We've all been sick before, colds, soar throat, flu, and many other things. We never doubt if someone has a fever or a cough, but for some reason if you don't have physical proof of an ailment, you're probably lying. I am a "chronic migrainer" which means I have upwards of 20 migraines a month. Even though it's a diagnosis from a neurologist, I don't complain often because I know people will think I am just trying to get out of doing stuff.
These headaches have ruled my life for years now. I am light sensitive, smell sensitive, and sound sensitive. This means I wear sunglasses all the time, sometimes indoors if I am in pain or the lights are bothering me. It means one whiff of something that is a trigger means an instant headache. Of course sound is the obvious trigger as well. I always went out with my friends and did things no matter the pain I was in because I knew in our society it wasn't a viable excuse. If you can't see the pain, then it isn't that bad.
When I finally went to a new neurologist hoping they could help me get back my life, I was happy I finally had a diagnosis and a plan to change everything. I started on medicine to take everyday and got medicine injected in to the nerves in my head. I posted a video of me getting the injections and many people messaged me saying they had no idea that it was that bad. I can't blame them, I didn't always express my pain and injections seemed extreme for a couple of headaches. I can't blame them for not knowing the extent of what I was going through. The next month after I started taking medication there was a decrease in headaches to 10 a month, and I'm still working on getting it down with new medications.
The point is, we don't know what another person is going through, because they may be doing things silently. We cannot be quick to dismiss others pain just because we don't understand it. Our society is horrible in the way we respond to people with mental illness and other sicknesses. We need to learn to be more empathetic and we need to start believing in one another again.
