I have struggled with migraines for half of my life. I started getting them when I was in middle school, but they didn’t really starting getting bad until I was in high school and college. Ask anyone that has them -- living with migraines is a constant struggle. They can take a toll on both your mental and physical health as well as your social life, academics, and work. You live in constant fear and are always left wondering when the next one will strike. Will this one cause you to miss out on something important in your life or will you get lucky and just be able to sleep it off? I have had migraines on some of the most important events in my life like prom and even my high school graduation. When will they come to an end?

When it comes to my migraines, they can range from lasting a few hours to a few days. I have tried all sorts of medications as well as tried wearing glasses to help ease the pain, but nothing has seemed to work. My medications leave me feeling not like myself and between them and the migraine I feel like all of the life has been sucked out of me. As for my glasses, many people that know me know that whenever I have my glasses on, I must have a migraine. My migraines happen directly behind my eyes, and it feels like a constant stabbing right behind them. My glasses help elevate some of that pain and help take off some of the stress from my eyes, but they don’t eliminate the pain. I didn’t think anything was ever going to help until recently.

A few months ago I stumbled upon an article on Facebook stating that a Daith piercing could be the answer to migraines. When I first saw this I immediately thought, “Well, heck yeah it would because you’re going to be left crying in pain after the piercing so of course you’re going to forget about your migraine!” Boy, was I wrong.

I did my research and I read many back and forth opinions about it. I read a lot of “yes, it helps” or “no, it doesn’t help” types of articles. Finally after talking it over with my mom and waking up with a migraine one morning that left me on the verge of being sick and crying, I decided to have it done. Now, I’ve only had it done for a week and a half but here has been my experience thus far.

Before I got my Daith piercing, I was having migraines two or three times a week. I have only had a few that have made me physically sick but my migraines are pretty severe. Going into the tattoo parlor where I got my piercing done I was really on the fence, but at this point I was willing to try just about anything to help and my thought process was that if it didn’t help, oh well, at least I had a cute piercing to show for it.

The piercing itself didn’t hurt nearly as bad as I thought it would. The worst part of the whole process was when she was trying to remove the needle from my ear. As soon as she inserted the needle into my cartilage, I could feel some of the pressure begin to leave, but I could also feel my hands shaking. I don’t know if that was my nerves or something else. I am grateful I had something to squeeze because that helped the process some too. I choose to have a little silver hoop placed in my new piercing, and honestly it is the cutest thing ever! I left the shop with a new hope in sight of living a migraine free life.

Now, almost two full weeks later when I look back on my results, I could not be happier! I have been almost two weeks without a migraine, and life is so nice. I have had the feelings of an onset for some but after a few minutes those feelings disappeared and life was back to normal for me. I cannot remember the last time I went a week free without a migraine. Now will the Daith piercing work for everyone? Maybe or maybe not. Is it all in my head, maybe… who knows? All I know is as of right now, I am living a migraine free life and could not be happier!