Anything But This

Name: Anything But This
ISBN: 9798885750080

Dealing with Migraine Sans Medicine

A migraineur who refused to be defined by his condition shares hard-won strategies alongside poetry, dark humour, and unsparing honesty.

Buy on GarudaLife

Language: English
Binding / Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9798885750080
Pages: —
Published: —
Category: Self-Help & Personal Development

Overview

Hitesh Goenka has had migraines most of his life. He has tried various things, including medication. At some point he stopped waiting for a cure and started paying attention to the condition itself — what triggers it, what worsens it, what makes it briefly bearable, and what the experience is actually like from inside a skull that seems to have its own hostile agenda.

Anything But This is the record of that attention. Part memoir, part practical guide, part poetry collection, the book moves through the many faces of a migraineur's life: the sleepless nights, the movie theatre panic, the cognitive fog, the reckless decisions to drive or trek anyway, the dark jokes that are funnier because the pain is real. Goenka gives each manifestation of his condition a name — The Irritable One, The Forgetful One, The Exhausted One — and treats them with a self-deprecating humour that never softens the difficulty. The second half lays out a step-by-step framework: identifying triggers, building preventive habits, distinguishing causes from symptoms, and reaching a working acceptance.

For the many who live with migraines, this is company — written by someone who genuinely knows what they are going through.

Contents

Part A

1. Just the Beginning

2. Decoding Myself

3. Born With It?

4. Decoding Migraines

5. When the Threshold Breaks

6. The Law of Uncertainty

7. A Message to My Beloved Nightmare

• When I Arrive.............................................................

• Punching Bag .............................................................

• Abuse and Use.............................................................

• Handicapped ..............................................................

8. Improving Life by Removing Addictions One at a Time

9. Good Things Don't Last Forever

10. Anything but This

• Anything but This .......................................................

• A Burst of Yawns .........................................................

11. The Many Shades of Migraine

12. Necessity Versus Choice

13. When a Simple Task Becomes Unassailable

14. Reckless Driver

15. Movie Theatre Horror

16. Trekking Faux-Pas

17. The Forgetful One

• The Laggard Brain ......................................................

18. The Fearless One

19. The Irritable One

20. The Inefficient One

21. The Sleepless One

• Nature Is Still With Us ................................................

22. The Feverish One

23. The Exhausted One

• Like a Waterfall...........................................................

24. Phase in, Phase out

25. Absurd Migraine

26. Hang out Solo

27. Migraine Jokes

28. Misunderstandings

29. When Will I Stop Living in a boat?

• Captain Drunkard ......................................................

30. Sleep Thief

• The Morning Chirp .....................................................

• The Chirps at My Window...........................................

• Bedtime Bedbugs .........................................................

31. My Reply to a Friend Asking Me About My Condition

• Drain Me Out ............................................................

32. The Need for Processes in Place

33. The Best Things in Life of a Migraineur

• The Best Distraction Is... ..............................................

34. The Biggest Question of My Life

35. The Sane Train

• Stories—The Most Important Thing in Life...................

• Writing Changed My Life… ........................................

36. Migraines Begets Poetry

• Writing on the Go .......................................................

• Foggy Day...................................................................

• Buried in the Ground ..................................................

• Keeping Abreast of These Stupid Times ..........................

• Disoriented Soul..........................................................

• A Little Boy's Dream ...................................................

• Spinning With the Earth .............................................

• Insomnia ....................................................................

• The Tick-Tock Clock ....................................................

• Eyes Gone Wild With Sleep ..........................................

• A Blank Stare Into the Void .........................................

• They Can't Help It ......................................................

• I Flow ........................................................................

• Attack From Inside ......................................................

• The Hiss of a Snake .....................................................

• Handicapped ..............................................................

37. The Unsolicited Comments

• An Open Letter… .......................................................

38. Minding My Mind

Part B

39. Facing Migraines One Step at a Time

• The Enlightened Kid....................................................

Step 1

40. Is It Really Migraines?

Step 2

41. Observe, Observe, Observe

• Triggers.......................................................................

Step 3

42. Preventive Measures

• Nepali in the USA ......................................................

Step 4

43. Causes Versus Symptoms

• Symptoms, They Rock ..................................................

Step 5

44. Acceptance

• Control Vis-À-Vis Creativity ........................................

Part C

45. Some Journal Entries

Part D

46. A Big Revelation

47. The First Encounter

48. The Experiments

49. Do It Yourself

50. The Should-Be State

51. Last Few Words

Author

Hitesh Goenka

Hitesh Goenka, living in Kolkata, India, is the author of Anything But This: Dealing with Migraine Sans Medicine, his nonfiction book on the neurological disease, migraine, published by Garuda Prakashan in May 2022. Little Angels Sing is his first collection of poems published by Ukiyoto in May 2022. Muse India, the literary e-journal, published a humorous essay written by him titled 'My Hairy Legs' in their Issue 108 (Mar-Apr 2023). Let Pets Talk, for a Change is his second collection of poems published by Garuda Prakashan in August 2024.

View Author Profile