Customer Reviews

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

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Paula Kamen, a thirtysomething author and lecturer from Chicago, has suffered from a mysterious headache (sometimes just bad, sometimes nearly intolerable) pretty much nonstop for the last fifteen years. In this smart, gutsy, no-holds-barred memoir, we follow her as she tries--with Herculean effort and Bhuddist patience--to find relief.

It is not a pretty journey she is forced to undertake. Kamen escorts her reader through the decade and a half of her headache hell, but somehow manages to do it (unbelievably!) with a quirky, never-give-in sense of humor. It is not an exaggeration to say that, in reading this book, you might well be doing a lot of crying and a lot of laughing.

The number of shills, quacks, charlatans, and snake-oil salesmen who parade throughout the chapters will give you a jolt. But the book is a lot more: Kamen spends a lot of time looking at how chronic pain, when it is not able to be quickly and successfully treated, starts creating resentment in the minds of medical professionals, in the minds of the families of chronic-pain sufferers, and (most tragically) in the minds of chronic-pain sufferers themselves.

Much more than just a memoir of a single person's frustrations and travails, this book also offers a broad look at chronic pain in the United States today. Kamen has done her scientific research, and shares it (without going overboard or turning her book into a medical study) generously if compactly with her readers. The appendix of resources at the end of the book is particularly helpful, as is the bibliography.

Like a pissed-off Joan of Arc, Kamen spends "All In My Head" wading in the medical, cultural, and social quagmire into which chronic-pain sufferers slowly sink, and, from the first page to the last, she's fighting. This book is a must-read for those with chronic pain, and highly recommended for their friends and families. In Paula Kamen they have found a co-traveler and ally.

This memoir approaches chronic headache pain from every perspective, developed through her own experience and urgent research: types, sources, doctors, drugs, the pharmaceutical industry, alternative medicine, spirituality, self image, coping, social attitudes, history of approaches and views -- you get the idea. Ms. Kamen is an excellent writer and I enjoyed her spirit and her wit, which she never over-uses as some writers do. She takes a massive amount of information and experience and integrates it in a meaningful way, which is an enormous accomplishment. I have had chronic migraines (though nothing as unremitting as hers), and learned a lot from this book.

Hooray for Ms. Kamen- after reading hundreds of books on chronic pain, this very gifted author has created a funny and very helpful path out of the Guilt Woods with this marvelous book.
If you suffer from ANY kind of chronic pain- do yourself a favor and read this book. For the millions of us who have been used as lab rats by the pharmaceutical industry- Ms. Kamen's book offers insight that can help you find your own voice again.

I am not a chronic headache or pain sufferer, although I know some people who are, so this book may not have meant as much to me as it would to those who do suffer with chronic pain. Nevertheless, I felt I learned a lot from my reading of it, and I could relate to many of the author's experiences with the medical world. I also enjoyed reading about various alternative medicine types that I will probably never try, but have been curious about! The book is well researched and well written.

However, I feel this could probably have been about half as long and still have been effective. At times I felt like I didn't need quite as many details about almost each and every appointment. I also someone expected the book to me a bit more of a memoir. I would have liked to hear more about the author's life in general, not just the bits and pieces here and there included. She is an interesting woman and I think others would be interested in more than just her medical life.

Overall, a good contribution to the field of medical memoirs.

I, too, am a "tired girl," suffering from some atypical facial pain -- which means doctors can't figure it out -- for almost two years. It was great to read Kamen's book becuase she voiced so many of the same feelings I've experienced since the pain began: Hurt and disappointed when loved ones and friends suggested the pain was stress related or psychosomatic; angry and sad when people couldn't understand why I had to cancel or reschedule or needed more flexibility; and, most important, the hopelessness and despair of being sick for so long and giving up rather enjoyable parts of my life because of the pain.

Some have criticized Kamen for not giving some medical treatments enough time to work. When in constant pain, it's difficult to invest too much time when the side effects add more pain or cause other troubling issues. Taking a few weeks alone for something to work is a lifetime to a chronic pain sufferer.

Kamen does a thorough job of providing details about her medical background and exploring the stigma attached to migraine sufferers and others afflicted with chronic pain. And kudos to Kamen for fighting the pain and coming to peace with it as well as sharing her journey with us!

Paula Kamen's book has given me permission to stop blaming myself and stop wondering why all my treatment choices never worked. After having a headache for every minute of everyday for the last 8 1/2 years you would think I had read some books about headache and chronic pain. You would be wrong...and I only found Paula's book while looking for yet another book to help "fix" me because I had so seriously somatized my emotional issues.

I shied away from meds because I thought if I could "fix" me or what was "wrong" with my life than I wouldn't need medication. And I have mortgage my children's college education trying many of the same alternative treatments Paula tried.

I don't blame myself (as much) now that I know from Paula's book that headache can be preparing to happen long before it does. With a couple of traumas to the head and neck and on-going neck and shoulder pain from modern life at the computer, I must have been ripe for the picking. I also didn't know there are other people like me. I thought I was crazy. Not a single doctor or practitioner ever said, "You know this does happen, other people suffer from constant headache, and we don't have the answers yet."

Everything about the book related to me and like Paula, I am coming to accept how things are, but never giving up that one day they may change. You must read this book if only to support an author who did so much research and so much writing under the veil of chronic head pain. She gives me hope.

A friend of mine is a nurse working in a chronic pain ward in a major hospital. They get the cases where conventional doctors have given up. The patients typically have been through the ringer that Ms. Kamen describes, but often with a dependency on hard drugs as well. As Ms. Kamen says Western medicine has a strong tendency to depend on drugs over anything else.

Ms. Kamen tells her story with wit, with honesty, and with a way of conveying information that I've never seen before. This book should be in every doctors office for the thankfully few that will need it. Those few, however, will need it very badly.

Ms. Kamen's book brought together the essentials and should be a part of the migraineur or headache sufferer's personal library. She carefully documents the reality as to the state of medical understanding and care available to the migraine sufferer, particularly the understanding/care available to those who are "outliers" statistically--those who are not helped by either their family physican or local neurologist.

Ms. Kamen provides the reader with essential understanding of one who has "been there" and is currently living with a condition that is disabling, but with limited outward signs to the average person. Her writing also points out the lengths and expense a headache sufferer will go to financially/ personally to attempt decrease or eliminate pain so they can support themselves and be a part of normal day-today life. Her writing vividly demonstrates the efficacy rates(or lack of) for current chronic headache and migraine treatments (where medication typically helps less than 50% of those who are compliant).

She also accurately describes an illness that is exacerbated by the slightest variation in the individual's environment or internal mileau (things as diverse as weather changes of the consumption of an offending food) much of which the migraine or headache sufferer has little or no control over. She points out ever so clearly that those who have more time, health insurance, and financial resources have access to more, but not always, effective and better care.
She discusses the variety of lifestyle changes and treatment a chronic headache patient will eventually personal adhere to and sometimes endure in an attempt to reduce the impact of the illness on life and daily living.

As a chronic migraineur, I feel less silly knowing that there has been at least one other well educated person like me who has pursued both evidence-based and "non-evidenced" based medicine alike, and at times treatment that was completely unscientific in it's grounding in an attempt to control pain enough to carry on with just the daily aspects of life. This book is a caution to those who try going down that road, that for the most part, an empty purse will be all that changes in your life. One thing I was unsure of was Ms. Kamen's compliance record with some treatment plans---at times I felt she gave up on some treatments without a fair trial, but even then I could understand the frustration she felt as she ventured, like most chronic sufferes, with a lot of dead-end roads.

As a feminist and I agree with much of what Ms. Kamen writes, but must take issue with downgrading of the opinions of such notable neurologists as Oliver Sacks. Like Ms. Kamen, I am distressed by Dr.Sacks' patroninizing style where women are concerned, but try to remember that at the time of his writing of "Migraine", those views were very much "in fashion" with medical thinking of that era (1950s-60s)and agree that they can still be found today. I think Sacks' book is still one of the best in modern times in terms of diagnosis and the documenting of the existential experience of migraine and other headache. That Sack's often reached the wrong conclusion as to cause (and definitely as to treatment) , the information and documentation he has provided the medical and lay community as to the experience of migraine and headache in general, continues to be highly valuable and must be viewed in within the context of the times in which it was written.

Ms. Kamen is at her best when she explores the ways daily headache defines and shapes the individual and their outlook on living. Her personal example shows that daily headache does not have to "define" the individual as a person and is positive in showing and encouraging fellow sufferers and their families that the headache sufferer is not to be thought of as a "patient" who is only a mass of pain and deficits. She shows that people with headaches have hopes, dreams and ambitions and the capacity to continue to be active participants in their lives and their communities once the headache sufferer realizes that their life will need to be approached with as much flexibility as is possible.

Ms. Paula Kamen did an outstanding job of truly showing what it is like to live with chronic pain. Ms. Kamen's book does something no other author has done before. She has let millions of readers into her life so they maybe can begin to understand just what it is like and let other's know they are not alone. Not only did she really show the reader what a day is like with chronic pain, but she showed the reader what every day was like with chronic pain. Living with Chronic Daily Headaches now for four years, I have found it extremely hard and very often frustrating, trying to explain to someone what it is like to live with it. Let me tell you, it is not easy. Often people have no idea what goes on with the medical care and Ms. Kamen exhibits just what someone has to go through with a chronic illness, and it is very often not pretty at all. The best part of this book was the ability for Ms. Kamen to relate with so many people and really make people feel like they are not alone.

Bravo to Ms. Kamen for her hard work and dedication to publish this book. This book has really made a difference in my life and anyone with or without chronic pain should read it. This book is tremendously well written, informative and emotionally touching. This is definitely a must read! A big thank you goes out to Ms. Kamen for your humor, strength, and your continued effort to educate others. You are an inspiration.

You know how you get itchy just by someone mentioning lice or mosquito bites? All In My Head will have the same effect: the author, Paula Kamen, does such a good job describing her misery, you will get an empathy headache almost immediately. Which isn't meant to deter a person from reading the book - just to warn you that you might get more than you expect by reading it.

The lessons learned and relayed back to the reader are relevant to most people living with chronic pain, not just those with chronic headaches: The medical industry is woefull unprepared to deal with such complaints, and there isn't much a person can do short of experimenting with various remedies to look for relief. What Kamen decides to do, and what makes this non-fiction book stand out, is try EVERYTHING she can under the sun to help her with her pain... and then detail it all for the reader to experience second-hand. Which is actually very useful for a reader with any similar sort of ailment: you can see exactly what the procedures cost, what the side effects were, how useful they were, what the medical community thought of the treatments, etc. Basically Kamen sets herself up as a guinea pig for the masses - and it's an entertaining and terrifying read.