Posted by Sue on July 02, 1998 at 11:51:52:
In Reply to: Violent Behavior With Cluster Headaches posted by Sue on July 01, 1998 at 15:52:35:
I appreciate everyones responses to my original message regarding my boyfriend's violent outbursts during a cluster headache. (Original message posted July 1.) Many of you stated (and I have read elsewhere) that you prefer to be alone when suffering a headache. Unfortunately, Joe is exactly the opposite. Once he was laying on the bed in the dark (I thought he might have fallen asleep) and I quietly walked from the room. He threw his pillow at me and yelled, "You don't care anything about me!". He then jumped off the bed and physically attacked me. Another time we were sitting on the couch watching T.V. and he grabbed a glass of Pepsi I was holding, threw it in my face, and yelled, "You don't care anything about me. You care more about that T.V. than you do me!"
When he's not in a headache he tells me he knows there's nothing I can do to help him. But when he's suffering he wants me to "baby" him, get him ice packs, heat packs, scratch his head with my fingernails, etc.- whatever he thinks might bring him some relief from the pain. We have talked (when he's not in a headache) about him leaving the house and physically getting away from me when the headache keeps worsening, but when the actual time comes he won't leave.
If he's upset emotionally about something this seems to make the headaches worse, or possibly, even cause them. Do any of you feel that's true for you?