Migraines aren’t headaches, so no, I cannot just “pop an Advil” and be on my way. When I have a migraine, I can barely open my eyes without suddenly feeling like I’m going to vomit. I have to lay in bed with the lights off, I miss school, work, important events, I can’t even do daily activities without struggling. I’ve missed so many important events, like birthday parties, award ceremonies, exams, etc. Migraines aren’t sorry for the loss.

Sometimes the pain is so bad that I start crying, no, I am not over exaggerating or being a wimp, it feels like someone is compressing my head with the force of 4000 men. My sensitivity to light makes me have to wear sunglasses both inside and out. I get looks from people when I wear sunglasses inside buildings because I look sketchy, and I usually have to explain that I feel a migraine coming on, or I’m trying to avoid one altogether. Most of the time I can tell when I’m going to get a migraine, whether I wake up in the morning and I know I’ll be getting one that night, or I go to bed with a feeling of one for the next day.

Migraines aren’t headaches. Do not tell me that my pain isn’t as bad as I say it is and that I need to “drink more water,” or “it’s just a little head pain, take a 20-minute nap and you’ll be fine, that works for me!” because it doesn’t work. My pain isn’t just a headache, a headache will go away with Advil. Migraines will continue even with a daily medication. They are not forgiving. I have chronic migraines which means I usually get migraines every day or every other day.

Some days my migraines will give me an Aura, this could be anything from flashing lights, zig zag lines, or blurred spots in my vison either preceding a migraine or during one. These are painful and debilitating, I can’t move, see, or function when I get an aura.

Migraines have hospitalized me twice, they’ve caused me to almost pass out a few times, and they’ve caused me to have some other health issues as well. The number of different medications I have been on to try to alleviate the pain and symptoms of my migraines are unbelievable. Most people, including myself, go through a trial and error phase where we try multiple types and many different common and unusual medications used to treat migraines. Some people get put on actual medications made for migraines, some, like myself, get put on anti-seizure medications that in some way, help alleviate and calm the symptoms of migraines. Trying to find a medication that works, and stays working is very hard, you usually have to keep going up in dosage and even that doesn’t work.

Please don’t tell me that my migraines are just headaches because they’re not. And just because you can’t always see my pain, doesn’t mean it’s not there, so please don’t tell me that I’m faking it either. Migraines are aggressive, debilitating, painful things that aren’t very forgiving. Please remember that people with migraines are usually suffering in one way or another, so just give them some time to adjust to a place so they don’t get triggered into having a migraine!