The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-03-01
The Habit Headaches
By H. ADDINGTON BRUCE

It is perhaps an exaggeration to say, as some medical men do, that most headaches of the frequently recurring type are at bottom nothing but habit headaches Certainly, though, many persistent headaches may thus be justly termed.
 And there are two principal ways in which habit headaches may be produced. One way, the commoner, is by falling into the unfortun- nate habit of paying undue attention to any uncomfortable head sensations Dr. James J. Walsh has given an excellent account of the mechanism at work:
 "The principal condition predisposing to headache is having sufficient time to advert to certain uncomfortable feelings in and around the head. Few people who stop to think of what their head feelings are but will find there is some unusual sensation somewhere in or outside the head which if dwelt upon becomes emphasized into an ache. If the mind can be averted it disappears.
 If there has been some injury of the head or some pathological condition set up by con- gestion or anemia, the feelings may become emphasized and occupy the center of atten- tion, and even after the injury has disap- peared or the pathological condition been ameliorated some sensations remain which with advertence produce achy feelings of dis comfort.
 ''This is the history of great deal of the increase of headache in our time.'
 Here the obvious remedy is diversion of mind-best obtained through interested occu- patton in work or play-to break up the bad habit of over-attention to head sensations. Sometimes the same remedy suffices to cure the second principal kind of habit headaches headaches originally setting in as defense reactions" against some unpleasant life sit uation.
 Take, to make the matter clearer, the &C., tual case of a young woman of twenty-two, afflicted from the age of nine by frequent headaches No bodily cause for these could be found, and the young woman was referred to a medical psychologist for investigation.
 This revealed that she had had her first severe headache when about to get ready to attend child's party. She did not wish to go to the party, having had unpleasant ex- periences at other parties because of unpop- ularity due to falseho6ds told about her by another child.
 Obliged by the headache to remain at home, she never attended another child's party. On every occasion when she was expected to at tend one, nausea with violent headache would begin about seven o'clock. and last until ten. To continue in the words of Eng fish Bagby, to whom owe my knowledge of the case:
 "The patient is now in her twenty third year. Although her present social position is all that could be desired, she is practically unable to attend formal affairs by reason of the inevitable headache. An adjustment of the same sort has also been observed as a reaction to distasteful duties."
 In such cases a cure may at times be eff fected by simple suggestion. Or it may be necessary, by psychological analysis, to re- cover the facts explanatory of the origin of the headache, and then institute psychic re- education to train the sufferer to react less violently to the unpleasant.
 Of course, though, before proceeding on the theory that a persistent headache is but one or the other kind of habit headache, one must make sure that no adequate bodily cause for headache is present. Otherwise time and effort may be wasted, and q grievous inius- tiee done the headache victim.