All in My Head: An Epic Quest to Cure an Unrelenting, Totally Unreasonable, and Only Slightly Enlightening Headache Book

I read this because I am myself a sufferer of chronic daily headache -- since last October -- and like Paula Kamen I'm going through the whole cycle of trying different stuff that doesn't work, or works only for awhile, or removes the pain but turns me into a zombie, etc. I feel I learned a lot from this book -- among other things, I'm going to stop taking Neurontin now, and I'm going to try some of the non-medical remedies that provided some relief for Kamen. I'm still pretty skeptical of alternative medicine and all those special diets and herbs and stuff, though.

I feel lucky compared to her. I haven't had this headache for twenty years (yet). And I haven't (yet) encountered too many arrogant and narcissistic doctors Kamen has, who won't listen to the patient and try to make it sound like they're not really sick and am just whining and being a drama queen. I think this may be because people know more about headaches than they did in the early nineties when Kamen first got hers. Or maybe I'm just lucky.

I would recommend this book to any chronic pain sufferer, especially those with chronic headaches. Although it's hardly a success story -- Kamen's still in a lot of pain, after all -- it's not a downer. It's very educational and some parts are outright laugh-out-loud funny.