Managing Migraine and Mental Health

Juggling our lives with migraine and keeping our state of mental health in the best shape sounds almost like an impossible task – especially for many of us who struggle with varying degrees of conditions like depression and anxiety. It’s important to remember that you are not alone in this fight and you should never feel guilty about these issues that you are facing; after all, not even scientists can clearly understand the links between migraine and mental health conditions. 

With mental health issues gaining more significance in the modern-day society, it is not uncommon for anyone to seek help for a better state of mind. If you are just as lost as some of us are and do not know where to get started, here are some non-medicinal tips that may be of help:

1. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

According to the Mayo Clinic, CBT involves a form of “talk therapy” with mental health professionals such as psychotherapists or therapists [1]. CBT is generally helpful for learning how to handle stressful situations and being more aware of your thinking so that you can adjust the way you react to situations more effectively.

2. Relaxation Techniques

As the name suggests, this involves using multiple methods of relaxation to reduce the impact that stress has on your mind and body. Living in a fast-paced world today means that there are always various sources of stress that can exacerbate our existing conditions, be it migraine, anxiety, or depression. Some common relaxation techniques include breathing exercises, meditation, yoga, guided imagery, etc [2]. 

3. Biofeedback

Biofeedback, also known as biological feedback, involves the use of electrical sensors connected to your body to provide information about the body [3]. With this feedback, you can learn to control a particular body function (such as slowing down heart rate) and subsequently changing the way your body reacts to stress. Biofeedback is a technique that needs to be trained over a period of time and under the supervision of a skilled professional [4].

4. Regular Sleep

Maintaining a regular sleep schedule not only helps to keep stress levels low but also reduces the chances of a migraine attack since the migraine brain is sensitive to fluctuations and changes.

Within Migraine Buddy, you can make use of our automatic sleep tracker to monitor the regularity of your sleep patterns! After activating the sleep tracker, the Sleep tab will show you the time that you went to bed as well as the duration of sleep. ?

5. Online Support Groups

The importance of having a strong support network cannot be underestimated especially when dealing with migraine and mental health. For some people, therapy may be an expensive option; in such cases, online support groups can come into play by providing a source of comfort and solace. Migraine Buddy’s chat groups in-app as well as a dedicated Facebook group (set up entirely by Migraine Buddy users) are some places that you can start with!

As we navigate through life with migraine, it is inevitable that some days won’t be as great as the others. By learning to overcome these challenges with various coping strategies, whether be it for anxiety or other psychological issues, we will eventually emerge stronger at the end of the day. Take a breath and take one step at a time. You’ve got this! ?

References

[1] https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/cognitive-behavioral-therapy/about/pac-20384610

[2] https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/six-relaxation-techniques-to-reduce-stress

[3] https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/biofeedback/about/pac-20384664

[4] https://americanmigrainefoundation.org/resource-library/biofeedback-and-relaxation-training/