Posted by Jack (24.189.233.136) on June 06, 2000 at 19:05:34:
In Reply to: theory?...what connects us? posted by michael on June 06, 2000 at 17:33:48:
I was gonna be very glib and say something like:
Freeking cluster headaches
or
Mental Illness
or
Not a Freaking Thing
But I will be serious for a second:
I think that much of what goes on here has more to do with Internet Psychology than it does clusters. I think clusterheads are otherwise pretty normal and healthy although we may be prone to mood disorders but I am not sure.
Very early in my career with clusters I read something that went a little like this and I am paraphrasing " Cluster sufferers may seem to be unstable or emotionally ill but this is a function of the extreme pain and not a cause of the disease". I think what was meant by this is simply that we are not crazy but pain can make you a little crazy. That is what I think.
I think that we are on average pretty normal. I think part of the reason that you and I and everyone else who has studied clusters looks for that magic bullet of commonality is simply because
Clusters are very, very BIZARRE and we are biased to believe that headaches have a psychological root cause ( you know the migraine, tension , nuerotic schtick ).
I think we ae all pretty normal with one exception - ME :-)