CASE STUDY FOR “LAURA”
• Information gathered at the evaluation: Laura is a 46 year old accountant and financial officer of a large health related organization. Her headaches started two years ago. She is married and has a 7 year old child. She typically used 10 injections/pills of Imitrex a month. Her statement at the beginning of the training was: “My headaches usually occur over the weekend and interfere with time I spend with family and friends and can reduce my productivity at work by 50%.” because they are most frequently after a week of working at her high-stress job, leaving her fatigued and unable to function at the optimum levels needed to fulfill her job related duties. This also contributed to her stress level as she felt her job was in serious jeopardy.
Laura had what we call “let down headaches” or “vacation” headaches because they occured most frequently after a week of working at her high-stress job, leaving her fatigued and unable to function at the optimum levels. Her time with family and friends was impaired and because her productivity at work was affected it contributed to her stress level as she felt her job was in serious jeopardy.
• Beginning – severe headaches that lasted from Saturday-Monday every week Laura’s company was experiencing internal disorganization which translated into and unrelenting pace with multiple demands on her from several departments. Her style was to work beyond her limits and to interpret the situation as that she was somehow “lacking” because she could not keep up.
• Midway-she actually had several weeks with no headaches/no Imitrex. At first Laura had difficulty scheduling her training sessions because she was so busy putting the needs of her job first. She was unable to carve out any time for herself. And, she often found herself on the verge of tears in her attempts “to keep it all together”. But the pain overcame her job concerns as she realized that she would lose her job anyway if she continued in the direction she was going. She realized that her fear was that she was somehow inadequate and that was why she couldn’t respond appropriately to the unrealistic demands that were being made upon her.
She began to take more control of her life and decided that she would do her best without putting herself at risk and that would have to be good enough.
• End – her headache frequency was two mild headaches a month lasting a few hours instead of days. Laura had come along way in managing not only her muscular tension but also her reactions to stresses at work that made her feel inadequate.
Along with the physical changes she made, she was able to pace herself and prioritize the requests that were made on her, reduce her work week hours to a more realistic level, all without any repercussions from her superiors.
She was happier and had enjoyable weekends that left her feeling refreshed. She had reduced her Imitrex usage less than 3 injections/pills per month.
Laura can expect her headaches to continue to improve over time, as she continues to practice what she has learned. When you are someone who is prone to headaches, the techniques used in our natural approach are incorporated into your life so that you become the person in charge of your headache prevention.
