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All in My Head: An Epic Quest to Cure an unrelenting, totally unreasonable, and only slightly enlightening headache a memoir, by Paula Kamen
This book was recommended to me by several people and I enjoyed it a lot. It's smart, funny, well-researched, and speaks a lot to my own experience with chronic pain. I thought while reading it, huh, I would have never read this book if not for my own status as a person with chronic pain, and that's sort of a shame, that a book like this doesn't have a wider audience, because it's simply good. And it's a shame too that a lot of people, including me, know little to nothing about chronic pain until it happens to them. Kamen is a journalist and her book is a good mix of feminism, science journalism, humor, and memoir. I bookmarked a lot of pages that particularly resonated with me.
One part of the book, early on, really bugged me. From pages 36 to 42 Kamen talks about gaining weight as a side effect of pain meds, which is a common side effect that patients are often not warned about. On page 37 she seems to make fun of people with eating disorders:
( possibly triggering content )
Moving on to things I liked:
*Quoting Dr. Frank Vertosick, p. 52: "There is something devilish about pain arising in the face and head. They strike us at the geometric center of our beings."
*The general absurdity of trying various doctors and alternative medicines, one after the other.
*The Problem of Illness as Metaphor
*Tying together Chronic pain/illness and feminism in a very clear and important way. She criticizes 2nd wave feminism for failing to advocate for women who are chronically ill, because it was important to the movement to portray women as just as strong as men. She points out that men are more prone to certain diseases and maladies too, but that is not used to keep them out of public life or to paint them as inferior (p.176).
*Criticizing Oliver Sacks (p.107)
*Emphasizing spirituality as a basic survival mechanism for those with chronic pain. Learn to let go in order to gain control. Learn mindfulness. Practice meditation.
*Kamen gives a few mentions towards the disability movement, but not as much as I would have thought. It was curious to me how long it took her to accept the label given that she even applied for disability benefits from the government at one point. But there is a lot of resistance, especially, as she says, "it was only a headache, after all". Learning about the disability movement (sort of simultaneously with feminism and anti-oppressionn generally) has been one of the greatest benefits for me.
*Anxiety, depression, and fatigue are some of the most common headache co-morbitities, because they are rooted in the same basic brain chemistry. The same neurotransmitters are involved.
*There is a whole chapter on "Tired Girls", women with fatigue.
*Acceptance: "I'd done all I could to get rid of that motherfucker, and I'd lost." (p. 225) She says this after almost 10 years fighting the headache.
In short, reading this book just validated a lot of my own experience. I'm glad I craved acceptance and worked towards it; I'm glad I found a pain counselor; I'm glad I'm learning about disability rights. I didn't take some of the super-strong drugs Kamen did, but I still had scary experiences with things like Tegretol and Lyrica.
The book ended on a not-very-positive note: there is no cure for chronic pain (is there a cure for ANY neurologic disease? No). Chronic pain is a progressive disease for many people. The treatments suck and have bad side effects. Alternative/complementary treatments can be helpful, but are highly individualized, often expensive, and sometimes stop working over time. The author includes a manifesto aimed at doctors, the government, journalists, insurance companies, and society in general, with specific things they can do to help.
This book was recommended to me by several people and I enjoyed it a lot. It's smart, funny, well-researched, and speaks a lot to my own experience with chronic pain. I thought while reading it, huh, I would have never read this book if not for my own status as a person with chronic pain, and that's sort of a shame, that a book like this doesn't have a wider audience, because it's simply good. And it's a shame too that a lot of people, including me, know little to nothing about chronic pain until it happens to them. Kamen is a journalist and her book is a good mix of feminism, science journalism, humor, and memoir. I bookmarked a lot of pages that particularly resonated with me.
One part of the book, early on, really bugged me. From pages 36 to 42 Kamen talks about gaining weight as a side effect of pain meds, which is a common side effect that patients are often not warned about. On page 37 she seems to make fun of people with eating disorders:
( possibly triggering content )Moving on to things I liked:
*Quoting Dr. Frank Vertosick, p. 52: "There is something devilish about pain arising in the face and head. They strike us at the geometric center of our beings."
*The general absurdity of trying various doctors and alternative medicines, one after the other.
*The Problem of Illness as Metaphor
*Tying together Chronic pain/illness and feminism in a very clear and important way. She criticizes 2nd wave feminism for failing to advocate for women who are chronically ill, because it was important to the movement to portray women as just as strong as men. She points out that men are more prone to certain diseases and maladies too, but that is not used to keep them out of public life or to paint them as inferior (p.176).
*Criticizing Oliver Sacks (p.107)
*Emphasizing spirituality as a basic survival mechanism for those with chronic pain. Learn to let go in order to gain control. Learn mindfulness. Practice meditation.
*Kamen gives a few mentions towards the disability movement, but not as much as I would have thought. It was curious to me how long it took her to accept the label given that she even applied for disability benefits from the government at one point. But there is a lot of resistance, especially, as she says, "it was only a headache, after all". Learning about the disability movement (sort of simultaneously with feminism and anti-oppressionn generally) has been one of the greatest benefits for me.
*Anxiety, depression, and fatigue are some of the most common headache co-morbitities, because they are rooted in the same basic brain chemistry. The same neurotransmitters are involved.
*There is a whole chapter on "Tired Girls", women with fatigue.
*Acceptance: "I'd done all I could to get rid of that motherfucker, and I'd lost." (p. 225) She says this after almost 10 years fighting the headache.
In short, reading this book just validated a lot of my own experience. I'm glad I craved acceptance and worked towards it; I'm glad I found a pain counselor; I'm glad I'm learning about disability rights. I didn't take some of the super-strong drugs Kamen did, but I still had scary experiences with things like Tegretol and Lyrica.
The book ended on a not-very-positive note: there is no cure for chronic pain (is there a cure for ANY neurologic disease? No). Chronic pain is a progressive disease for many people. The treatments suck and have bad side effects. Alternative/complementary treatments can be helpful, but are highly individualized, often expensive, and sometimes stop working over time. The author includes a manifesto aimed at doctors, the government, journalists, insurance companies, and society in general, with specific things they can do to help.
