Imagine this:

Pain. It radiates through your head. It bounces from your eyes to your ears to your temples. Sometimes it is a stabbing, sometimes a throbbing, or sometimes it is indescribable. You try to form words, but the only sounds that come out are nonsense. The dimmest of lights is as harmful as looking into the sun. The smallest sound of a keyboard clicking makes you wince. You have a migraine.

You struggle to function as the pain worsens. The knife that must be stabbed in your head feels as if it is being twisted around causing you to writhe in agony. You want to curl up in a ball and stay there for the rest of your life. The concept of climbing back in to bed beckons you, but you cannot because you have class or work. You slowly move out of bed knowing that the smallest movement will make your head even worse. As you struggle off the side of your bed you feel like you are going to fall over as the vertigo worsens. Then, as you look up the world spins and every object in the room goes double. You are trapped in a roller coaster ride of your own mind.

The day goes on and the pain worsens, occasionally having small breaks if you are lucky. You want to punch the woman at the nearby desk smacking her gum, you would kill for the lights to be dimmed just a tad, and food all day makes your stomach churn. This is your life though. You know that eventually medication may help, but you also know that these headaches will maintain their abusive relationship with you for the years to come. You feel like giving up sometimes, but you keep pushing forward; you are waiting for the few good days.

Most Americans will experience one of these headaches in their lifetime. Some of the unlucky ones like myself live with them chronically. We bounce from medication to medication, symptom to symptoms, and sometimes we barely get by. There are times when putting a gun to our head seems like it would hurt less than the pain we experience from these headaches, but we keep holding on. On top of all of this, some of us with migraines have other chronic illnesses. I for one suffer from Ehlers Danlos Syndrome on top of all this in addition to my rare form of migraines being hemiplegic migraines. The scary combination of these two has left me in a world of pain, but those of you who have experienced migraines know that we just keep pushing past the pain, the blurriness, the bleakness.

To the people who understand this scenario, please remember that while this may be terrible, there is a network of those of us just like you. People may experience different symptoms or sub-types of migraines at different degrees of severity, but they are happy to help at any time. My migraine groups give me treatment ideas and help with coping with new diagnoses. I strongly urge those of you struggling from these headaches (particularly chronically) to speak out about your struggles and reach out to others. Many will say that it is "just a headache", but please remember that these are more severe than your run of the mill headaches and need to be treated.

To those of you who have not lived through one of these headaches, please have compassion for those of us who struggle from them. We do not want you to pity us or look down on us, but please understand that these headaches are very difficult to deal with. Yes, we really do need the lights turned down lower. Yes, we really do need you to talk quieter. Yes, we really do need your help.

Thank you to anyone who has read this whether they relate or not. I hope this provides everyone a glimpse into the invisible struggles that anyone could be going through. Invisible illnesses like these migraines need to be addressed to help those of us struggling find treatment. Please anyone who can, speak out, advocate for yourself, and spread awareness for chronic migraines.