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Feeling like your next migraine is stalking you?
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What if you could learn to face the fear instead of fleeing from it?
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Migraine Heroes is a podcast for chronic migraine sufferers who've seen countless doctors with
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Learn how to reduce your migraine attacks without endless medications or constant sacrifices.
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Hello, I'm Diane Ducarme.
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I've helped over 500 people break free from migraine, even after suffering for up to 60
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My mission in life?
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To bring this relief to a million people using a unique blend of Eastern medicine and Western
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In this episode, you will learn how anxiety and fear fuel the migraine cycle and practical
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tools to break that loop.
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rooted in modern science to calm your nervous system fast, and self-care habits that you
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can start today to regain confidence and stop being ruled by your next headache.
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Stay with me until the end as the coping strategies I will share here and that worked at Migraine
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Heroes might actually be quite different from what you've been reading or have been taught.
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At least that was the case for me.
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Let's talk about anxiety and why it's more than just a side effect when it comes to migraines.
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For so many of you living with migraine, anxiety isn't just a feeling, it's a pattern.
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You start fearing the next attack, scanning your body for early warning signs, avoiding
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certain foods, smells, or even social plans.
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This constant state of alertness.
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Here's what the research tells us.
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If you suffer from migraines, you're up to five times more likely to experience anxiety.
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And anxiety is strongly tied to how often and how intensely you get migraines.
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It's not just emotional noise, it's a biological trigger.
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A major 2023 study out of Germany found something powerful.
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Every single anxiety symptom, trouble sleeping, trouble relaxing, racing thoughts, makes migraine
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More days of pain, more tension, more impact on your life.
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And get this, in the US, if you get three or more migraine days a month, you already
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qualify for an anxiety screening.
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That's how closely the two are linked.
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What's happening in the brain?
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Chronic worry keeps your stress system activated.
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Cortisol rises, muscles in your neck and scalp tighten, your nervous system gets jumpy, hypersensitive.
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It's the perfect storm for just another attack.
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And here's the kicker,
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the more you try to avoid the pain, the worse it gets.
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Avoidance and catastrophizing shrink your world and ramp up your suffering.
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So let's break down the different states of the nervous system and then be able to understand
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So imagine your nervous system as a security system.
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It's job to keep you safe.
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And according to Dr. Stephen Porteous, the neuroscientist behind the polyvagal theory,
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it's not just one alarm system,
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it's a whole layered network with three distinct states.
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State number one, what is called safe and social,
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your ventral vagus state, what I prefer to call your rest and digest.
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This is your I feel calm, I feel connected, composed, curious.
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Your heart rate is steady, your breath is relaxed, and you're open to others.
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This is where healing happens, when you feel safe in your body and the world around you.
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This is when the food we recommend you in Migrant Heroes go to the right place.
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State number two, fight or flight, the sympathetic system.
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When you sense danger, this gear kicks in.
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You feel jittery, anxious, your heart races, you're ready to run or fight.
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It's your body's way of saying, something's not right,
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let's get out of here.
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There's not too much room for digestion here, as you can guess.
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Your body is in a panic alarm mode, and there's no room for anything else really.
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State number three, freeze or shutdown, the dorsal vagus system.
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If the danger feels too overwhelming, or there's no way to escape, your system may go into shutdown.
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You feel numb, disconnected, maybe even hopeless.
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This is your body saying, let's power down to survive.
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This is something I see in my work a lot as well.
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What's beautiful about polyvagal theory is that it reminds us our responses are not flows,
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they're ancient survival wisdom.
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Your body is doing its best with what it knows.
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But here's where it gets tricky, because while your body thinks it's protecting you,
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it can sometimes get stuck in overprotection mode.
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That ancient worrying doesn't always match modern life, so you might find yourself panicking
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in a situation that isn't actually dangerous.
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It's not your fault, but it can limit your freedom, your relationships, your joy.
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That's why awareness matters.
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Once you understand what your nervous system is doing, you can start to work with it instead
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of feeling trapped by it.
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So then what to do?
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Before I tell you what to do, I want to share how I found out, because this changed everything
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for many of our heroes.
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So when someone finishes their journey with us at Migraine Heroes, when they're feeling migraine-free,
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I try to meet with them.
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I do an exit interview, just the two of us.
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It's almost like I meet them for the first time, and I ask, how did you go?
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What could we do better?
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And most importantly, what will you do with your precious life moving forward?
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I always try to do them.
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It's not always realistic, given my agenda, but I try to.
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It gives me so much joy.
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And I know it might sound surreal, but it's very real.
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And these moments are full of joy and grace.
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And this is my carrot for all the work that I do.
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One day, I had such a conversation with a woman named Dulti.
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Dulti had lived through 4,000 consecutive days of migraine.
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And when I asked her, now that you have time and clarity again, what will you do?
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She posed and she said, I want to work more.
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I'm trained to help people with trauma.
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And that was a light bulb moment.
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At Migraine Heroes, we try to help 100% of the people we serve.
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I meet each person over Zoom.
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It's soul to soul.
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But there were a few profiles at that given time, a few people we weren't helping enough.
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And the only common thread they had was trauma.
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So I asked Dulti, can I send some of them to you?
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Mind you, we weren't profitable.
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This was coming out of my own pocket, and I had no intention to make them pay more.
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But I had to know, were we doing everything right with food and lifestyle?
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And why wasn't the body ready to heal?
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The feedback, raving, deep, powerful, lasting change.
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So much so, that I sat down with Hélène, one of our health practitioners. And we wondered
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together, would this help people with anxiety too, even without trauma?
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And it did, again and again.
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Today, Dulti is a full part of the team.
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If you're on the app, and you have access to the chat, or if you've joined any of our
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support groups across the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, you've likely met her.
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And this is why we don't just treat symptoms, we follow the story until the story changes.
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So what do you do when an anxiety attack shows up?
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You don't fight it, you don't scold yourself, you acknowledge it.
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You say to your body, hey, I know you're feeling anxious, even though we're actually safe.
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You don't try to fix yourself, you sit with it.
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You normalize the sensation, you expect it. And when it comes, you greet it, like an old
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there you are! No panic, no resistance, just presence.
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You tell yourself, it's okay for my nervous system to respond this way. Because what's
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really happening is this, you're no longer afraid of being afraid. And that, that is
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the turning point.
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Then gently you ask your body, what do you need to feel safe again, dear body?
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And maybe it's eye contact with someone calm. Maybe it's deep breathing. Maybe it's limping
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into a soft pullover that carries good memories. Maybe it's looking at a photo that reminds
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you of a time when you felt safe, loved, and grounded. Maybe
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you're externalizing your body and saying, I expected this.
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It's one of your modes, and I'm here to support you in that mode.
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Now I know this may sound abstract, but I've seen it work over and over again.
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Let me share a story.
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One of our heroes, we call her Patricia. She just celebrated today, her fourth day pain-free
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after years of chronic migraines. Years, she was chronic, daily.
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When she joined our group calls, what she felt most grateful for, that was a couple
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of weeks ago, probably at least a month ago, wasn't the lack of pain. She was still in
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she no longer feared the pain. And that, my friends, is a kind of freedom we don't talk
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Her daughter even joined one of our calls and thanked us.
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She thanked me in an onboarding call for giving back her mother. And therefore she decided
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to start on the program as well.
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And so I want to thank Patricia for her energy, for what she brings in the world, for that
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beauty of letting go and accepting and welcoming her fear, and therefore letting me do my job
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and have the foods enter the body the way they have to enter and do what they're supposed
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So if this feels abstract right now, maybe listen to this again. Just that little part.
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Try it out. Sit with it. Try it and come back to it. Let me know where you are and see the
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new sensation awaken from there.
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You don't need fancy tools. Your body already knows what to do. You're just learning to
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listen and to lead with calm and compassion.
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And remember, every small step you take moves you closer to freedom.
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You are powerful, you are resilient, and you are no longer alone.
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Keep rising, Migrant Hero. You are powerful, you are resilient, and you are no longer alone.
