Have you got a Migraine Personality

Is there such a thing as migraine personality?

According to a practicing Physician Assistant in neurology, Mary K. Betz, MS RPA-C, there may be some truth in this idea. Certainly for many years, there is a certain personality type thought to be prevalent with patients who suffered from more than their fair share of headaches.

The stereotype of this person is described as "a thin, white upper class female who was neurotic, anxious and controlling". Although making generalisations like this seems a little unfair, when you look at the underlying situation, many doctors believe that there is a high association of depression and anxiety with people who also suffer from headaches.

A recent study said that anxiety and depression problems are experience by a massive 85% of migraine sufferers, which indicates that these people may have insufficient coping skills. This means that when they are confronted with stressful situations, they tend to try to control the problem and get embroiled in it, rather than taking a step back and trying to rationalise the situation or take a bit of time to relax and not let it dominate their thinking.

According to Mary, the result is a headache which is the brain's way of trying to distract you from the situation. Contributing factors also include the actual receptor sites in the brain responsible for both anxiety and migraine which are basically the same. When one fires off, the other one fires off. So with more and more migraines, you end up with more and more anxiety.

This means by spending some time on your coping skills, you can deal with life's stressors more effectively and handle the problems more successfully. Also spend some time working out how to reduce the stress in the first place.

For example, if your job is overwhelming you, ask yourself if it is worth doing? Would your health be better if you tried a different job.

If a medical practitioner recommends medication for anxiety and you have migraine, recognize that it is part of the pathology of migraine and NOT your fault. You can come off the anxiety medication once the headaches are under control.