Physical Brain Pain

[upstream]

I read in a post that one of our members was feeling physical pain in her brain when trying to remember trauma. I have experienced this as well, physical pain instead of or in additional to emotional pain.

I will re-iterate, this question is about physical pain in the brain when remembering trauma, not emotional pain when remembering trauma.

What have you experienced? Check all that apply.

[batgirl]

I voted for headaches, for pain in specific areas of my body, and for sensations that were not painful. The specific area is my abdomen, during a flashback I have often felt like I was being shot all over again.

[ruddy]

shortness of breath - choking sensations

[Lisa]

When remembering trauma I get headaches, nausea, dizziness and pain in other areas of my body, and sensations in other areas of my body. The headaches actually started within the first week after my first trauma, and I was taken to a doctor. I then suffered years of long bouts of daily headaches until I was sent to a neurologist, CT scanned & tested, and it was ruled psychological 'stress' headaches. I don't just get the headaches when remembering trauma, I get them when very stressed... however, I recently have started dealing with this initial trauma and the daily headaches are back just like my childhood. Other pains and sensations I get are clearly flashback related.

[upstream]

Interesting Lisa... in my childhood I had chronic headaches and no one knew why. May have been due to all the stress.

[linasmom]

I experience a throbbing pain in my actual brain when I try to think of my traumas. I also feel that same tight and throbbing pain my jaw, as well. I attribute it to tension, but can one have "tension" in the brain?

[nic]

I have had chronic headache pain ever since the trauma 10 years ago. I never really saw the connection until a few months ago, when I realized that thinking about it started or increased the intensity of the headache. The other problem is that when the PTSD flashbacks become incessant, I listen to loud music in order to dissociate. (I know, poor coping skills, but it's all I can do right now.) Anyway, sound tends to make the headache even worse, so I kind of spiral downwards. Hmmm...one would think that I had enough "smarts" to think of another way to deal, but I haven't. Thank goodness for Excedrin!

Oh, and I also tend to get physically ill: stomache issues, nausea, etc.

[nightowl52]

I have chronic sciatica pain , a thickness in my throat when I'm worried or irritated (ok, a lot of the time), I will throw up if really upset. I recieved 2 jury duty notices within 2 weeks. I got the courage to call to explain my doctor & I signed me off for mental disability. Of course she thought I was just trying to get out of it & she finally ended up pissing me off withher attitude. I told her I'd take it to my doctor again, then she sent another reschedule me to court. I can't go into a court house where there's people I'm not comfortable with. Now I refuse, that's putting salt in my wounds.

[ChrisB]

Wow! Never thought anyone would ask this question. I get intense stabbing pain across my forehead. It's gone in a flash but it stops me cold. My Doc said "Oh it's nothing, just stress." Comments?

[cactus_jack]

Because of my physical injuries I have permanent rain sensations in my brain. Somedays barely noticeable. Other days, there ain't a pain pill on Earth that can touch them.

[Judy]

I have complex partial epilepsy so there are no convulsions during my seizures. I have many sensations like deja-vu, deja-vecu (feels like I've lived through this before), auras and many memory and time distortions. The neurologists are unable to see why I have seizures and the seizures begin on both the left and right sides of the brain. My seizures were controlled up until about eleven years ago at which time I often lost consciousness as well as having all the other sensations. I have been diagnosed with ptsd and have been seeing a psychiatrist because I think that my epileptic seizures are connected to the sexual abuse I suffered from two step-fathers from age 4 to 18. I also moved and changed schools every year. My seizures worsened eleven years ago when my life seemed to be at its best and now I notice that when I am highly stressed there are few seizures but when I am relaxed the number and severity of seizures greatly increases. Listening to music is often a serious problem which has made it difficult to see my daughter's cpncerts. I have been unable to work for ten years and the neurologists see my only chance of recovery is to have a hippocampectomy (removal of the right hippocampus). Anybody have any thoughts on this?

[blindspot]

I have pain in my brain, consistanly in the back of my head. I also feel like my brain is "full", and "hot".