For Non-Sufferers

Have you ever had the flu?? Have you ever been so sick that when you move you can feel your blood pressure in your head and have the sudden urge to throw up??  Have you ever whacked your shin on a coffee table or been kicked and saw stars??  If you add those two feelings together, then magnify them by 100 and place the pain from your shin in your head.  The pain from a migraine can feel like a knife in your head.  Sometimes it feels like there is so much pressure our heads are going to explode, or we wish they would to feel better.  This isn't a headache!!!

For someone that has Chronic Migraine as a diagnosis, it means 15 or more migraines a month.   They can last for hours or weeks at a time. One can end and another will start.  There is no break.   It isn't something that will just go away or is easily worked through.  In order to get this diagnosis we have seen a specialist and have had MRI's, EEG's and have tried multiple kinds of medications, acupuncture, food eliminations and anything else that sounded like it had any merit.   Things that you can buy in the store or this magical cure that worked for so-and-so's mother or cousin, isn't going to work for us.  We are exceptional people!! We seem to be the exceptions to the rule. Our pain is not typical. We are desperate for a cure!!


There are different types of migraines.  An average person can have a migraine induced by dehydration or starvation and never suffer another. Some people have them more frequently, several times a month.  They are usually lucky enough to be able to take a medicine like Excedrin and go about their lives.  Then there are those that suffer from one or more the list below.

• Abdominal migraine
• Basilar artery migraine
• Carotidynia
• Silent (auro without migraine)
• Ocular migraine
• Hemiplegic 
• Chronic Daily Headache, often the precursor to Chronic Migraine
• Menstrual or Ovulation induced 

http://www.healthcommunities.com/migraine/overview-of-migraine-headache.shtml

http://hemiplegicmigraine.org/learn/what-is-hm/

Some researchers say that once pain has found a route it is more easily transmitted each time after.  Like water flowing, once the path as set it flows easily.  So as time goes on our pain becomes more efficient.  

The migraine is not just only an agonizing pain in the head, it effects many parts of our body.  We have visual disturbances such as blurriness, sensitivity to lights and sounds, confusion, dizziness, loss of words, aches and pains in our muscles  and joints that create stress and tension.  Being in constant pain and then hearing negative comments from the people closest to us, just makes us feel worse.  We already have so much guilt at not being able to accomplish things as we used to.  We mourn our old lives and who we used to be.  We know we aren't as much fun anymore and don't enjoy doing the things we used to.  It bothers us when we have to cancel and let those around us down.  This just compounds the depression we already feel.  Some sufferers have become experts at putting on a good face and may  look great on the outside, but on the inside they are dying.  We would like nothing more than to be a functioning part of society and to be able to hold down a job.  Most of the time we are alone in a dark room, quiet, away from all, in isolation.  In prisons this kind of isolation is considered an intensive punishment, your psyche is effected by being alone for all that time.  We crave human contact.  Most of all we need you to know that this isn't our fault. We are victims, held hostage by this disease.  We look to our family and friends to reach out to us and pull us out from our desperation.  Too often tho, it is slapped away but words such as lazy or accusations about being a drug addict.  We need empathy and understanding. This isn't a hangover, the worst hangover ever still wouldn't touch what it feels like.  We didn't cause this.

Doctors and researchers are doing their best. Chronic migraine is not easily treated. There are hospitals and clinics specifically for head pain treatment and even they have had limited success.  Please know that we are doing everything we can to get back to the life we once had.  We are doing our best to raise awareness, thank you for doing your part and reading this.  Your attempt to understand the sufferer in your life will not go unnoticed.