I get knocked down, but I get up again
For those of us who listened to (or suffered through) 1990s Top 40 radio, the song is already playing in your head. Before I apologize for implanting this earworm, I ask that you actually take a moment to think about that catchy line in reference to your migraines: “I get knocked down, but I get up again.”
The majority of us dealing with migraine disease are fortunate in that the migraine does not keep us bedridden every day. There is a very real group out there for whom migraine never goes away, and I hold such admiration for those patients who continue to seek treatment and live life as fully as they can. I have had long periods during which migraine wiped me out, but I’ve never had my migraines morph into relentless, daily attacks. To you all I express my profound sympathy and encouragement.
Those of you who have migraine-free days (or at least migraine-free hours) may very well be like me: when I am extremely ill with a multi-day migraine attack, I quickly lose sight of what it was like to live a somewhat normal life. “Sitting up without feeling nauseated? Is that really a thing people can do?” I think morosely. “Tidying the house and doing laundry? Could it be I was able to do those things just three days ago?” “Being able to focus on another human being without twitches of pain and blacked-out vision distracting me? Did I ever really have that superpower we call human conversational skills?”
I tend to forget that I may get knocked down (and how!), but that I always eventually get up again. For the vast majority of sufferers, migraine is not utterly debilitating 100% of the time. But when you’re in the throes of a particularly terrible attack, it can be extremely difficult to imagine that you’ll ever feel well again.
Call me a dork for using the phrase “self-talk,” but that’s what I have been trying to use as a tool when I’m feeling my worst. Here are a few things I say to myself inside my head when I am completely wiped out with a ferocious migraine attack:
- You will get better.
- You will feel good again.
- This is temporary.
- You’ve been through this before. You can do this.
- It’s okay to take the time you need to get better.
- It’s okay to ask for help from loved ones.
- You will get better.
- You will feel good again.
The phrases may strike some (especially anyone who has never dealt with chronic pain or illness) as simplistic, but I don’t need complicated reasoning and deep philosophy when I’m already beat down. I need straightforward, encouraging self-talk that will remind me of the basic situation: Yes, I’m terribly ill right now, but I will feel better. Yes, I have been knocked down, but I’ll get up again.
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