‘I have headaches so bad that they make me hit the wall to stop the agony’ – 01/25/2024 – Balance

For 17 years, Daren Frankish has suffered headaches so excruciating they make him scream and bang his head against walls.

The 53-year-old from Edinburgh, Scotland, says this intense pain makes him feel like he’s being hit full force with a baseball bat while being stabbed in the eye with a knife.

Officially known as cluster headache, the condition he has is believed to be one of the most painful to affect humans.

“During the pandemic isolation, I had to go to the hospital and I remember thinking that if a bus passed by, I would jump in front of it. So I understand why they call them suicide headaches,” the horticultural engineer told BBC News Scotland.

“I live in fear of the next attack, it scares me a lot. It’s psychological torture knowing that this could happen at any moment. I’m very afraid of it.”

Up to 12 hours

The attacks Daren suffers usually last between 15 minutes and three hours and can occur seven or eight times a day. But he says he has already suffered 12-hour attacks.

The engineer says it all starts with sharp pains on the left side of the head, above the eye.

“My left eye starts to turn red, droopy and water profusely. My nose becomes stuffy and I start to feel intense pain in my head,” he says.

“I can only describe the attack as horrific. It feels like someone has hit you with a baseball bat. It also feels like a knife has gone through my left eye and then been pushed down.”

“I become very restless and sometimes physically ill, screaming into my pillow, banging my head against the wall or against anything hard. I usually walk around the room in complete darkness because I can’t stand any light.”

Sometimes Daren leaves the house with a cloth over his left eye because it waters so much.

He walks around empty spaces and carries a card with a message written on it in case anyone tries to talk to him.

“I can’t communicate with anyone when I’m having an attack,” he reports.

Daren explains that his attacks have become more frequent and longer lasting.

In May last year, he spent two nights in the emergency department of a hospital in Edinburgh after two attacks that lasted 12 hours each.

“These attacks were unbearable and the worst I have ever experienced,” he said.

What are cluster headaches

Cluster headaches are rare, affecting approximately one in every 1,000 people.

But that’s a misnomer for a condition that is “much more than a headache,” says Katie Martin, manager of the UK Center for Brain Research.

“As Daren describes it, the extreme pain of a serial attack is unbearable, causing people to scream in pain and bang their heads against walls to try and stop the agony,” explains Martin.

Those affected are usually over 30 years old and the pain is more common in men than women.

The frequency of attacks can range from one every few days to several attacks per day. Each episode can last anywhere from 15 minutes to several hours.

This condition causes several hospital admissions and therefore affects people’s lifestyle.

Cluster headaches are associated with a three-fold increased risk of depression.

There is no cure for this health problem.

Treatment

Daren had his first episode in 2007, when he was 37 years old.

“I was on vacation with my family in Prague when I had a headache so intense that I thought something very serious was happening to me, like a brain tumor,” says the engineer, father of two.

He has since been prescribed medications including steroids, lithium, heart medication and epilepsy pills.

“I don’t have epilepsy, but they [os médicos] They’re trying everything, even though nothing works.”

“I also have an injection that I can use as soon as an attack comes on and that sometimes works.”

A local anesthetic neutralizes the nerves in the short term; The steroid reduces inflammation and can reduce attacks for up to a year.

Daren has oxygen tubes at home, which he uses to try to stabilize an attack. He has tried different diets and stopped smoking and drinking alcohol, but he still experiences debilitating headaches.

“The next step is to inject a nerve blocker into my head,” he says.

“I’m willing to take the risks in doing this because these headaches seriously affect my life,” he says. “They destroy everything and I can’t do anything when the attacks happen.”

“It damaged my marriage and was one of the reasons for my divorce. I feel really bad because my children grew up hearing me scream.”

There is evidence that cluster headaches may be caused by meningitis, a disease Darem had at age two and again when he was 12.

For now, he has to live with the problem.

“Pain happens at any time, I have no control. And when it appears, it knocks you down.”