15-year-old girl
I am now 15 years old; my pain began when I was about nine. I always had headaches, always; that means every day. My headaches were only in the forehead area. Since I often had a sinus inflammation and in the beginning the headaches came from that, the doctors said I should take antibiotics, others said (about the constant headaches) I was slowly entering puberty!
Many of you probably know the way you feel when the doctors somehow don’t understand you. Of course I don’t want to insinuate anything with that.
I think a lot of people didn’t notice that I always had headaches; I got used to it myself after a while, even though it sounds strange.
I went into the pain clinic after the 2011 summer vacation; my current pediatrician recommended it. At first I didn’t want to, because I don’t like to be in hospital, but after the first appointment I decided to do it. I found the first day awful, when I didn’t know any of the kids, but by the third day I even started to have fun. You were among people who understood you and you got to know nice people. The three weeks is a really nice memory.
After the time in the clinic I had no more headaches at all, I simply didn’t think about them anymore, and was busy with other things. After that there was again a time when I often had a headache, but with the distraction exercises that I had learned in the clinic, it wasn’t nearly so bad. What really helped me was my knowledge; I knew how to avoid my headaches and why they were always automatically there. With this knowledge I was able to slowly get myself out of this cycle of constant headaches.
Now at 15 a few things have changed. It’s more demanding at school and of course I am older. In the follow-up appointment at the clinic the psychologist said that I was more self-confident as I explained my plans to her. I really wanted to go abroad and I did it in September of last year; I went to Northern Ireland for four months.
My headaches have changed since then; I haven’t had them every day for a long time; they only come when I’m stressed and simply can’t do it anymore. Then I get bad headaches, migraines, but I don’t find them as bad as my old headaches.