My first official migraine episode

One of my worst fears have come true. I had my first official migraine episode. Mum used to get them when I was in Secondary School. I used to feel so sorry for her and hoped it would never happen to me. But I think emotional stress has taken it's toll on me.

I'm not busy at work technically. I'd like to think I'm at a stage of my career and life where I can handle most types of cases that show up in my therapy room. It's been a while since I've been stumped by a case and not know what to do. That used to be the stress I faced in my twenties : How to help this patient/child/student improve in their communication/feeding problems.

However, now after three years of working with children who have an underlying psychological difficulty, I've realised that half the time, parents are the issue. That the parents usually have a psychological problem themselves. That's what I have had to deal with and it's really draining me. I don't feel stressed or anxious by it, but I'm tired. REALLY tired. Tired of showing empathy, tired of being kind, tired of being patient, tired of being nice. Clearly, this fatigue is manifesting in a migraine. I try to think of new strategies to be kind, patient and nice.

Maybe, my new mindset should be: I need to take care of myself FIRST. Not try to solve the world's problems. Some people need to do a bit of growing on their own. I need to let go, and stop thinking of ways to help them.

As the doctor said, STOP thinking. Yeah, sounds good.

Plan: Focus on learning the cello, practising my guitar, voice and piano.

I need to get my act together to do that Music Therapy degree soon!

Maybe I could even practice in the office, during lunchtime. Or even after work, it's too hard to get home during rush hour anyway, so I could practice for two hours and leave the office at seven or eight, when the traffic flow is smoother! Sounds like a good plan!

I'm really glad I have that holiday coming up :-)