Chronic Anxiety over Migraine-what to do?
I have had migraines for years due to high stress or hormones that seem to be imbalanced. I cant afford to go to a doctor anymore, and that puts great fear in me. I have been without medicine for a few months now. Last time I had a migraine, I had tried a visualizing technique that worked briefly but the pain got so bad later and was so deep, i vomited and I have a fear againest that. My inner voice tells me repeatedly it will not put up with this much longer and is a frightened little child. Now every day, I wake up, scared of when a migraine is going to occur. It is ruining my life. I have started yoga and take about fifty deep breaths a day as well. Nothing really takes away the anxiety and fear and its gotten so bad, i have had to take little pieces of xanax which I hate because i usually take it to sleep at night instead and last night felt like a zombie while trying to watch tv, but anything is better than feeling like my life is over and all hope is lost. what on earth can I do for anxiety?
HI JenLight,
Thank you for your question. I'm so sorry to hear you are having a difficult time. First let me assure you many people with migraine have anxiety - I sure do. Please try not to lose hope 😀. Anxiety and migraine can be comorbid conditions, meaning they can occur at the same time but are not caused by one another.
It sounds like you are working hard to manage your anxiety with yoga and deep breathing - good for you. It's rough when our mind feels overwhelmed, but there are other steps we can take that may help such as meditation and visualization. I use both, but find meditation helps me feel more grounded and seems to reduce my anxious mind. And there are other self help tips in this article that will help too;
https://migraine.com/blog/cognitive-behavioral-therapy-overcome-stress-anxiety-cognitive-distortions/.I understand how hard it is when money is tight, I really do. I find it necessary to be creative with my budget, reducing my cable subscription, not eating out frequently and so on. There may be areas in the budge that you can scale back on so you can see your doctor and get medication to help.
Do you happen to see a counselor? I was able to find a counselor who works on a sliding scale (according to income) and my copay is manageable. I see her every few weeks, sometimes longer, and she really helps me learn skills to cope with anxiety.
I hope this helps,
NancyThank you for caring. I dont have a single cent to my name and have tried all the free resources. where i live their is no sliding scale income for counselors anymore except in a bad neighborhood about thirty minutes from here and i have no car.
Yes meditation is good and i used to do it a lot, now, even though my brain is trained to do meditation i can never do it for very long. thanks for the link, i am trying to empty my brain more and write out my thoughts at the very least talk them out with myself, but the article said to not accept negative thoughts as truth, that is good advice.
