Hello fellow headache suffer's. First of all I should start out by
saying that I have a triple diagnosis of illnesses. Besides the
chronic daily headache, I am bipolar aka manic-depressive and adult
ADD aka attention deficit disorder. In fact it was during the attempt
to treat my headache that I was diagnosed with bipolar, but it hasn't
been until my latest psychiatrist that I have been diagnosed ADD.

I have basically have had headaches all my life. Well at least as far
back as early childhood. At first they were migraines or at least
that's what I think they were, personally I don't think the medical
profession knows all that much about headaches, at least that has
been my experience. Well up until I was in my early adulthood, I was
able to use self hypnosis, a process which I seemed to have self
taught myself, but after I got into my 20's my headaches began to
change. They started to last longer and the self hypnosis or
relaxation or sleeping it off didn't work any more.

My headaches would last weeks now instead of hours and into months.
Being bipolar didn't help any, I don't know if anyone here knows the
symptoms of the illness, but one of them is to do rash things like
joining the army while in the middle of one of the worst headaches I
had had to date. For some reason the headache broke during my basic
training, right about the time I was going to tell them that I had
lied about my medical condition and who knows what would have
happened.

Anyway, things went well for some time. I went headache free for
about a year, except for some minor hangovers. Well just when I
thought they were gone for good, I got one that progressively got
worse, and has been the worst nightmare of my life. It came on in
March of 1997, and to this day it has not gone away. Now there is so
much more to tell. Like living in Texas and going to a headache
clinic in San Antonio for over two years and up to Lubbock where
there is supposed to be one of the worlds most famous pain Dr.'s in
the world running a clinic out of their hospital.

Now I am being treated for my psychiatrist who is not only a psych
Dr. but also hold a degree in internal medicine. He specializes in
pain management and so far his treatment has worked better than most.
Except for when, what was a new drug at the time, many of you might
have heard of it, Ultrum. I took that for about four years and it
really took the edge off my pain, but then it just stopped working
and now I am allergic to it.

Obviously I have a lot more to tell, but I don't have the time or
energy to go on writing. Besides, that kind of detail is for the book
I want to write if I ever get myself to concentrate long enough on
it. That's the ADD and bipolar, they work in concert with the
headache to keep me from doing one of things I really love to do,
write.

I also like to read, something that as a youth I never appreciated,
but just as I began to realize the pleasure in it this headache has
made it nearly impossible for me to read more than a magazine article
before my head feels like it's going to explode. At least with
writing, I can do a little at a time and pick up where I left off. I
am not sure why it works that way. You would think I could do the
same with reading, but if I set down a book for too long I just lose
interest and I can't just pick it up and start off where the book
mark lay.

Well I hope to be a regular member and I hope to hear of some ways
you all have learned to cope with your illness and maybe something
said here will help someone if not me at least some other sufferer.

Sincerely,

Bobby :)