Just Finished Reading: Splitting – The Inside Story of Headaches by Amanda Ellison (FP: 2020) [210pp] 

I can’t remember having that many headaches as a child, nothing notable anyway. I guess that I had them, probably, but nothing that springs to mind. Notable headaches started in my mid-teens, and it turned out that I needed glasses – eye strain and dehydration being two of the most common causes of headaches. Later, as I developed hay fever, my headaches revolved around sinus issues. Later still I had what I now consider to be mild migraines. They came in various shapes and sizes, sometimes in the classic thumping pain in the left temple behind the eye socket, sometimes preceded by the even more classic wavy lines on the edge of my vision and sometimes as what I referred to as my ‘molasses head’ where my brain seemed to be barely functioning although I felt no pain. This lasted for 24-36 hours and then went away helped by some pills. Interestingly, since I retired almost 3 years ago now, I’ve had like one very mild headache which passed barely noticed. It would seem that my most recent headaches (pre-retirement) were likely to have been stress related rather than a matter of low caffeine as previously thought. 

With the history of headaches briefly outlined above seeing this book for a mere £3 in my favourite Indie bookshop was a slam dunk. Rather oddly I’ve never actually done much reading or research regarding headaches before this. I suppose that I saw my long experience with head pain normal and, therefore, hardly worth thinking about. I’m glad I changed my mind and picked this one up. Covering 4 major types of headaches – Sinus (yup, in summer with hay fever and in winter with colds), Stress (yup, but not for a while now), Cluster (thankfully not as they sound truly horrible!) and Migraine (not for at least 3 years, not TOO bad when they do happen, not as bad as my brother who can be in bed with them for days, and not anywhere near as bad as the horror stories I’ve seen about them) - the author looks at the history of each type, how each type manifests in the brain and some of the methods of coping with the event itself, recovering as well as stopping them in the first place before they happen. 

Rather surprisingly, as the author herself mentions, despite all the research into the subject, there’s still a lot we don’t know about why headaches happen although we have a much better idea about how they happen whilst they’re in progress. Drugs can help, although they are generally anti-inflammatory so are really addressing a secondary effect rather than the cause itself. There are occasions where rather drastic surgery is the only answer to a truly debilitating series of Cluster headaches and I’m eternally thankful that I’ve never had to cope with that! But, unfortunately, there’s still a lot of work to be done understanding this often mundane but sometimes crippling condition. Proper hydration and stress reduction can help in many cases but that’s often nowhere near enough. If, like me, you suffer or have suffered from headaches this is definitely worth your time. It won’t offer you a solution to all of your problems, but it will give you a good idea of exactly what’s going on in your head and might give you some ideas of what you can do to mitigate the effects of your headache with or without medication. Recommended.