sometimes we aren't paying ENOUGH attention?

[justbananas]

and by this i mean - just last night i was having one of my episodes where i had a skull-crushing right sided pain in my head.. on top of dizziness, on top of feeling a strong pulse in my temple, in addition to waves of racing heart and stabbing pains. of course i'm thinking the worst and feeling all of this pain in my head and trying to ignore it but it stays.

this whole time i'd been in my room working online, etc.. well i got up to go get some food in the kitchen, and happened to get a phone call from a friend that i took.. and then caught the tail end of the Real Housewives of New York on the TV in the kitchen. and by the end of that i was half laughing and half wanting to throw something at the women on the show because they annoyed me so much.

anyway i get back upstairs and crawl into bed and i'm like, WTF, my head isn't hurting or anything. now i know we all know and discuss distraction and how sometimes it can make your symptoms disappear, but then they creep back in. but i am telling you - my head was KILLING me before i walked out of my room, and felt completely clear when i got back after having a few laughs and relaxing and eating. of course i started concentrating on it and it came back which almost made me laugh. i was like.. seriously, this is nuts. we pay far too much attention to every little ache and pain. i always think my left side is weird and numb and i drop things and i forget things and i overanalyze it and i freak out and i think i hear things etc. etc.. but maybe i need to start paying attention to other details, like triggers, and when this happens, and when it's NOT happening. and that may help me understand it as anxiety, which i know it is. but it could help manage it somehow ??

honestly i could not believe the power of my mind. i was able to induce a migraine just by laying there and thinking about how it was interesting that i didn't have one. i swear i even felt myself contracting muscles in my head and neck i didn't even know were there. WHY do we do this! i'm going to start paying more attention and keeping a symptoms diary i think. sounds not fun but maybe taking note of these things will help? anyone ever notice this? :shrug:

[melody]

Hi,

That sounds like a great breakthrough. Am proud of you! I think most of retraining the mind is discovering our bad habits & correcting them.

My pain always comes on when I overdo things. My body decided to tell me I wasn't allowed to be a workaholic anymore, like I used to. It shut down on me to force me to stop being a "yes-man" & trying to work my life away to take focus off my anxiety. Now I have to face up to my mental illness whether I like it or not.

I guess we each have our lessons to learn in life :)

Melody

[xBettyBoopx]

Hey bananas:yesyes:

I think that if we try to distract ourselves it doesn't work, but if an external distraction (like you had) comes along, before we know it we have forgotten what was going on in our bodies. I wish that a professional would look at that to find out why this is. I have my own theories but I'm not a doctor:scared15: :noangel: :noangel:

Els

[agingwuss]

Very very good point. I've noticed rather the same thing myself.
Would be very interested if you could let us know your theory, Elspeth!
Please do!:notworthy:

[mummyto4]

Brilliant post Banana's. So very true.!

[justbananas]

yes that's true. no matter how much i try - i can't seem to master distracting myself. but when i get distracted by outside factors, my symptoms subside. even when i'm not anxious, as everyone says, symptoms are still there - but i know it's because there's underlying anxiety and also i've worked myself so much it takes months for symptoms to subside. it's just so interesting to me how completely debilitating the physical symptoms can be.