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- Why I Quit Painkillers during My Periods & What I've Learned
Why I Quit Painkillers during My Periods & What I've Learned
My experience with pain & pain management
Selen Yesilada
October 13, 2024 • ⏱ 14 minutes
I would like to have an unmedicated home birth when I reach that stage of life—though I’m far from being pregnant, I’ve already started to think about these things.
Knowing birth can be a painful experience, I started pondering, “How can I get better at pain management?”
I believe one can get better at anything with consistent practice, but what kind of practice would that be in this context?
A simple but profound realization struck me: Every single month, Nature provides me with an opportunity to learn how to manage pain—periods.
I’m aware the pain of childbirth differs from menstrual pain. But I also know that, ultimately, pain is pain. It’s the mind’s response to our perception of various inputs, whether coming through our sensory senses or within our bodies. Put differently, we play a crucial part in its making.
We can alter our experience of pain if we understand our response patterns and learn how to influence them. To do exactly that, I’ve stopped my efforts to avoid pain during my periods and started viewing each month as an opportunity to practice.
How I Used to Manage My Periods
Before getting into what I’ve learned so far through my experience with painkiller-free periods, I want to briefly mention how I used to manage menstrual pain.
My periods last around 6-7 days on average. Usually, the first one or two days are the challenging ones. I experience stomach cramps combined with severe lower back pain which can lock me in the fetal position for hours if I don’t take any medication—or at least, that’s what I thought.
This being the case, I developed the habit of taking painkillers as soon as I started feeling any signs of my period. For about 6 years, I did this every month to skip the unpleasant part of menstruation.
The idea of not taking any painkillers during the painful part of my periods was terrifying at first. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if I could handle the pain without medication. But, to my surprise, I did. In fact, the feelings of triumph and empowerment following the experience have made me want to do it again. Although I was still terrified of what was ahead, I was also curious the following month. I felt intrigued to see how I would manage it that time. This has been the case since then. It’s been more than 6-months now since I stopped masking menstrual pain with medication, and during this time, I’ve learned a few things that I believe are worth sharing with you.
[It’s important to share that working for myself, and therefore, having a flexible schedule has been a tremendous help during this experimental journey. I’m aware this is a privilege and I acknowledge it as so.]
My Learnings So Far
I categorized my learnings into two groups: [1] Practical Learnings—practices that are applicable at any time of need, and [2] Attitudinal Learnings—relating to attitudes.
On an important note: These learnings are based on my experience with managing menstrual pain, but remember, pain is pain: an output created by the brain to make us pay attention. While there are different types of pain and pain responses, tools and methods for pain management are applicable to all—including chronic pain such as chronic headaches, stomach pain, back pain, and so on.
Practical Learnings
1. ‘Rest’ is not always the best thing to do when in pain.
The first advice we get when in pain is often, “Lie down and close your eyes for a while.”
Although it sounds ideal, I’ve found that this is not always the best thing to do.
Doing nothing but lying down often makes pain the center of attention. Eventually, this high focus increases the perception of pain, and therefore, the experience of it.
It’s one thing when we do this to understand the roots of our pain and our responses to it, but depriving the mind of all distractions is not a good idea when we aim to alleviate pain.
Therefore, sometimes the best thing to do when in pain is to become engaged in an activity that is intriguing enough to shift our focus away from the pain. This can be working, doing house chores, having stimulating conversations, or, if convenient, exercising.
2. Rhythmic movement is like a healing potion.
Rhythm plays a big role in regulation, and regulation alters the perception of pain.
American psychiatrist Bruce D. Perry states, “Rhythm is essential to a healthy body and a healthy mind. Every person in the world can probably think of something rhythmic that makes them feel better: walking, swimming, music, dance, the sound of waves breaking on a beach.”
This is also why we use a rocking motion to soothe distressed babies. Dr. Perry explains the power of rhythm in regulation this way, “All life is rhythmic. The rhythms of the natural world are embedded in our biological systems. This begins in the womb when the mother’s beating heart creates rhythmic sound, pressure, and vibrations that are sensed by the developing fetus and provide constant rhythmic input to the organizing brain. These experiences create powerful associations—essentially, memories—that connect rhythms of roughly sixty to eighty beats per minute (bpm) to regulation. Sixty to eighty bpm is the average resting heart rate for an adult. It’s the rhythm the fetus sensed, and it equates to being in balance, to being warm, full, quenched, and safe. After birth, rhythms at these frequencies can comfort and soothe, whereas the loss of rhythm, or high, variable, and unpredictable patterns of sensory input, become associated with threat. When we rock the distressed baby, the rhythmic movement activates this memory of safety.”
I’ve witnessed the soothing power of rhythmic movement on menstrual pain many times. These are the ones I find most effective in helping me manage and/or alleviate pain: [1] swinging my body, often in a yogic squat—Malasana in Sanskrit, and [2] walking back and forth.
When the pain is not too intense, I sit in a yogic squat and gently move my body from side to side. However, when the pain becomes severe, it’s often challenging for me to stay in a seated position. I crave movement. When that’s the case, I walk back and forth as long as it takes for me to feel calm enough to stay still.
Whether it’s the yogic squat or walking back and forth, I always pay attention to my breathing, trying to deepen especially my exhales. This is because calm long breath-outs help soothe pain by increasing the activity of the parasympathetic nervous system responsible for rest and repair.
3. ‘Reality Travel’ for a temporary relief.
The human brain has evolved the ability to think abstractly. Thanks to this, we can travel to alternative realities created by our minds at almost any instant. When used properly, this power can alter lives, let alone momentary experiences.
I’m a big fan of this ‘superpower.’ I tap into it quite regularly, whether it is to feel more positive, boost my energy and confidence, or improve an unpleasant experience such as pain.
It’s simple: I close my eyes, travel to a dream reality by visualizing it with all its details, and live it as if it’s happening at that very moment. Soon, my whole being is taken over by the experience. I feel happy, excited, full of gratitude, and less in pain—at least for some time.
Another way I reality-travel when in menstrual pain is that I say out loud things like, “I’m very lucky that my periods are such pleasant experiences. I feel a little tired, but that’s it. I don’t experience any pain. I’m grateful for having such an easy time during my periods.” It’s almost unbelievable, but it works! My perception of pain lessens almost instantly.
4. Chanting for a mental break.
If you’ve ever tried Ujjayi breath during a yoga class or chanted Om during meditation, you already know how grounding these experiences feel.
One of the reasons why we’re affected in this way is because, similar to deep breath-outs, chanting and humming have a direct impact on the parasympathetic nervous system. We feel calmer and restore energy when we repeat mantras, hum, or chant with others. This is also why singing lullabies is so effective in helping infants drift into deep sleep.
What I’ve found very effective is to chant something meaningful to me. I have a mantra that I love and chant almost every month when in menstrual pain. It works wonders, and it goes like this: “Nothing is permanent. Everything is temporary.”
Here is my melody to it 😅:
I turn to chanting often when the pain is at its peak.
While I’m under flowing warm water, I chant, “Nothing is permanent. Everything is temporary,” while gently rocking my body from side to side—combining chanting, sensory stimulation, and rhythmic movement. (The breath is always a part of the process.)
But, there is more to this than just chanting.
When the mantra is cognitively engaging, it starts processes in the brain that use up cognitive resources. Since the brain’s cognitive resources are limited and pain perception also relies on cognitive resources, pain processing decreases.
Put simply, as I get pulled into the depth of the message the mantra conveys, my attention—cognitive resources and attention of my brain—drifts away from the pain. The weaker the awareness of pain, the weaker its perception. As a result, I feel less pain.
In addition, the underlying message of the mantra, “this too shall pass,” helps alter my emotional state from desperate and impatient to hopeful and calm. This emotional shift—yet another process relying on cognitive resources within the brain—also contributes to the lessening of pain perception.
5. Warm showers are the ultimate saviour.
Warm showers are my saviour. They are the only thing I’ve found to be soothing enough when the pain gets severe. Regardless of what time of the day it is, I take my body under close-to-hot water and find relief in its immersive hug.
The effectiveness of warm showers can also be explained in more geeky terms, as they modulate pain in additional ways.
The water hitting the skin during a shower stimulates non-pain signals through touch and pressure, which decreases pain transmission in the body—similarly to how being hugged can reduce pain. On top of this, the warmth of the water activates the thermoreceptors, which send additional non-pain signals, further contributing to the reduction in pain transmission.
Additionally, heat reduces the intensity of menstrual cramps by [1] increasing the blood flow—it improves the oxygen and nutrient delivery to the tissues and the removal of metabolic waste products, like lactic acid, whose build-up may negatively affect the severity of cramps, and [2] promoting muscle relaxation—it reduces the severity of uterine contractions.
To sum up—in not so geeky terms—warm showers are the queen of pain relief.
Attitudinal Learnings
1. Acceptance (Non-resistance)
The quote attributed to Rumi reads, “The cure for pain is often in the pain.”
Spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle writes, “Whatever you fight, you strengthen, and what you resist, persists.” He also notes, “Acceptance of the unacceptable is the greatest source of grace in this world.”
Psychologist Carl Rogers presents the same idea in a different light: “The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.”
So far, my experience with pain proves these statements to be true. I’ve noticed time and again that whenever I resist pain, I feel it more severely. Whereas, when I accept and surrender to pain, it softens.
2. Gratitude
“I’m grateful to have regular periods.”
“I’m grateful for a well-functioning body.”
“I’m grateful for my mental and physical strength that allow me to deal with pain.”
“I’m grateful it’s the menstrual pain that I’m dealing with and not something else.”
“I’m grateful that I can feel pain.”
“I’m grateful for my courage and dedication to do this.”
“I’m grateful I’m doing this.”
“I’m proud of myself for doing this.”
The list can go on, but I’m sure you get the point.
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