After Years of Debilitating Migraines, a 20-Minute Journal Habit Finally Brought Her Relief
Learn how the technique works to reduce all kinds of chronic discomfort
Key Takeaways
- A daily migraine journal helped one woman reduce her chronic headache pain naturally.
- Expressive writing may help calm stress-related nervous system responses tied to migraines.
- Experts say emotional stress can sometimes worsen chronic pain and migraine symptoms.
For years, Anna Holtzman had suffered from frequent and debilitating migraines. After trying everything she could think of to ease the chronic pain, she stumbled upon a cure she had never suspected would work: starting a migraine journal. By putting pen to paper to get her frustration out, she soon discovered that her pain and flare-ups were dissipating. Keep reading to see her inspiring story and the unexpected migraine treatment that changed her life.
Anna suffered intense migraines before discovering journaling
Closing her office door, Anna shut off the lights and stretched out on the floor. She prayed the pain medicine she took to dull the intense throbbing in her head would kick in fast. Having a coworker—or her boss—find her this way would be too embarrassing. But when a migraine took hold, this was Anna’s only hope of getting relief.
Anna’s migraines began 10 years ago as a once-in-a-while occurrence, striking once a month or so. But as the stress of working a high-pressure job as a video editor in reality TV grew, so did the frequency of her migraines. Soon, they were striking one to three times a week. Along with excruciating pain, she’d experience intense nausea and dizziness.
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When she left her job and enrolled in grad school to fulfill her dream of becoming a therapist, Anna hoped her migraine attacks would ease. But they continued to grow in intensity and frequency to the point where she was running out of her prescription painkillers each month.
Anna tried everything she could to prevent migraines. She made sure to eat and drink water on a regular schedule and avoided common migraine triggers like bright lights and loud noises. I don’t know what more I can do, she despaired.
What Anna learned about the mind-body connection
One day, while searching online, Anna came across an app called Curable. The program offers users audio lessons on pain science and teaches them how to apply a wide range of science-backed techniques to reduce symptoms. Experimenting with an app wasn’t something Anna would have normally thought helpful for reducing migraines, but she was desperate.
Using the app’s free trial, Anna learned pain is a danger signal that’s created in the brain when our nervous system feels unsafe. Sometimes, the danger is physical (like a broken arm), sometimes, it’s emotional (like a stressful relationship) and sometimes, it’s a learned association (similar to a trauma trigger). But regardless of the cause, the nervous system needs to feel safe to turn off that pain signal.
The app’s team of experts offered several techniques to help achieve a sense of safety, including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), guided meditation and visualization. But Anna was most intrigued by something called JournalSpeak, a form of expressive writing that also helps with stress reduction.
How journaling finally freed Anna from migraine pain
Developed by Nicole Sachs, LCSW, JournalSpeak involves spilling out your raw, unfiltered emotions on the page for 20 minutes every day. Anna dove in head-first. As the pages of her journal filled with her unprocessed feelings of frustration, sadness and anger, she was amazed to find her migraine pain lessened and her nausea and dizziness were less frequent.
Anna learned our emotions are like people: They all have something to say, and if we don’t listen to them, they may eventually throw a tantrum in the form of physical symptoms to get our attention.
“My emotions threw a fit that manifested in migraines. But as I practiced daily journaling, the headache pain and other symptoms continued to improve. And after a year of daily writing, my migraines have become a rarity,” Anna happily reports. “It’s wonderful. I no longer live with the desperation, and even isolation, of life with chronic migraines. Journaling has been a game changer!”
A version of this article originally appeared in the print edition of Woman’s World.
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