1% Thursday: Take a Break

This tip is not for everyone, and certainly not for everyone at every time.  I’m not talking about taking a break from life or from your job, but taking a break from your preventative medication.

Let me be clear: you most certainly need to discuss this with your doctor.  Don’t make assumptions, and don’t stop taking a daily medication without her approval.

Sometimes we are so anxious (with reason) to find a treatment that works, we zip along from one medication and one treatment to another, without stopping.  Sometimes you need to do this – after all, you’re probably taking an abortive of some kind even if you’re not taking a preventative, and that can be even worse for your body.

On the other hand, there may be a time when you need to stop for two or three months, and remember what it’s like without the daily preventative.  Drugs can affect you in ways you don’t even realize, and it can happen gradually.  When you get off the drug for a few weeks, you may realize how significant the side effects were.

This could be wise advice for any treatment – but drugs seem to be the most significant when it comes to those side effects.

So if you’ve been going through a period of trying one preventative after another, talk to your doctor about taking a break of 1, 2 or 3 months.  Take the time to remember what it’s like without.  It may clear your head and allow you to evaluate future treatments in a more objective way.

What is 1% Thursday?

Every Thursday at Headache and Migraine News (weather permitting) we’ll talk about one measurable, practical thing we can do to make our lives just 1% better.  Usually it will be something very easy, sometimes it will be a challenge.  Let us know if you try it, or share an idea of your own – and maybe a year from now we’ll see that things have really changed for the better!