Healing My Headaches Through Mind, Body, and Soul
How “Unconventional” Healers Helped Me With My Migraines
By Elizabeth Gonzalez // Art and Video by Wesley Vara

I've always mistrusted American doctors. Experiences with them have left me feeling that doctors didn't respect their patients, that they didn't have a positive approach, and they didn't bother to understand where patients were coming from. Doctors here want to see you as quickly as possible, don't really care to ask about our lives, and left me feeling like they couldn't even help me with my ailment. After avoiding those kinds of doctors for many years, I found a different kind of doctor that has helped me far more than any physician I've ever been to.

My family visited Mexico frequently, and every time I was there I was seen by a doctor, not only for headaches, but for checkups. We went to a physician who knew my grandmother very well and expected to see her and her grandchildren every time we were in Mexico. He was the first doctor that I remember examining me for my headaches. He had some tests run on me and I even got my head x-rayed. I also had to do some work. I had to keep a notebook of when I got the headaches, what I had been eating, and what symptoms I got.

When the results came back he told my grandmother and I that I had migraine headaches and that I was in luck because they had just started a treatment for them. I was given some pills to take every night and another set that I would take when I felt the headache starting. I could only take half a pill, but that was my first miracle pill because it did the job. Later I would have people bring back the medicine to me when anyone went to Mexico.

When I was in high school and still had many days with debilitating migraines my mom wanted to take me to the doctor again about my headaches. I had to see a general doctor before seeing a neurologist. I told her about seeing someone else for my migraine headaches. She looked at her chart the whole time and asked me in an annoyed tone, “How do you know they are migraine headaches?” I felt insulted by her approach that assumed I couldn't possibly know what I had even though I had lived with migraines for years.

When my mom and I finally saw the neurologist he wasn't any better. We took the pills I had been prescribed. After staring at them with his hand pressed on his forehead he told us a horror story about a woman who was given steroids in Mexico. He said, “Sure her pain was gone, but she was given steroids.” I didn't believe for a second I had been taking any kind of steroids and all we felt like leaving that room was that we were stupid for going to “supposed Mexican doctors” for treatment. All this neurologist could offer me was a one time class to explain why migraines happen, not how to get rid of them.

When Excedrin Migraine hit the shelves in the 90's as the first over the counter medicine for migraines I was happy that I wouldn't have to go without medicine if I ran out of my Mexican medicine. Now, Excedrin has been a wonder drug, but I was seriously addicted to the medicine and it also left me without the need to eat until much later. It became like a diet pill. And I know that too many pills can bring on added health problems that I really don't want to encounter. I really wanted to change the way I was taking care of myself and look for more natural ways of keeping up my health. I had always wanted to do something like acupuncture or take herbal medicine, but I never got serious about it.

Without really trying to I found a chiropractor who claimed he could help me with my headaches. I went for a consultation and decided to try his approach. He is a chiropractor, but much more than that. He explained to me that not only would he do chiropractic work to loosen the muscles in my neck and my lower back, but I would also have to do exercises to help myself get to the way I should be.

Not only did he work on my physical condition, but also recommended natural supplements that would help my body produce the things that it wasn't doing enough of. After a few months of treatment, home care exercises for my neck and lower back I felt improvements like never before and more importantly the “expected” headache never came.

Of course I had to change how I was eating, making sure that I had enough to eat and the right things. I learned that my blood pressure was low. I learned how to help myself sleep better and started taking exercise more seriously. I couldn't get rid of the habit to carry the pills with me all the time, but I have been able to use them less. Through this kind of treatment I have felt lasting effects, and also found a doctor who is more of a counselor and healer, who cares about me and what I'm doing in my life and is willing to do more than just treat my symptoms. He has not only recommended activities that I've incorporated into my life, from riding a BMX bike to trying belly dancing in an effort to loosen my lower back and have some fun to reading books that can help me get a clearer outlook on challenges I'm facing. He has helped me so much that I hope to be able to help people in the future in ways he has helped me by doing not only body work, but soul work.