% for women)
• nearly all migraine sufferers and 60% of those with tension-type headache experience reductions in social activities and work capacity
• the direct and indirect costs of migraine alone would be about $1 billion pa.

My partner used to say he was having migraines, but his descriptions sounded more like tension headaches and cluster headache. Many people describe any headache where they need to take a painkiller as a “migraine” without realising the distinctly weird aspects to a migraine-type headache. From my own experiences contrasting “ordinary” headaches with migraines, the “ordinary” headaches usually lasted up to a maximum of one day, they eventually went away with no treatment, or a lie-down or a few aspirin or paracetamol tablets. The paracetamol would even cure severe headaches with a large enough dose over 24 hours and I never felt any after effects or “hangover” from those headaches.

 

My migraines usually came on fairly quickly, whereas ordinary headaches sometimes built up to a peak over many hours. The migraines often had no discernible “trigger” that I could attribute them to, except the ones that came after a long period of tension- like the end of school exams or after a series of concerts I played in. As a teen and in my twenties I often got a migraine right at the end of my periods, which I used to call a “progesterone deprivation” headache, for want of any medical classification! Other people used to get awful migraines before their periods and accompanied by what’s now known as PMS- puffy tummy, maybe swollen ankles, short temper, a bit of misery/anxiety and a bigger than usual appetite, especially for sweets and chips. I’m sure a few bulimics are born through these experiences!

 

It’s difficult to convey the exact feeling of migraine to people who have never had one- but there is a lot more to the migraine than just a bad headache. The videos on this site present some real migraine sufferers telling their stories- people like any you might meet. My migraines were fairly classic- I would feel vaguely “dull” in the head, as though I had been in a rough pillow fight (LOL) and I would get surges and lulls in my hearing ability- some sounds would seem so clear and loud they would hurt- I would wince away from people who were probably talking quite normally. I still have a sensitive ear which I can’t let loud-voiced people sit next to when I’m in that mood, although I don’t get headaches from it. The ear seems to vibrate too much to the point where the eardrum jitters by itself and makes a little buzzing I can hear, feeling as though a mosquito is trapped in my inner ear, tickling the ear drum or hammer 7 stirrups bones.

 

The really classic part of my migraines were the auras- the feeling of impending something or other (not exactly “doom”) but a slightly anxious, waiting, feeling, accompanied by weird visual effects. I usually got blind spots or black spots, sometimes stationary, sometimes moving. The flashes and splotches usually had bright colours around the edges- classic psychedelic pinks, purples and greens with white light and black. At least twice I had huge blind spots that just would not shift- for one my doctor got the neurologist and ophthalmologist out on a Sunday as he thought I might be having a stroke- but I had no other symptoms. This nasty one occurred when I was rehearsing for a concert- I was meant to be accompanying two friends for their music practical exams in a few weeks. The huge blind spot made it impossible for me to see more than a third of the sheet music- I couldn’t keep moving my head or the page as I was fully occupied playing the clarinet! This attack was eventually cured after 48 hours with some ergotamine and codeine tablets.

 

Occasionally I would get numb spots on my body with bad migraines and rarely I would become slightly paralysed in my left leg or arm- only once, with my very last migraine, I had a little trouble walking. Some people get quite paralytic migraines- that would not be my idea of fun!

 

As a kid, when my migraines started, the headaches were dismissed as either malingering or as not very severe “because children don’t get bad headaches”- from mum, the neighbour or the doctor. Kids don’t have much credibility with either headaches or stomach aches- people think they don’t want to go to school and don’t take any notice. At least these days kids are believed with migraines, but I bet it isn’t as easy to convince their mothers! Because no one took my migraines seriously until I was about 16, some of them would last more than a week- I was given an aspirin or two if we had them in the house. When I was 16 my mum started getting migraines and then she realised I might not be faking it- as she suddenly got all these weird flashing lights and stuff, just as I was complaining of! It’s funny that mum’s best friend from work suffered dreadful migraines and had to self administer injections and lay low for a few days, because hers were marked by terrible nausea and vomiting- yee-ouch- I would not like to throw up while having a migraine headache. It would feel as though your brain was disintegrating!! Anyway, circumstances demanded that my migraines should be treated as vigorously as my mum’s and we were both given a supply of ergotamine tablets to take when necessary. Neither of us had the vomiting bit, although mum had nausea with hers. The tablets worked like magic for me- all the aches and flashing lights would disappear within two hours- excellent!

My migraines ceased completely and suddenly when I was 34, and just as suddenly, the depression that had been teasing me for many years came on full blast and would not go away. I asked my shrink boss to refer me to a shrink colleague and started on the road to getting it fixed- continuing journey unfortunately broken by long relapses. I’ll tell you what though- there is NO WAY I could have migraine and depression at the same time- it would be curtains. Absolutely incompatible with life as I’ve known it!

 

Medical researchers have discovered that people with migraine are much more likely to have a stroke (brain blood vessel bursting or blocking) than non-migraineurs – not surprising to me, considering what migraines feel like! I’m sure hypochondriaics with migraine are terrible doctor-shoppers, trying to convince someone they are having a stroke RIGHT NOW. I would have believed them if I hadn’t had migraines and emerged unscathed.

 

A  friend of mine when I was lecturing at uni had a stroke during a migraine, while she was driving home for lunch one day. She didn’t stop, but felt really odd, the headache became very intense and she sweated like mad and found it suddenly difficult to steer, However, she went home, ate some lunch and returned to work. When she came into the near-empty lunch room everyone there realised there was something wrong with her- she was rather giggly- though normally rather a serious and straightlaced person, she had trouble talking and couldn’t find the right words to say. Someone took this very seriously and packed her off in an ambulance- she came back to work six weeks later, quite well, but with a rather different personality! I liked her a lot better after her stroke! She has never had another stroke and is living a quiet retirement.

 

So, any migraine sufferers in BloggoLand? Anyone like me who had them and now doesn’t?