Kerrie Smyres

Sensitivities to sensory input are called phobias in medical language — photophobia, phonophobia, and osmophobia — but they aren't considered actual phobias. But when light, sounds, or odors are migraine...

Headache disorders are a common problem among veterans and active military members. More than a third—36%—of veterans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan have been diagnosed with migraine or probable...

Who am I? What’s important to me? How do I present myself to the world? I asked myself these questions to help guide the design of a new logo for...

“Hello, I’m Dr R------,” the gastroenterologist said at my first telehealth appointment with him. Social convention dictates that I would have said, “Hi, I’m Kerrie. It’s nice to meet you.”...

I don’t feel like myself right now. The stress of living in 2020—plus the increase in migraine severity that stress has brought—has me short-tempered and quick to anger or tears...

How do you manage a sudden uptick in migraine attacks? I’ve been asking myself this as I’ve wrestled with stress-triggered attacks for the last few months. After hearing that many...

Normal stress isn’t a migraine trigger for me, but extreme stress is. Given how 2020 is shaping up so far, my migraine attacks have increased in both frequency and severity...

What do you wish you knew when you first started having migraine attacks? I pondered this myself recently and was curious about what other people thought, so the Migraine.com team...

Self-care sometimes gets a bad rap as a self-indulgent luxury, but it’s far more than spa days. Instead of lavish pampering, self-care is about engaging in activities that recharge you...

As the fear and uncertainty of COVID-19 began to overwhelm me, I realized that the coping skills I’ve learned to manage life with migraine could be an incredible resource for...

Are you fighting with your insurance company to get coverage for a medication or another treatment? Do you need help filing for disability? Would you like to know which financial...

Here's a confession many people with migraine won't make publicly: I took two Amerge (naratriptan) and four Midrin every day for 16 months. My headache specialist was aware that I...

I was disabled by chronic migraine for years before I ever called my husband my caregiver. I don’t remember exactly when he got that title, but I’m pretty sure it...

“I just wish I could do something to help you.” That’s what I said to my husband after we had an exchange where I tried to encourage him to increase...

Missed phone calls, ignored voicemails, and unopened emails plague me when I’m in a bad migraine spell. The messages pile up for weeks or months and nag at me all...

Dear Loved One, Bringing migraine into a conversation can be like dropping a bomb on the table. Everyone is terrified by it, but no one knows what to do about...

What were you thinking messing with your diet the day before a concert? You know better than that. And you made it even worse by taking a triptan. Why did...

May 17, 2018. That’s the FDA’s deadline to give its verdict on Aimovig (erenumab), the first of the CGRP monoclonal antibodies for migraine prevention. This is a big day for...

After several years of no longer having weather as a migraine trigger, it suddenly became a trigger again. After some sleuthing, I figured out the culprit. Even though taking magnesium...

"I feel so guilty for what my migraine attacks do to my kids!" If you’re a parent with migraine, you’ve likely had a similar thought about your own children. It’s...