Category: Triggers

  • Doom-scrolling as weasels dance…

    Doom-scrolling as weasels dance…

    Every now and then I read something that causes me to go back and read it again… and sometimes… again. A blog post titled “Breaking free from the weasel dance” was one such moment. I spend a lot of time reading and researching material related to mindfulness and ways that…

  • Glimmers versus triggers

    Glimmers versus triggers

    You’ll hear a lot on this website about chronic pain triggers: “dehydration triggered my migraine last week, and stress triggered my pain-brain yesterday”, and so on and on. Sometimes the potential triggers can be super-quirky, but potentially still very real, and might include your pillow, drafts, or even nightmares. This…

  • The 7 types of rest

    The 7 types of rest

    The other day I woke up after 8 hours of sleep and said to my husband; “I’m STILL tired!” And I don’t mean I spent 8 hours in bed tossing and turning and staring at the ceiling – it was 8 hours of deep sleep. I’m almost always so exhausted…

  • Welcome to my revelation

    Welcome to my revelation

    Every now and then something “clicks” in my mind; thoughts align (or collide) and I think “ah ha”. It doesn’t happen very often when it comes to migraine material (I had my first migraine when I was 11 years old), but with all the reading I’ve been doing, I still…

  • ‘Everyday’ trauma and your pain brain

    ‘Everyday’ trauma and your pain brain

    The other day I was waiting to pick up my daughter from a nighttime school event. It was running late, and I was getting a bit huffy and puffy about having to sit around and wait. It wasn’t that I had to be anywhere else, more that I just didn’t…

  • Migraine jump-scares

    Migraine jump-scares

    OK – imagination time: pretend you’ve agreed to watch a horror movie with your friend. You’re not a huge fan of the horror genre, but your friend talked you into it because the movie is supposed to be ‘cerebral’ as well as ‘visceral’. So here you are, seated in the…

  • Osmophobia: the nose knows

    Osmophobia: the nose knows

    One of the earliest blog posts I wrote was about the value of using aromatherapy to ease migraine pain (here). In it, I mentioned how much I love using essential oils for holistic healing.  Fragrance, however, is complicated. What works for one person might not help the next person. What…

  • Migraine Snakes and Ladders

    Migraine Snakes and Ladders

    Today was supposed to be a post about what I eat on an average day. The intention was to put out a “my daily intake” styled post so that we can all review it and decide what I could be having more / less of… the problem? I spent the…

  • Why do we hide our chronic illness?

    Why do we hide our chronic illness?

    A little while ago I posted a book review titled “hidden from view“. The idea was that the real root-cause of chronic illness is often hidden behind other more obvious reasons. We think it’s a physical, structural reason, but is often a deeper more subconscious, psychological cause. More recently, the…