To all the people who have never had a headache or a migraine, consider yourself lucky. But for all the people with chronic migraines, I send all of my sympathies because I know how much they suck, how debilitating they can be and how much you miss because of them. I am someone who suffers from really bad migraines and have an ongoing history of it along with my entire family. One of my biggest pet peeves is when someone doesn’t “believe” in migraines or simply just doesn’t understand them.
First of all, headaches and migraines are different. Yes, both mean that my head hurts but a migraine is much worse than just a headache. A headache is enough to put a person down for the count. A migraine is absolutely going to put anyone down. It doesn’t matter how strong you physically are; a migraine will make anyone curl up in a ball. Many people will say “just take some Excedrin or Advil and you will be fine.” But it’s not that simple. And it’s also not as simple as just drinking more water.
Most of the time Advil won’t even touch a migraine, it isn’t something you just get over as soon as you take medication. It’s constant pain to the point you can’t open your eyes, you feel nauseous, especially when something smells very strongly and all you can do is hold back the vomit. It’s having to close your eyes because the lights are too bright and your eyes feel like needles are being stabbed into them. It’s closing your eyes to escape the shining light but still feeling the sting of the lights through your eyelids.
It’s avoiding noise because the slightest noise can make your head pound with pain. Even if someone is talking loud, or it’s just as simple as a door closing, a fan rattling, or someone walking loudly. A migraine gets to the point where you can’t move once you’re in a position in the fear that if you move your head, you might vomit everywhere. Or having to move your head very slowly in the fear of making your head worse by any sudden movements.
A migraine causes missing out on social interaction, parties, important events because you can’t keep your eyes open, your head up, and you definitely can’t hold a conversation without feeling the beating of your head. It's having to catch up on work because you couldn't focus while you had a migraine. It's having to teach yourself things because you couldn't hear anything the professor said in lecture over the pounding of your head.
So for all of my migraine sufferers out there... know that you’re not alone. I know what it’s like to lay curled up on the cold floor next to the toilet, to sit in the shower letting the water hit your head, to cry because the pain just won't go away no matter what you do. I know what it’s like to struggle sitting through school or work with a migraine because it is impossible to pay attention to anything when you’re in that much crippling pain. I know what it’s like to miss out on important things because you have to go home and try to get rid of the pain. I know what its like to have to carry around Excedrin Migraine everywhere you go, having to take medication ahead of time because you know you will get a migraine.
I know what it’s like because I stood at my own graduation, my sisters wedding, my college orientation, my best friend’s sleepovers, Christmas’, Thanksgivings, my nieces and nephews being born, sports games trying to get through a migraine, breathing through the pain. Not taking in all those important moments but instead putting all my focus on trying to stay up, to get through a migraine.
