Anything But This
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.
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--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
