These slave-drivers are a common symptom of DID. As Wiki puts it, “The most common presenting complaint of DID is depression, with headaches being a common neurological symptom. Co-morbid disorders can include substance abuse, eating disorders, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and personality disorders.”
I began having migraines when I was 18 or 19, I think. They were irregular, until Paris, where I spent one year with a migraine every month (aura, nausea, vomiting, hypersensitivity to light, sound, and smell, painful muscle contraction all along the spine; aftereffects like flu for up to a week). Since then I’ve had about one to four per year and have found Zolmitriptan effective in fighting them – provided I take it immediately.
Last year, after finishing the second residency for the MFA, I got a migraine that didn’t go away for three months. I now take low-dosed Amitriptyline as prevention. (Added to my other psychotropics it's quite a cocktail.) But this year I’ve had about one migraine a month, and since May, the tempo has increased. I have upped the dosage of Amitriptyline, but I am getting one per week at present. I follow my doctors’ orders. At the moment, we don’t know what to do but take it easy and wait. So debilitating. Often, I cannot even speak on the phone. I just go into a dark room and lie there, seeing days and weeks of my life peel off and float away.
This demands patience I’ve never had. I am near desperation. My appearance? Gaunt, grey, joyless, dark eye rings, puffy lids. The migraines attack with next to no warning. Yesterday morning, Sunday, I felt enough recovered from Wednesday’s migraine to try going to the gym for some gentle yoga. As I put on my blouse, my vision froze up. The next migraine was there. I never know if the next website I click on isn't going to be the one that cracks the whip of the next migraine.
We suspect my brain is busy doing something and comanding my body to chill while it does so: cognitive processing of abuse, facing the past and present, trying to integrate alters, trying to change behavior, forming new neural networks in the brain, deciding how to write, etc. Or, maybe poor brain just wants a break from all that?
I'm waiting ...