Hi, my name’s Amanda. I’m a chronic migrainer. (or should I say WAS). From the age of 16, I started getting very bad headaches, which turned into migraines in my college and adult years. Over the course of the past 6-7 years, I’ve had a 5-6 at least every other day, and a 10 probably once or twice a month.

I’ve been to just about every type of specialist in the world for my headaches. From Neurologists, to “world-renowned” headache clinics (hint: the Diamond Headache Clinic blows – don’t waste your time), to ENTs, to even Gastroenterologists.  What do they do for you? Prescribe, Prescribe, Prescribe.  Why? Because traditional medicine is pharmaceutically driven.

Wait…Doctors are incentivized and PAID more money when they prescribe us pills? WTF

I know, right? It’s beyond stupid. But knowing this makes you question – are they in it to fix you or keep you coming back for more?

I’ve been on Beta Blockers, Anti-Depressents, Anti-Convulsants, and even suggested intense Opiates for my pain. And yet, somehow – miraculously – my headaches seemed to be getting worse. Why? Because I was training my body to become immune to these drugs, and poisoning myself with their ridiculous side effects. Think I’m kidding, check out these side effects for Divalproex, an anti-convulsant drug I was on for 2 years! (Yes, they prescribed me an epilepsy pill for headaches – hmm red flag #12)

But don’t worry, that’s not the complete list. Contact your doctor or pharmacist for the 200 other things it could possibly do other than LITERALLY KILLING YOU! It literally says on side effects that you could die, and I took this drug. That’s how desperate I was to get rid of these.

Were my headaches less frequent and less severe? Yes. But I wasn’t myself and I knew it – and my poor, poor husband did too.  Oh, and when I decided I had it with pharmaceuticals and quit taking it (without weaning off) I was almost hospitalized for the most ridiculous vertigo and dizziness I’ve ever experienced in my life.

It was like tripping on acid while riding a unicycle upside down (or so I’m guessing).

Ok, so that’s my fault for being an idiot – but my point is, why should we educated people keep mindfully and willingly putting drugs in our body that are so incredibly horrible for us that they give us dangerous withdrawals?

I think my favorite hot mess that I tried was an anti-depressant. Something in the way it enters the brain has shown a positive response in migrainers, so I thought – what the heck – if my Neurologist is prescribing it I’ll try.

I’m pretty sure that if you take a Bi-polar drug when you aren’t Bi-polar, it turns you Bi-polar.

May the Lord have mercy on anyone’s soul I encountered during my brief stint with those drugs. Holy Canoli I was a raging lunatic. And I’m an actor, so public speaking is usually my forte. I had a presentation at work one day that I prepped weeks for. Got up to speak in front of 3 of our VPs and couldn’t even form a sentence. I ran out of the room crying (another thing I would NEVER do in an office setting) and instantly cut myself off the pills.

So why am I telling you all this? Because pharmaceuticals are the easy way out. They require essentially no work on your end other than raising your hand to your mouth and swallowing it down, they are usually super cheap with insurance coverage, and they treat enough of the symptoms that you can live with the rest of the pain you are in. But I’m here to tell you that you don’t have to live with a headache every day. I had just given in to the fact that for the rest of my life I would be in pain, but that’s not the case anymore.

Check out my next blog post on Functional Medicine, and I’ll introduce what I’m working on! Today is day 49 migraine free, and I’ve lost 17 pounds since June 30 (and I wasn’t a person who considered myself in need of losing weight, that was just a lovely side effect 🙂 ) It’s not easy, but damn it’s effective.