Posted by Tom on December 11, 1998 at 16:04:29:
In Reply to: Re: Annoying posted by There is on December 11, 1998 at 13:57:41:
I could show you an article in the respected medical journal Lancet that suggests otherwise ("Hypothalamic activation in cluster headache attacks;" The Lancet; London; Jul 25, 1998; by Arne May, et al). But that's really not the point. I HATE to think that people with Trigeminal Neuralgia are feeling anything akin to clusters. What I find so reprehensible are dismissive, parenthetical asides like that from Wellweb ("maybe that's just a man thing"). The implication is that all of us are being, perhaps, just a bit melodramatic when it comes to describing the pain of a cluster headache. That's a travesty -- but not because some small-minded twit can't believe that clusters are all that painful, but because it reflects the attitude that we all must compare our pain to see whose is the worst. If we're going to do that, then, hell, there are all kinds of pain -- emotional, spiritual, as well as physical, and frankly, I'd much prefer (as I'm sure most of us on this list would) to live with cluster headaches in the context of an otherwise comfortable, middle-class, internet-support-group life, than suffer a million other forms of pain (e.g., political oppression, starvation, malnutrition, dehydration, illiteracy, abject poverty, neglect, ad infinitum). That whole comparison game is stupid.
I think when most of us say "it's the worst pain imaginable," we mean just that. It's the worst pain we can possibly imagine. If there's worse, that REALLY sucks, but to me, it all just means that there's some serious suffering going on. And NO ONE should question, or belittle, or otherwise dismiss any genuine expression of suffering.