Posted by gary g on February 24, 1999 at 01:13:16:
In Reply to: OK - Let's talk about SUICIDE posted by Barbara D. on February 23, 1999 at 11:54:20:
the suicide topic is a tricky one -
my opinion (and that's all it is) is there are situations where suicide is not TOTALLY irrational, but cluster headache doesn't get near them........
and YES I have had CH for a long, long time, and been through chronic periods, and been through the attacks where you end up flopping on the floor like a fish
I have also had series of attacks so bad that I have been terrified I might "lose it" and do the unthinkable
we've been through periods of discussion on this board, dealing with the spiritual and emotional aspects of living with this disease and this is EXACTLY why we need to find ways to deal with all three aspects of our beings - body, mind and spirit
one of the biggest failings of our western medical approach is that it is very finely focussed on the chemical and physiological - that approach serves the needs of science but not the needs of we patients; luckily we don't need prescriptions for working on our mental and spiritual health (and I'm not talking about church, though some people find that a useful vehicle)
I want to tell you all, very calmly and sanely:
I have cluster headaches
I recently finished a 4 month cluster that included quite a few "doozies"
I've been chronic
I've had the eyeball poppers from hell
AND -
I have a BEAUTIFUL life
(and I'm no granola huggy buggy either - in fact I have to work on not being such a hardass to folks)
hang in there people
spend at least as much time learning how to live with this as you do trying to find a cure - it has better odds of paying off