Migraines and family
Whenever I have to deal with family, it seems to trigger a migraine and or upset stomach. I know it has to do emotional trauma/neglect as a child and us siblings were pitted against one another by our parents, so now there is no friendly adult bond between us. If that's how it is, no real bond, I'm ok with that , what I want is to work on alleviating my migraines when a family member gets in contact with me. My way of dealing with this is keeping my distance, but at the same time I feel guilty about doing so. Has anyone dealt with this? I hope this comment is ok to post, if not you can delete it.
Hi. My heart goes out to you for the difficult family relationships you had as a child. It's understandable that they would continue to effect you today.
Stress is an extremely common migraine trigger for many of us. I'm not an expert or a doctor, so I can't give medical advice, but you might be tensing up around your siblings and that could be causing trouble too.
One of our community members wrote about how she manages stress-induced migraine:https://migraine.com/living-migraine/stress-types-trigger
If you haven't considered it already, it might be useful to work with a therapist -- either alone and/or with your siblings if they are open to it. Therapy by yourself can help you work through the issues surrounding your relationships and develop ways to stay calm when you're around your family. That could help prevent migraine.
Biofeedback could be an option to explore as well. It teaches you how to keep your body relaxed. Tom writes about it briefly here, you work with a medical professional to learn the technique:
https://migraine.com/living-migraine/manage-fluctuating-symptoms
I hope some of those things are useful for you. You deserve to find peace and support. -Melissa, team member
