I'm here because I finally figured out what works for me and I wanted to share in case it helps anyone else

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Hello, all.

My TN started after dealing with several years of TMJ. It seems to have "morphed" into TN, as I understand can happen.

Technically, I'm self-diagnosed, as I haven't been able to afford to see a neurologist and, as near as I can tell, there aren't a lot of options even if I could. Still, please don't dismiss the "self-diagnosis" as there's pretty much no mistaking TN for anything else.

I've heard other people speak of "electric shocks" and that's not what I get. It's a slow burning feeling as if someone packed one side of my head with black powder and shot a flare gun up my right nostril...every time my heart beats.

In my case, I'll be fine for 2-3 years, then I'll go through approximately 3 months of having "episodes" which last around 30 minutes, maybe 5-10 times per day. They're crippling in intensity, but I believe I've figured out what's going on.

The last series of episodes, I found an incredible tightness in my back. Specifically, my right spinal erector muscle. Once I flipped my mattress over, I stopped waking up to an episode each morning and they decreased and quickly went away.

This year, I've found that putting my newly-fluffed pillow under the base of my head allowed me to force that muscle to relax and the pain went away immediately. Here's what I think is happening....

My spinal erector will tense and this seems to cause a chain reaction of muscles which ultimately results in a muscle contracting against my trigeminal nerve causing horrible pain. As soon as I can relax that muscle, everything goes away.

My main purpose in joining here was to share this with other sufferers in the hopes that it will help someone, somewhere. I still don't know why that muscle tightens the way it does, but I'm just grateful that I've found relief.

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Mercury, the ultimate mechanism in the kind of pain you report is probably some sort of mechanical damage to the nerve. Whatever damage there is may be aggravated by positional changes or muscle stress. But very few patients who have episodes of the type you describe, get reliable relief from relaxation of the neck muscles alone.

Regards, Red

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I found your post interesting. I have had ATN for two and a half years with wicked migraine symptoms. A few months ago I started physio and acupuncture for a bulging disc in my neck. The bulging disc has been there for a couple of years but I injured it and my neck was unbelievably sore. Anyways, those treatments have ended up helping everything, especially the migraine symptoms. I also get pain in the back of my head that I thought may be occipital neuralgia but I know now that it is connected to my neck pain. I can see triggers now, like extended computer work because of my job, and have been able to successfully limit these exacerbations of pain connected to my neck. Now, I do still have ATN as well. The physio has not cured that but I recommend that people do try some type of very gentle cervical therapy if they are showing symptoms that could be connected to neck and back pain. Everything in the body is connected. None of my DRs would make any connection to my facial pain at all. I have since chatted with many others that have these same types of pain and are experimenting with different therapies.

One word of caution though to anyone considering alternative therapy. Be very careful about who you let touch you! I have no doubt that problems could be made worse instead of better in the hands of the wrong professional.

Another word is that TN has remissions so sometimes it seems like something is helping but it is hard to know for sure. And it might come back later. I had ATN the first time for a year and then a seven year remission. Has been back for two and a half years and seem to be in a partial remission now.

I am glad that you have found relief.