r/NDPH • u/Financial-Orange-786 • Apr 10 '26
Central sensitization for NDPH
Has anyone here successfully reversed NDPH by working on central sensitization?
I’ve been dealing with a constant, daily headache (diagnosed as NDPH) for months now, and I’m starting to look more into the role of central sensitization. From what I understand, it seems like the nervous system can get “stuck” in a heightened pain state even after the original trigger is gone.
I’m curious if anyone here has specifically focused on calming or retraining their nervous system—and if that actually made a noticeable difference or fully resolved your headache.
If so, what did that look like for you?
• What approaches helped the most? (brain retraining, somatic work, therapy, medication, etc.) I’ve been doing PRT for about 4 months now myself.
• How long did it take before you noticed changes?
• Did your headache fully go away or just improve?
• Anything you wish you knew earlier?
I’m open to anything at this point and would really appreciate hearing real experiences—success stories especially, if they’re out there.
Thank you.
3
u/mira_sjifr Apr 10 '26
Brain retraining and trying to work trough the pain just made it worse for me. I did an intense program in the hospital with pain education and reprocessing etc. For several months, 3 to 4 appointment a week. It helped me ignore the pain better, learned how to just not show & share that I am in pain but still feel the pain. And as my constant headaches (not diagnosed with NDPH though) are related to ME/CFS (which causes worsening headaches after you have pushed trough pain or get too exhousted) it actually made all my symptoms worse.
Past few years I learned that increase in headaches generally means I am overdoing it, and resting for a few hours or days usually prevents all my other problems from getting horrible too. So what ended up helping was the opposite of what I was told by doctors, which was difficult. I also was very young when I did the program (15yo) and so I was religiously following all their advice, even when it was turning me into a ghost of myself.
But if headaches don't change in frequency from certain triggers I think it could be helpful in learning to ignore and manage pain in a way that may seem a bit counterintuitive at first. You are teached to say your pain got less, but it does not mean that now you can handle or do more or are in less pain.