A Migraine Intervention

I talk so frequently with friends, family, and acquaintances who (in my non-medical opinion, which should probably be taken with a grain of salt) seem to match the criteria for migraine disease. They describe their pain, their sensitivity to light and sound, their inability to bend over without feeling nauseated.  I try to hold back from my Migraine Girl tendencies to give amateur diagnoses and try to listen as a friend.

But so often the story ends with one of these lines:

“So I took some ibuprofen and waited it out.”

“But I know it’s nothing like what you go through.”

“I’m so tired of these sinus headaches.”

“It doesn’t happen that much. I haven’t mentioned it to my doctor.”

“I get the same headache every afternoon, but I don’t feel like I need to do anything about it.”

Y’ALL. I have a tendency to overstep now and then (especially when it comes to things I’m passionate about or well-versed in, e.g., migraine disease, the book industry, the adorability of my kitten), and it’s my instinct to want to yell out, “YOU HAVE TO TALK TO A DOCTOR.” Or, “There may be a way for you to feel better.” Or “Having a ‘headache’ every single day is not normal.” Or “If you want to vomit and can’t stand to look toward the light you are not in the midst of a tension headache!”

I could go on.

But usually I just hold back. Most people know my role here at Migraine.com and, by extension, can probably guess that I know a fair amount about migraine and headache diseases. So if they want advice, they can ask for it.  I usually can’t resist commenting when I hear entirely erroneous information, but, apart from that, mum’s the word.

Sometimes I am so, so tempted to speak up, though.  I wonder sometimes what I would do if a family member or close friend had migraine disease that suddenly got much worse but wasn’t being addressed correctly. What would I do if a best friend started having [what seems to me] severe episodes that brought her pain and sickness but refused to see a doctor?  Have any of you out there ever staged a migraine intervention? Have you asked a loved one to seek medical help? Did your loved ones ever ask you to see a doctor?