The psychogenesis and psychotherapy of migraine

[alloker]

Accidental migraine

 Merriam-Webster dictionary has the following about the adjective “accidental”:   

“1 : arising from extrinsic, 2 a : occurring unexpectedly or by chance, 2 b : happening without intent or through carelessness and often with unfortunate results.”

Even if a harmful accident is caused by carelessness, carelessness itself can be shown to be due to events that have been accidentally realized. Moreover, not only harmful events but also useful events can be shown to be caused by long chains of accidental happenings. The useful events of our lives are considered successes, and harmful events are considered failures, meaning in the most general sense, failure to prevent harms of any type, physical or not. Although everyone is inclined to attribute his or her failures to external causes, as proved by research, there is always fear of being responsible for the failures as well as for the successes.

Successes raise self-confidence, and failures lower it. It is shown that the complaint that is most frequently expressed by psychiatric patients is the lack of self-confidence. A psychiatric disorder can evidently lower self-confidence; but even the most superficial survey of the literature shows that all mentally disordered persons have suffered harmful failures before they became ill, and this proves that their self-confidence was lowered by failures before they became ill. It is known from daily experience and is also shown by research that failures are consciously suppressed or automatically repressed when nothing positive can be done about them, and that they are attributed to external causes by everyone, as mentioned. Evidently, both of these responses serve to protect self-confidence. It is found that depressed persons do not suppress or repress their failures like healthy persons do, but they attribute them to external causes like everyone else for protecting their self-confidence. Also, because they remember their failures and therefore expect further failures, depressed persons remain inactive and thereby prevent further failures, again for protecting their self-confidence.

All these facts prove that mental disorders are caused by harmful failures. Thus, mental disorder is one of the harmful consequences of failures, which are themselves consequences of chains of accidental happenings, as explained above. Failures produce this consequence by lowering self-confidence, meaning confidence in one’s basic mental abilities, because bodily failures are used to attribute failures to causes external to the mind. Evidently, the lack of confidence in one’s basic mental abilities can prevent healthy decision making and can thereby cause failures and mental disorder. This means that a mental disorder is a mental accident, or a cognitive-behavioral accident, which could not be prevented by anyone under the same conditions. Moreover, the repression of failures for protecting self-confidence prevents their conscious treatment and thereby makes further failures possible.

Under these conditions, the human mind produces several types of automatic responses that serve to prevent further failures and harms for protecting mental health. These automatic response of self-protection are known as the symptoms of mental disorders, which are erroneously considered dysfunctional consequences, or harmful consequences, of some psychological, behavioral, or organic dysfunctions. But in disorders that really deserve the name mental disorder there is no known organic dysfunction that causes the symptoms. Such disorders are called primary mental disorders. Consequently, the state of primary mental disorder is the state in which automatic self-protection responses are produced which are known as symptoms and serve to prevent failures and harms that are caused by conditions that are external to the mind and are realized accidentally and could not be prevented by anyone facing those conditions.

There is no easy means of knowing whether a given disorder is a primary mental disorder or an organic illness. Medical doctors claim that migraine is an organic illness and that therefore they should treat migraineurs with drugs. In opposition to this, psychotherapists claim that migraine is a psychological disorder that can be treated only by psychotherapy. Migraineurs themselves prefer having an organic illness that can be treated by drugs, because they don’t want to deal consciously with their failures to prevent harms. This is a wrong attitude, because they are not really responsible for the harms they have suffered as a result of accidental happenings that were not preventable by anyone,

Physiologists have discovered many abnormal physiological processes in the brain that appear to cause headache. This proves that migraine headache is real pain, not imagined pain as some doctors mean when they say to migraineurs, “It’s all in your head.” But, no original organic dysfunction is discovered that could be considered the cause of those abnormal physiological brain processes. Moreover, it is found that those abnormal physiological processes are controlled centrally by the cortex which produces also thoughts. No animal model of migraine exists. New theories of migraine and new drugs are continually produced but none serves sufficiently to terminate the symptoms. All these facts suggest that migraine is a primary mental disorder with no brain defect, meaning that its headache symptom and the other symptoms are automatic self-protection responses that aim to terminate failures caused by accidentally realized conditions with which nobody could cope. So, there is no reason why migraineurs should shy away from dealing with their failures, providing that their psychotherapists know the facts explained above and treat the disorder accordingly. This will be positive psychotherapy of migraine which consists of discovering the failures that necessitate the symptoms and terminating them rationally, by profiting from the patient’s symptoms and dreams. It is most important to show to the patient that his or her failures were and are consequences of accidentally realized conditions with which nobody could cope alone and consciously. On the basis of his understanding of migraine, I have cured about 120 patients in very short times. I can send my standard diagnostic questionnaire to anyone who wishes to be treated through e-mail free of charge.

Examples of cases that I treated and realized definitive cure in very short times can be reached by writing the following to the search box of Google:

“altan loker” rainbow girl
“altan loker” her mother’s duplicate
“altan loker” worrying too much about the misfortunes of others
“altan loker” beautiful bedri

[NataEames]

I hope you are aware that a migraine is not the same as a headache, it is a headache disorder. Migraines may be triggered by psychological things but the condition has to be inlaid in the first place. Migraines are a neurological condition, not a psychological one.
I've had migraines since I was a teenager but gave stopped taking medication because it gives me a very confused, stuffed up feeling in my head, which is even harder to work with than migraines.

[alloker]

NataEames

"I hope you are aware that a migraine is not the same as a headache, it is a headache disorder."

Migraine is the name of a disorder, whereas headache is the name of a symptom which can be a consequence of dozens of different physiological conditions or processes and may therefore be a manifestation of many different illnesses. All those different illnesses that present headache can be called headache disorders, but this concept has no usefulness and is not used, because headache can have many completely different etiologies. Migraine is the name of a disorder of which headache is the main symptom.  

"Migraines may be triggered by psychological things but the condition has to be inlaid in the first place."

Anything we do, feel, or think has an inlaid basis, or a genetic basis, and is also the consequence of some physiological process or processes. But the genes do not determine what we do, feel, or think at any moment; they determine only what kind of response we will produce or may produce to what kind of prevailing conditions.  Some responses are automatic and are the same or nearly the same for different persons, while others are influenced by personal differences and conscious choices in the measure allowed by the genes.

Migraine is genetically caused only in the sense that, for example, laughter is genetically caused or is genetically made possible. And it is wrong to see the triggering of a migraine attack as the triggering of an inlaid faulty functioning. There is no genetic defect in migraine.

"Migraines are a neurological condition, not a psychological one."

Many abnormal physiological processes that precede or accompany migraine headaches are discovered, which make this disorder look like a medical illness. But no organic defect is discovered that could be considered the cause of those abnormal physiological processes. On the contrary, many research findings suggest that migraine may be a psychogenic disorder. Read my other messages. Also the fact that chemical and physical therapies are unsuccessful suggests a non-organic etiology.

Psychological therapies too have been so far unsuccessful because psychologists, like physiologists and medical doctors, wrongly believe that the symptoms of migraine are dysfunctional. The difference between them is that the latter believe that the symptoms are dysfunctional manifestations of organic dysfunctions, whereas the former believe that they are psychological or behavioral dysfunctions. Both are wrong, because those symptoms are automatic responses determined by evolution and have self-protective functions, as I explained in my other messages. Psychotherapy based on this fact is very fast and effective, and this proves that migraine is a psychogenic disorders. Headache is a punishment for insisting to continue in a self-harming way. This understanding explains also the functions of the symptoms of migraine other than headache.

"Ive been hearing somebody else inside my head for a while now. But i dont actually "hear" it, it's as if that person is thinking inside my head. I've been like this since I was very little (im 21 now) and it would never bother me. But lately it sounds like a completely different voice. Hostile, telling me im useless, weak, torturing me about all the wrongs about me and constantly talking."

That current hostile voice inside your head has the same meaning and function as your migraine headache: Both are punishing you for insistently behaving in a self-harming way and are trying to make you stop doing that.

[NataEames]

That's very interesting, alloker.

"That current hostile voice inside your head has the same meaning and function as your migraine headache: Both are punishing you for insistently behaving in a self-harming way and are trying to make you stop doing that."

Can you tell me more?

[alloker]

NataEames

We all wish and try to realize successes and gains in as many areas of activity and need as possible; and while we do this, we can tolerate considerable losses and harms in certain other areas. This is considered a virtue.  But this is a behavior determined only by the conscious left hemisphere of our brain (LH). The right hemisphere (RH) behaves differently.
 
The RH works outside of consciousness and develops before the conscious LH in childhood. The development of the LH picks up speed at puberty. Because of this sequence of development, the principal function of the RH is to realize self-protection, which is the principal need of the child.

Because the conscious LH develops rapidly at a time when the need for self-protection is less than what it was earlier, its principal function is to realize successes and gains as mentioned above. And because of this difference in their main functions, the RH is better equipped than the LH in dealing with failures and harms, whereas the LH is better equipped than the RH in securing successes and gains in a large area of needs. This also means that the LH is more easily hurt by failures than the RH.  

The RH and the LH normally cooperate smoothly in satisfying the needs of the person. But when the LH experiences some failures and harms that it cannot terminate and thinks that it cannot do anything positive about them, it stops dealing with those failures and harms, tries to underestimate and tolerate them, and busies itself with securing successes and gains elsewhere. When this happens, the RH cannot communicate and cooperate with the LH as it normally does and therefore uses some special means to warn the conscious LH about the neglected harms and to help and force it to terminate them. The most important means that the RH uses for this purpose are dreams and the automatic responses known as symptoms.

The failures that are extremely harmful to the conscious LH are automatically kept outside of it through repression. But this does not happen in migraine. The migraineur knows about the failures that he or she does not deal with consciously and adequately, but he or she ignores the true causal relation between them and his or her symptoms and dreams.

When, spontaneously or with the help of a therapist, a migraineur becomes aware of the causal, functional relation between the symptoms and the neglected harms and losses and consciously begins to try to terminate those harms and losses, the symptoms become unneeded and vanish. This is how the cure is realized.

Your emblem of egg and snake is inspired by your unconscious to warn you about the fact that you are prey to a sneaky enemy but that you are not aware of it, or not fully aware.

[NataEames]

Haha alloker,
Not exactly, i put the snake emblem because me and my bf own a pet shop mostly focused on reptiles. I keep a few of the snakes at home and my favorite (a californian kingsnake baby) looks a lot like that snake with the egg. lol

But i am very aware of the symbolism of an enemy in dreams as a snake and have only had one snake dream in the past month (that too i couldn't bite us because its teeth were made of rubber).

Are you into dream interpretation? I have a friend who does it VERY well, things he said have actually come true for me. I usually go to him with such dreams. I really want to learn dream interpretation, i know a bit from him and from experience but he hasnt taught me. Do you know of any good books or other means to learn to interpret dreams correctly?

[alloker]

NataEames

“Not exactly, i put the snake emblem because me and my bf own a pet shop mostly focused on reptiles. I keep a few of the snakes at home and my favorite (a californian kingsnake baby) looks a lot like that snake with the egg. Lol”

You consciously use the snake emblem because you could not do it unconsciously. But this does not mean that your unconscious did not make you use it to warn you in analogic language that a sneaky enemy is harming you. That harmful situation may even be related to snakes. Also, the choice of the egg with the snake means that you are unaware of the enemy and of his activities, like the chick in the egg is unaware of the external world.

“But i am very aware of the symbolism of an enemy in dreams as a snake and have only had one snake dream in the past month (that too i couldn't bite us because its teeth were made of rubber).”

That dream means that your enemy cannot kill you or cannot harm you too much but that it is still harming your interests. Dream language is not symbolic; it is concrete analogic, or pictorial metaphoric.

“Are you into dream interpretation? I have a friend who does it VERY well, things he said have actually come true for me. I usually go to him with such dreams.”

You think that your friend knows about dreams, whereas in reality he knows you and may therefore guess correctly what you will do or will happen to you.

“ I really want to learn dream interpretation, i know a bit from him and from experience but he hasn’t taught me. Do you know of any good books or other means to learn to interpret dreams correctly?”
 
You can learn the meaning and function of dreams only from my works. You can read for free my article New Facts about Dreams and Psychotherapy Deduced from Jung’s Compensation Theory published in The Journal of Jungian Theory and Practice Vol. 9, No. 2, 41-61.

You can reach it directly at the following address:  http://www.junginstitute.org/pdf_files/JungV9N2p41-61.pdf

Or you can buy my book Migraines and Dreams from amazon.com.

[NataEames]

I'll definitely check those out, thanks!

I'm wondering if you can help me with my "voices" problem.
I keep hearing somebody else inside my head, not an actual voice i hear with my ears but more like someone else's thoughts.

She abuses me and threatens me. And she doesn't shut up for hours at a time, it's like a constant running commentary on everything i do and everything i think. She doesn't sound like my voice and the things she says are nothing at all like me (sometimes it even looks like she's much smarter than me). The main problem is that she knows exactly which things to say to properly disturb me.

I've always heard her, since i can remember but she has only been this hostile two other times, during one of which i even attemted suicide.

She's brought me to tears numerous times. Right now im very depressed, i have a lot of things to get done but i can't even put my mind to them and yesterday i was contemplating suicide again, i had to call my boyfriend over just to keep me sane.

My boyfriend suggested this might have something to do with my super-ego but i don't completely understand his point.

What do you think?

[alloker]

NataEames

"I'm wondering if you can help me with my "voices" problem.”

“I keep hearing somebody else inside my head, not an actual voice i hear with my ears but more like someone else's thoughts.”

Those are the thoughts of your unconscious, i.e., the right hemisphere (RH) of your brain, which is trying to warn you about some self-harming habit of yours.

Jung often experienced the same thing for some time after he broke away from Freud. The reason was that his thinking had become less scientific and more mystical, and therefore his unconscious tried to warn him about it. The warnings come from a female like a mother to indicate a protective aim. In fact, the principal aim of the unconscious RH is to realize self-protection.

"She abuses me and threatens me.”

The mode of thinking and language of the unconscious RH is concrete analogic, and this mode of functioning uses exaggeration as a means of emphasizing a point. So, the abusiveness means that your unconscious finds your behavior very harmful. You don’t have to interpret those abusive voices and thoughts as you would interpret the similar accusations made by a real person.

"And she doesn't shut up for hours at a time, it's like a constant running commentary on everything i do and everything i think. She doesn't sound like my voice and the things she says are nothing at all like me (sometimes it even looks like she's much smarter than me). The main problem is that she knows exactly which things to say to properly disturb me.”

The unconscious knows more about the person’s problems, failures, and mistakes compared to consciousness, because its principal function is to terminate and prevent them for realizing self-protection. The unconscious is also better equipped than consciousness concerning the realization of self-protection from close dangers, whereas consciousness is inclined to underestimate and ignore the failures that it cannot deal with successfully, and which are consequently dealt with by the unconscious through dreams and symptoms. For these reasons, the unconscious can look smarter than consciousness concerning the termination of failures. In fact, many problems, including scientific ones, have been solved by the unconscious and relayed to consciousness through dreams. So, don’t feel bad because your unconscious seems to be smarter than the conscious you. On the contrary, you should be proud of your unconscious half.

“I've always heard her, since i can remember but she has only been this hostile two other times, during one of which i even attempted suicide. She's brought me to tears numerous times.”

This reaction is caused by your wrong interpretation of your symptom, as explained above. The events that occurred before those two most hurting cases, If you can remember them, can clarify your behavior that your unconscious considers most self-harming. Then you can correct your behavior to satisfy your unconscious, and this will terminate those voices by making them unneeded.

“Right now im very depressed, i have a lot of things to get done but i can't even put my mind to them."

I can recommend you three means of getting out of depression.

1.  The first method is what I call symptom rehearsal and consists of willfully producing the symptom for some time. This terminates its uncontrollable production, and then its willful production can be terminated.  This method can be applied in depression by willfully remaining absolutely motionless until the urge to act becomes irresistible, after which you can gladly become active . You can repeat this several times.

 2. The second method serves to directly terminate the cause of depression. Depression is caused by having failed in a wide area of activity and the resulting belief that failure is always inevitable. The main symptom of depression is inactivity, which serves to prevent further failures. Therefore the best means of terminating depression is to realize successes of various types. In fact, success is the best remedy in all psychological disorders because they all are caused by harmful failures. This method can be used together with the above first one, for example as follows:

 Place a basket a few steps away from a comfortable chair and have some objects that you can throw into the basket. Sit comfortably in the chair without making any movement until the urge to move becomes irresistible. Then begin to throw those objects into the basket. You can repeat this exercise by arranging various types of success that you can realize after the immobility stage.

3.  This is shock therapy using sound. Let someone produce a very loud and sudden noise near you such as the firing of a gun. This can be done in an empty or nearly empty room to prevent the absorption of the noise. For example, a toy hand gun that explodes powder imbedded in a piece of cork can be used. It may be preferable not to see the person who will make the noise, because then a surprise effect will be realized. A single shock may be sufficient to end the depressive mood.
 
“My boyfriend suggested this might have something to do with my super-ego but i don't completely understand his point.”

Super-ego is an idea produced by Freud after he switched from the seduction theory to the fantasy theory. The seduction theory fits the truth that all psychological disorders are caused by harmful failures, whereas the fantasy theory is wrong, because it says that psychological disorders are caused by repressed unacceptable wishes. The super-ego is assumed to be the part of the mind that tries to make the person behave in compliance with moral rules. According to the fantasy theory, the super-ego fights the morally unacceptable wishes, and this fight constitutes a mental disorder. This is wrong, because all mental disorders are caused by realized harms, not by wishes. Freud lied about the cause of mental disorders because he thought that this was the only means of terminating them.  His lie did not produce the therapeutic effect that he expected.

Your boyfriend probably suspected that those voices you hear were accusing you of harboring unacceptable wishes, in accordance with Freud's fantasy theory. The truth is that you are harming yourself through your behavior, which may or may not be caused by unacceptable wishes. I mean that self-harming behavior is not necessarily caused bu morally unacceptable wishes. In fact, in most cases of migraine, self-harming is caused by being morally too strict.

I also recommend you to question yourself in bed before falling asleep: “What mistake am I making? How am I hurting myself? What am I doing wrong?” These questions will be answered in dreams. What we need to know is what your unconscious thinks about your behavior.

   

[NataEames]

Thank you very much alloker, you have been very helpful as usual.

I've been listening and focusing on the things this voice has been saying to try and point out exactly what things she likes and dislikes about me and my behavior to try and figure out exactly what it is that is self-destructive of me. Usually when i would ask her such things she would tell me that i need to figure that out for myself. Lately, she just says "you're useless! you dont deserve to even exist if you can't make sense of yourself!" and such things.

She seems to think that i don't know what im doing in life, that i like to keep myself in some kind of illusion of a protective shell and that i am way too sensitive about everything. "when the world is so harsh around you and people have been so cruel to you, what gives you the right to be such a sensitive wondering puppy? Wake up from your illusions!" she says.

She severely mocks me about my OCD and that is understandable. I critisize myself a lot about it myself but these last few days i have been getting pretty obsessive about some things and then getting upset and crying. My boyfriend has helped me control it and normally im ok now but when i get too sensitive about things, it becomes bad again.

She used to dislike my boyfriend when i first met him because she thought i wasnt myself because of him. But about 5 years ago she has decided it is for my greater good that i am with him and is sure that he will always be there for me. She idolizes him as a father figure (possibly because my biological father abandoned me when i was very little and my boyfriend took on the role to take care of me).

However, she never liked my mother that much because she saw that my mother could not and would not protect me or ever stand up for me even when i was a child. She instead considers my late grandmother as a mother figure and is very influenced by her. And i was always closer to my grandma than to my mother and was very devastated when she passed away two years ago.

Please tell me if those things are significant. Thank you.

[alloker]

Have you unwillingly hurt in your childhood your grandmother or someone else you love?

[NataEames]

No, i do not recall ever doing that. I loved her a lot and could never even raise my voice at her. I did however get very hurt when she got very sick and stopped recognizing me and when i would tell her its me, its your granddaughter, she would say - i dont have a granddaughter. It looked like she didn't know me at all, even though she practically raised me when i was small.

[alloker]

You have not hurt your grandmother but you thought that you did when she said that she had no granddaughter.  That was a traumatic moment for you and caused your OCD and perfectionism.

Her response to you may have been caused by an organic illness. Or, taking care of you may have been too difficult for her, and she may have done it at the cost of harming herself. In that case, her unconscious may have made her ignore you to protect her by terminating her self-harming behavior. In any case, you cannot be rightly accused of hurting her, but it appears that a semi-conscious part of your mind is still accusing you of having hurt her and being capable of hurting others you love. The voices you hear represent that self-accusing part of your mind. By producing those voices, your unconscious is telling you that your sneaky enemy is your unjust self-accusations.

The fact that you were neglected by your parents may have made you need too much love and care from your grandmother, and this may have made her job of taking care of you more difficult than it would be without this factor. But you cannot be blamed for this either.

Understanding all these can free you from your unjust self-accusations, your inner voices, your OCD, your excessive perfectionism, and your depression. Additionally, you can do the exercises I recommended for terminating depression. To terminate OCD symptoms and perfectionism, you can willfully act in a way that means perfection. For example, you can make extra effort to put everything in order in your house; you can arrange objects in regular patterns, etc. If you experience specific OCD actions, willfully perform them and other similar actions .

It is also very important to question yourself in bed about the mistake you are making. The resulting dreams will further clarify everything.
 

[NataEames]

I had OCD as a child but i grew out of it and only had minor obsessions. But you are right, my OCD became very bad after my grandmother got sick. She had OCD as well but much worse than mine, her obsessions and compulsions would go to an extreme level, even dangerously.

In her last months, she was on morphine for the cancer and wasn't able to function much at all. When she died, i actually felt calm. I was glad that she wasn't suffering anymore but blamed myself a lot for feeling that.

But how would purposely giving in to my obsessions and compulsions help? When i give in, i feel better but then after a while i start obsessing even further. I throw away my clothes after i wear them even if i get them laundered, they just don't look clean to wear. Same with my bedsheets.

Lately ive been getting paranoid about the cleanliness of the water in the tap and the food i eat. I only drink bottled water anyway but if i leave it for a minute, i cant drink it anymore, it doesnt even seem to smell right. I really hate odd numbers, and it feels like a splinter in my mind when somebody puts the tv volume on an odd number. I also can't stand it if my food isn't done the way i imagined it. If the foods are touching on the plate or there's an extra ingredient somewhere, i get very upset and don't feel like eating at all for the next few days.

When i fix and correct these things, i feel much better but that only fuels my OCD later. I have understood that those things don't really matter and normally i don't care about them. But when i get upset or very sensitive, i just start noticing everything and cant get those things out of my mind. I can't think about anything else then and i get very distressed.

[alloker]

"But how would purposely giving in to my obsessions and compulsions help? When i give in, i feel better but then after a while i start obsessing even further."

I did not recommend you to give in to your obsessions; you can do that. What I recommend you is to willfully perform, at times you feel no compulsion, acts that are similar to those you perform compulsively. Do this for a few days or weeks and see the result.
                     
Your childhood OCD may be caused by your self-accusation of being responsible for being neglected or mistreated by your parents. Your mother may have given you this impression.            

[NataEames]

I  have been pretty neglected and mistreated by my parents and that has inlaid a lot of insecurity into me. My entire childhood i felt like a mistake, an unwanted baby and that i deserved to be abandoned by my birth father. If it wasn't for my grandmother's care when i was a child and my boyfriend being there for me almost my whole life (we were childhood friends), I would have been much more damaged than i am now.

On the topic of the voice in my head, one thing i have noticed is that she has memories of things i have for some reason forgotten. She remembers parts of my childhood but some of the things she won't tell me, claiming that im not ready. I dont understand at all what that means.

And you are very right, i think she does exadderate the things she says to make a point and make me take it seriously. I do those things sometimes as well, but not completely intentionally. She's always been very straightforward and it's not surprising that she would jump straight to abuse if she thinks ive done something wrong.

She has been a little more calm today and didn't bother me that much when i was trying to fall asleep. But she still won't talk to me properly and she turns every question back at me "what do you think", "is that what you feel", "figure that out yourself". When she isn't this hostile, she's usually quite helpful, she seems to understand people pretty well and would warn me if their intentions were bad (which she was usually right about). I don't remember ever not hearing her, she's been there ever since i can remember.

I had a dream tonight that my mother had re-arranged the furniture in my house, making the kitchen and the living room look much bigger. But there was something i wasn't liking about the new look, the counter tables in the kitchen were randomly put and the living room colors were completely mismatched. And only after a while i realized that the reason the kitchen and the living room were bigger is because she moved the walls around, removing my bedroom completely. Then some other people came to the house and when i needed privacy to talk on the phone, i had to go into the bathroom because every room had people and i didnt have a bedroom anymore.

Any idea what that meant?