If you have never experienced one, you will never truly understand what a migraine feels like. The pain starts sharp and on one side of your head for some people, and spreads around across your forehead or back towards the top of your head.

Hours pass, no matter how many pills you take, sometimes it just won’t go away. You become painfully and overly sensitive to light, smells and especially sounds. Your vision blurs, enunciating words becomes difficult, and you’re overall completely discombobulated. The pain will just not go away, and this is why migraines are not just another headache.

Migraines have brought the toughest people I know to tears. I have suffered from a migraine that left me crying in a dark room under the covers of my blankets, cradling my head and praying the medicine would kick in. Migraines have sent me and my mother to the ER, and have caused us to try and find crazy techniques to relieve and avoid migraine triggers and migraines themselves.

In the U.S., 37 million people suffer from migraines and more than 11 million have claimed their migraines have lead to disabilities. About 91 percent of these people have missed work and can not perform basic functions properly due to a migraine. Imagine having a headache so painful you can hardly stabilize yourself to do the necessities that your job requires you to do.

Okay so it hurts a lot and it’s hard to do go about your day. How bad can that be right? Well if you’re still not entirely convinced that migraines are not just another headache, how about the idea that migraines actually cause brain damage.

Experiments show that people who experience severe migraines for several years are at a risk for “silent brain damage.” This is when there are no obvious symptoms when the brain is being damaged. The experiment was done by groups of 28 people where one group all experienced chronic migraines, while the other did not. When both groups were examined, those who had years suffering from migraines, showed more abnormalities than those who do not experience frequent attacks. Sites of the brain that are more likely to be damaged were identified including the frontal lobe, limbic system, parietal lobes, brainstem, and cerebellum.

So next time your friend, family member, fellow student or co-worker says they have a migraine, please do not be quick to judge or assume their pain and actions. Be supportive and extremely considerate to them. Don’t run up and down the halls while they are trying to rest or yell at the top of your lungs, because I promise what they are going through is absolutely horrible. Watch over them, make sure they are hydrated and offer to take them to the ER or Urgent Care if a migraine does not go away for more than 48 hours. Remember migraines are not just another headache.