What You Need to Know About Psychotherapy for Migraine

Although various drugs and lifestyle changes have been found to lessen migraine frequency and intensity, current migraine therapies may not work for everyone, and there is still no cure.

Living with migraine can be difficult to accept, especially for those who suffer from episodic or chronic migraines on a regular basis.

When medicines and other therapies aren't enough, psychotherapy or behavioral health approaches may be helpful.

Many patients can benefit from behavioral therapy to help them manage migraine pain, in part by changing how they respond to pain. Methods such as mindfulness-based stress reduction for migraine (MBSR-M), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), biofeedback, and relaxation training are all used to "retrain" the brain to handle stress in a new way.

These therapy approaches may reduce the number of migraine attacks, reduce pain severity, shorten the duration of migraine attacks, and reduce the overall migraine burden for some patients, according to evidence. Although these treatments can be used as a stand-alone treatment, they are normally utilized as a part of a full migraine treatment strategy that includes preventative and acute drugs as well as lifestyle changes if needed.

Neuroplasticity Allows Your Brain to Change
Some experts believe that neuroplasticity is responsible for some of the benefits of behavioral therapy for chronic conditions like migraine.

The concept of neuroplasticity is that the brain can change as a result of what is performed and experienced. In reaction to the things we do every day that help us grow and learn, the brain can form and restructure its circuits.

A person can employ methods like mindfulness to change the function and structure of his their brain, just like a muscle grows stronger with use.

Mindfulness Promotes Greater Self-Knowledge
One of the many ways we might learn to be more conscious is through mindfulness meditation. Focusing on a sense, such as the breath, is an example that everyone can use.

Thoughts or feelings will enter your mind as you practice mindfulness meditation. Return your focus to the sensory experience of the breath after noticing them and showing compassion to them.

We teach ourselves to distinguish our experience from our ideas and feelings by repeatedly bringing our attention to the breath while yet observing and treating the thoughts and feelings that arise with compassion.

Many health systems provide in-person or online meditation or relaxation training classes, both of which can help people become more mindful.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Can Change Your Pain Response
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is a mindfulness-based therapy that stresses cognitive defusion, or creating space between our thoughts and feelings.

The therapy is most commonly utilized on persons with pain issues, such as migraine sufferers, and focuses on helping them accept the fact that they have a continuous chronic ailment.

People learn to pay attention to their own responses to various triggers around their migraine attacks as part of the process. It's all about figuring out what you can accept, let go of, and manage in acceptance and commitment therapy.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Identifies Unhelpful Thought Patterns
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) identifies behaviors that a person is participating in or avoiding, as well as unhelpful, erroneous, or maladaptive ideas that they are having.

According to the American Migraine Foundation, if a person falls into a downward spiral of negative thoughts, it can cause anxiety and tension, which can induce a migraine. The purpose of CBT is to recognize those detrimental thought patterns and work on strategies to change them into something more constructive.

Biofeedback Can Help You Change Your Reactions to Stress
Biofeedback is another approach to deal with the stress that might cause migraines. Brain waves, respiration, heart rate, muscle contraction, sweat gland activity, and body temperature are all measured with biofeedback technologies.

By understanding how the body reacts to stress and strain, a person can make changes to decrease or eliminate some of the negative effects, thus preventing or reducing headaches.