I remember the first time I got a migraine like it was yesterday. I was thirteen. My head felt like it was exploding, as if there was a hammer pounding the inside my skull and it was resisting cracking open. I lost my ability to see clearly and I became extremely nauseous. My sensitivity to sound and light had become truly unbearable and I just wanted to crawl into a little ball in a cave and go to sleep. When these migraines happened, it was so painful that I couldn’t relax at all. It felt like a nightmare and it seemed to happen unexpectedly, with no obvious triggers.
Fast forward to being 22 and fresh out of college, almost a decade later from my very first migraine. They had become a pretty regular thing now and I was managing them the only way I knew how, take a tylenol and go to sleep. I was sometimes having up to two or three of these migraine episodes per week and became concerned that a. they were never going to go away and b. I was taking medication more often than I wanted to. It felt like I didn’t really have any other options, until I was introduced to floating.
I was totally skeptical that it would even work but to my surprise, it did. I started a consistent routine, floating at least once a week and I noticed changes almost immediately. The migraines were far less often and nowhere near the same degree of pain as before. I even started to test myself to try and not take any medication and make a float appointment instead. It worked more often than not and for someone who felt there was no alternative route to healing, there was. I can say with confidence that because of the consistency in my float routine, I had less migraines.
MigraineRelief.com writes, “Studies suggest that during supreme states of relaxation (like that achieved in float therapy), the body releases a higher concentration of endorphins (a group of hormones that act like natural painkillers). As muscles unwind, blood flow increases, countering blood vessel constriction that may be to blame for a migraine attack. Furthermore, it is believe that extreme relaxation causes a shift in brainwaves that elicits the body’s natural healing capabilities. When all of these components align, the body is able to recalibrate chemical and metabolic levels, preparing itself to better handle stress or other triggers that may lead to a migraine attack”.
A consistent float routine is a whole new chapter in the Migraines and Me story and I’m hopeful to see where this takes me on my road to healing.