Headaches or Migraines?
Thursday June 4, 2009
Have you seen the antidepressant commercials that empathetically share with viewers that depression hurts? “It turns out, they are right. Headaches are one of the ways pain shows up in those suffering from emotional distress,” shares Mark Foley, an osteopathic physician and the About.com Guide to Headaches and Migraines. In Mental Health and Headaches, he further notes that “studies have shown that people with bipolar disorder are commonly affected by headaches, especially migraines.”
In reading this, I realized we haven’t discussed this much here. I was diagnosed with migraines a couple of years before I was diagnosed with depression. What is your experience with this? Do you struggle with headaches or migraines? ~Kimberly
Comments
Hi,
I am glad this topic is brought up. I get very bad headaches a lot. When a kid it was mostly due to sinuses I guess but not sure. Now I get very severe headaches. I feel like when I am depressed or stressed they get worse, but I also get them when I feel normal.
I have doubts if they are migraines or not. I went to a general practitioner recently and she told it was migraines. But I still have my doubts.
I talked to my psychiatrist about he told if it is due to the depression, my anti-anxiety medication will take it away and if not it is possibly neurological.
Would love to hear what everyone’s experience has been
I’ve wondered this before too. I’ve always had headaches and have put it down to a side effect of the bipolar meds (either anti-depressants or anti-psychotics) but have recently taken myself off everything (not a good idea and not recommended but am not caring right now) and I’m STILL getting bad headaches…. maybe there’s more to this…
I often get bad headaches and migraines. For at least a year I had them every day. It was difficult to go to my college classes sometimes. Topomax took them away (mostly), but before I found it with the help of a neurologist my body got so used to Loratabs that they didn’t work on me anymore. More research should be done on this. The headaches have come back recently, and I don’t know what to do about it.
I began having severe, daily headaches last June. They are so bad, I am basically totally dysfunctional and find it hard to do things. I thought it was related to the mega-doses of Neurotin I went on, and checked with pdoc, but it ends up I had been on it for a longer time than I thought and thought it was my Buspar. He had me discontinue the Buspar immediately, and boy, was THAT a mistake!! For anyone with anxiety, taking away an anxiety med all at once (even though it is safe medically to do so with Buspar) is not fun! Not only was I in pain, I was totally freaked with anxiety and nerves. Well, anyway, I ended up with a neurologist, who seems to think it is tension headaches. I think it’s allergy-related, and a recent change of nasal sprays proved that indeed the Nasonex I had been taking forever was adding to the headaches. The Ndoc gave me some Beta Blockers, and with the Nasal Spray, the headaches are still around, but not always daily, and not always severe. I really should keep a headache diary, and actually, I recommend it to anyone who is suffering. I still am not totally functional, between the bp and the headaches. I feel lost, it always seems as if it is one thing after another. It has to be related. I would think this entry would have received more attention, because I bet others are suffering too. Maybe it’s just that their heads hurt too darn bad to get online; I’ve been there and understand.
I’ve had migraines for 30 years and have been depressed my whole life- just dx with bp last year. My dad suffered horribly with them also; he displayed bp symtoms but was never dx. I got some relief with topamax but am thinking about going off because I’ve been much better since treatment of h pylori bacterial stomach infection. Don’t know if there’s truth but have read that there can be a connection and my brain is so fuzzy sometimes. I use a prescription spray for the worst of the headaches; other wise they are now usually well controlled with excedrin.
I am suffering from a migraine right now. It totally incapacitates me and it seems that it is related to bi-polar in some way. I find when I am under stress it happens more.
I have had migraines since I was 11 or 12, the BP diagnosis came at 22 and I still have them at 36. I think they are related somehow too.