So I guess I’ve been having tension headaches. I have been waking up with a headache for at least a week now, and it fades but doesn’t ever go away. Excedrin migraine doesn’t seem to do anything. So today I consulted chatgpt (I know it’s terrible…I know!) but I can’t seem to find anything else that can help me with Belinda and my medical issues and also any legal and financial type things. I know I have to double check what it says but it’s just like the best search engine ever that is also wiping out the rain forests, UGH.

So now that my AI confession is out of the way…it told me to do several things, including letting my jaw hang and I was all, how do I do that? So it turns out I have been clenching my jaw and I guess the headache came from that after a while. I finally had to support my jaw with my palms and exhale again and again until I felt it dropping. Apparently it should have taken 2-3 breaths to get it to drop but mine held tight until 7 and took two more to fully relax. Now I’ve gotten my earphone sleep mask wrapped under my chin, trying to give my jaw a break.

My Ehlers-Danlos expresses as being very tight and clenched all over. This is because my body is subconsciously trying to hold all my loose joints together. So that makes things worse, I guess.

Anyway, after getting my jaw to unlock like that, my headache faded away to almost nothing.

I had no idea that was a thing, or that my headaches and pressure in my head were related to how I hold my jaw. My jaw is nice now. Kind of when you are in a warm pool of water and you can just relax everything. Ahhhh. The only issue is my brain keeps wanting to tighten it again, so I’m having to consciously stop it and remind it that the strap is doing the work right now.

I feel like an anthropologist studying myself when this kind of thing happens. It’s interesting to see how my health and mental issues trace back to my undiagnosed history.