Hello all .

How are you all doing today?

The weirdest thing happened today. I'm hoping that by sharing it with you all, I might make sense of it.

I was taking a break from my work, and struck up a conversation with a colleague. That colleague mentioned something innocuous that brought back memories of a guy that had recently broken my heart. I ended the conversation and got back to work. While working, memories of him (heart-breaking moron) started flooding my head. I was a hair's breadth away from having a good cry.

A voice speaks in my head, one that I'm learning to recognise, and told me to stay calm, breathe and focus on my work.

That was not the weird part. The weird part was this:

Seconds after she said that, my head hurt- a full on killer headache that had me gripping my head. I (we?) Lowered my hands, and I'm looking at them. I turned them over and over, staring at my hands like I've never seen them before. It's lilke I'm there seeing them, but not. They're mine, but not. The headache left as suddenly as it came, and things were back to normal.

I'm not sure what to make of that.

My question is do any of you get a headache (intense or otherwise) before losing control to an alter? Or is this something different?

Thank you for reading .

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by Lexa2526

Hello all .

How are you all doing today?

The weirdest thing happened today. I'm hoping that by sharing it with you all, I might make sense of it.

I was taking a break from my work, and struck up a conversation with a colleague. That colleague mentioned something innocuous that brought back memories of a guy that had recently broken my heart. I ended the conversation and got back to work. While working, memories of him (heart-breaking moron) started flooding my head. I was a hair's breadth away from having a good cry.

A voice speaks in my head, one that I'm learning to recognise, and told me to stay calm, breathe and focus on my work.

That was not the weird part. The weird part was this:

Seconds after she said that, my head hurt- a full on killer headache that had me gripping my head. I (we?) Lowered my hands, and I'm looking at them. I turned them over and over, staring at my hands like I've never seen them before. It's lilke I'm there seeing them, but not. They're mine, but not. The headache left as suddenly as it came, and things were back to normal.

I'm not sure what to make of that.

My question is do any of you get a headache (intense or otherwise) before losing control to an alter? Or is this something different?

Thank you for reading .

no i never had headaches associated with dissociating. for me dissociation was things like feeling numb, spaced out, disconnected from my body physically and mentally....

that said I did and still do sometimes get a headache from stress, anxiety, flashbacks, lack of sleep, when I skip meals... there are many normal things that cause me to have headaches/migraines.

there is a situation where some, not all people with DID have headaches but because of the fact that DID is something a person has since very early childhood the headaches associated with their DID is there all their life, it doesnt usually just start happening as an adult.

given that you have never had this happen before and dissociating (switching) is something that a DID person has all their life, it most likely isnt associated with your alters.

my suggestion is since there are many types of headaches, caused by many different things, talk with your/or a treatment provider. they can help you discover why you got this headache at work and what type of headaches it is.

all the time, especially with a few certain ones.

Originally Posted by Starry_Night

all the time, especially with a few certain ones.

Thank you

Originally Posted by Starry_Night

all the time, especially with a few certain ones.

Thank you

Do you ride it out? Or do you take something for the pain? Does the pain linger, or does it go away when the alter goes inside?

It depends who is causing the headache. There are some that medication doesnt help at all. There is one who takes the headache with them when they are gone.

Originally Posted by amandalouise

no i never had headaches associated with dissociating. for me dissociation was things like feeling numb, spaced out, disconnected from my body physically and mentally....

that said I did and still do sometimes get a headache from stress, anxiety, flashbacks, lack of sleep, when I skip meals... there are many normal things that cause me to have headaches/migraines.

there is a situation where some, not all people with DID have headaches but because of the fact that DID is something a person has since very early childhood the headaches associated with their DID is there all their life, it doesnt usually just start happening as an adult.

given that you have never had this happen before and dissociating (switching) is something that a DID person has all their life, it most likely isnt associated with your alters.

my suggestion is since there are many types of headaches, caused by many different things, talk with your/or a treatment provider. they can help you discover why you got this headache at work and what type of headaches it is.

Thank you for this. I'll be sure to take measures to eliminate stress, anxiety and other factors as culprits.

,

Thanks again,

[Lady Lindsey]

I get headaches like that and derealization mostly when I get triggered and fight remembering things.... happened in therapy the other day, we started discussing something that happened, and the next thing I know is I get extremely nauseous and then a headache hit.... My therapist said it's a way of me trying to stop the Memories from coming back... it sucks

Originally Posted by Lady Lindsey

I get headaches like that and derealization mostly when I get triggered and fight remembering things.... happened in therapy the other day, we started discussing something that happened, and the next thing I know is I get extremely nauseous and then a headache hit.... My therapist said it's a way of me trying to stop the Memories from coming back... it sucks

Thank you so much for sharing .

That's what I was trying to do- push the memories away.

Amen to that- it does suck.

Thanks again .

Hey Hun, we're always switching and we don't experience any headaches, or we'd have a constant headache, sounds so awful just thinking about it.

Stress headaches can be a trigger to switch. When one of us gets stressed, a switch happens to relieve the bodies stress and we are relaxed again, able to deal with the stressor. It's not perfect because it sometimes takes too long for it to happen which means suffering for a bit.

Originally Posted by AlwaysChanging2

Hey Hun, we're always switching and we don't experience any headaches, or we'd have a constant headache, sounds so awful just thinking about it.

Stress headaches can be a trigger to switch. When one of us gets stressed, a switch happens to relieve the bodies stress and we are relaxed again, able to deal with the stressor. It's not perfect because it sometimes takes too long for it to happen which means suffering for a bit.

Thank you for sharing, friend. We'll consider everything we've learnt here, and hopefully I'll make sense of what happened yesterday.

Hope you're all well.