> Quite frankly, yes. I don't mean to belittle your condition or be a gatekeeper, but cluster headaches and severe migraines can be so bad that you are physically incapable of doing anything but laying still. It's not a choice. It's not just "knife in my eye, I should lay down and try to tune it out", it's "firecrackers are constantly exploding inside my skull and it's affecting my cognitive functions so much that I cannot walk straight, I cannot speak clearly, I cannot see things two feet in front of me, I cannot chew, etc". And it is simply impossible to "tune out the pain".
You're mixing the two up I think. What you've described is severe migraines. During a "typical" cluster headache episode, you're restless, because movement doesn't make it worse. You are gatekeeping pretty bad. The MD I've seen have given me the diagnosis cluster headaches with symptoms of migraines. Last time I had an episode, I was laying new flooring, noticed it coming and do the only thing I could, take some painkillers and power on. Before long I was cutting boards wrong, trying to lay them the wrong way around, and at some point my wife directly asked me if I was okay because of the atypical behavior. I wasn't and I made my way into the bedroom and didn't emerge again for 3 hours. Any sound, light, or movement during an episode is pretty bad.
> not belittling other people's experience with them by implying they can "just take a paracetamol and tune out the pain".
I've never implied that. I've said that is what I can do. You seem to be incapable of accepting that cluster headaches can range from something manageable, to something that makes people commit suicide. As I've mentioned, one of the leading MD on headaches in Denmark have diagnosed me with cluster headaches.
> A single, severe cluster headache/migraine the likes of which some people get would have sent you to the ER immediately begging for any medication to ensure that such a headache never, ever, ever happened again in your entire life.
Except a 10yo can not just go to the ER for that, and when you grow up being told to get over it, you find other ways to manage it.
> These are the types of headaches that paracetamol has no chance of even touching. Only incredibly powerful opiods/barbiturates even have a chance of relieving them. And that's just talking about the acute pain. The other terrible part about migraines is their chronicity.
Paracetamol is not handling it, they often stop it, or rather, it stops the thing that is causing it to develop. Why it's working, I have no idea - but it's, according to the MD, normal that medication in the initial stages can significantly reduce severity or even stop an episode.
>> and I would feel guilty not doing anything with a headache, because people around me constantly said "I have a headache" but acted like nothing was wrong.
> This is essentially what your comment is doing right now, and that's why it's insulting
Let me get this straight. I'm saying I've been diagnoses with it. I can often successfully stop it, and when I cannot I'm "out of service" for hours. How on Earth is that making people with the same condition feel guilty?
> Paracetamol is not handling it, they often stop it, or rather, it stops the thing that is causing it to develop.
Actually, this is pretty interesting. I'd be really curious if NSAIDs like ibuprofen or naproxen have the same effect. APAP has a novel mechanism of action at the cannabinoid receptor type 1, because it's a prodrug for AM404. That's the only target that I've ever found that kills my migraines (N.B. prescribed synthetic, not so much smoking joints or anything).
You're mixing the two up I think. What you've described is severe migraines. During a "typical" cluster headache episode, you're restless, because movement doesn't make it worse. You are gatekeeping pretty bad. The MD I've seen have given me the diagnosis cluster headaches with symptoms of migraines. Last time I had an episode, I was laying new flooring, noticed it coming and do the only thing I could, take some painkillers and power on. Before long I was cutting boards wrong, trying to lay them the wrong way around, and at some point my wife directly asked me if I was okay because of the atypical behavior. I wasn't and I made my way into the bedroom and didn't emerge again for 3 hours. Any sound, light, or movement during an episode is pretty bad.
> not belittling other people's experience with them by implying they can "just take a paracetamol and tune out the pain".
I've never implied that. I've said that is what I can do. You seem to be incapable of accepting that cluster headaches can range from something manageable, to something that makes people commit suicide. As I've mentioned, one of the leading MD on headaches in Denmark have diagnosed me with cluster headaches.
> A single, severe cluster headache/migraine the likes of which some people get would have sent you to the ER immediately begging for any medication to ensure that such a headache never, ever, ever happened again in your entire life.
Except a 10yo can not just go to the ER for that, and when you grow up being told to get over it, you find other ways to manage it.
> These are the types of headaches that paracetamol has no chance of even touching. Only incredibly powerful opiods/barbiturates even have a chance of relieving them. And that's just talking about the acute pain. The other terrible part about migraines is their chronicity.
Paracetamol is not handling it, they often stop it, or rather, it stops the thing that is causing it to develop. Why it's working, I have no idea - but it's, according to the MD, normal that medication in the initial stages can significantly reduce severity or even stop an episode.
>> and I would feel guilty not doing anything with a headache, because people around me constantly said "I have a headache" but acted like nothing was wrong.
> This is essentially what your comment is doing right now, and that's why it's insulting
Let me get this straight. I'm saying I've been diagnoses with it. I can often successfully stop it, and when I cannot I'm "out of service" for hours. How on Earth is that making people with the same condition feel guilty?