Headaches INDUCED BY QUITTING??

[Aryan]

It has been great to finally discover what really my problem is - MD, as it is called. Like various others here, from whose posts I could judge that they are experiencing problems similar to mine, it gave me comfort in knowing that I am not alone out here.

I would have you all reading this know that I am a student and MD is disrupting my life - academic, social (though there's not much social life during the pandemic, especially owing to the 2nd Covid wave in India) as well as personal. You see, until two and a half months ago, my MD was so bad that I could not get through a day without daydreaming for at least about 6-7 hrs. and it was quite a toll on me - so I decided to try quitting it - and I say TRY because I don't know that if it has been ever done successfully.......

I have tried various things which - like losing myself to things I like doing - for instance, I can usually read books (a favourite pastime) without daydreams interfering, and have been trying to reign in my thought process to never think about daydreams, and some other tips I came across on some sites including this one.

I must say, it has helped me with my MD (I now daydream about 2-3 hours only), but another problem has come up - whenever I have MD episodes now, it is accompanied by severe headaches which last even after I stop daydreaming - sometimes they are so bad that I simply have to stop what I am doing. The longest headache I have had lasted for about 7-8 hrs. - it was quite bad too. I was having a really bad headache last night too - I could not sleep for 4 hours. My worst headache was my worst day of this year heretofore - I could not think about anything much except the presence of pain - it lasted for about 2 hours and at the end of it, I was really grateful. It felt like absolute torture. What's more, even as I write, I am having a mild headache - its really mild compared to last night, but not entirely ignorable. I don't know what to make of these headaches.......

One thing I must mention, whenever I experience pain, it is always in the same part of my head - somewhere slightly to the left as well as to the right of what I will geometrically consider my head's bisecting plane passing through the nose, but not in the center (i.e. the plane) itself. I don't know what to make of this either......

I don't know if any such problems has occurred to anyone who has tried quitting - it did not occur to me before my resolution to quit and even if it did, the pain was quite negligible. The only reference to headaches in relation to MD I could find was headaches can be a symptom of MD.

I don't know what to make of this headache problem. I would be really interested in knowing your views on this.

Thank you everyone for taking your time to go through this page. I am waiting in anticiaption for some insight from you guys!!

[Kalliope]

Hello! Nice to see you here and welcome to the forum!

A few people mentioned headaches in association with MD. There are obviously no studies regarding this, but the probability of a common pathophysiological process that causes both, or one causing the other on a visceral level might be low.

What I would rather propose is something one might learn in awareness meditation and similar practices: Maybe you have newly become more sensitive to your body. And suddenly, you hear your body, the messages it sends - for example, headaches.

As an experiment, try sitting in a relaxed meditative pose with a gently straight back for a few minutes, listening to your breath. I can bet that the first few thoughts you will have is "oh gosh my back/buttocks/everything hurts". It could be that you suddenly sit straight and that is why you have pain, but also it could be that the pain was always in the back of your mind, just waiting to be heard.

So, try listening to your headaches - maybe it tells you where it came from (your back, your shoulders, behind your eyes), where it goes to (what makes it lighter), what triggers it (maybe you have some unconscious aversion against your MD! then - keep going!. maybe you're just very tight and you clench your jaw and your shoulders are tight because you're newly fighting with yourself when you want, but aren't allowed, to MD.). If your headache is on one side only and you might feel like barfing, you might have a migraine.

Honestly, in meditation, it is said to just keep going, and listen to the pain, and listen to the rest of the body just the same, and wait until it passes. So I guess this is what you can do best, as it's somewhat similar in nature. Keep going! You're doing well. If anything is awry, consider going to a doc.

[Aryan]

@Kalliope

Thank you for your reply. I'll try out your advice.