My Sedentary Migraines

Working from home has become such a blessing. Ever since March of 2020, when the world shut down and we all found ourselves in lockdown, I was able to transition from working on-site to at home. It has changed my life.

The stresses and triggers that I was presented with every day were a thing of the past. I didn’t find myself having to drive across the state as a yearbook photographer any longer. Gone were the triggers that kept me awake at night. Scared that I’d get a migraine on the road or from the flashing lights of my photography work setup. I was able to stay at home where I feel safe. A temple of sorts that keeps out all types of migraine riff-raff.

Or so I thought

Getting COVID-19 started this year out with a bang for me, personally. Everyone experiences symptoms differently, and I was stuck with cold-like symptoms with migraine for two straight weeks. I hadn't had an aura in months, and here they came; a barrage of eye flurries. Resurfacing to remind me that the virus I had fled from for so long finally caught up to me. I’m grateful for what I received, and still am to this day. Migraine takes many forms, and this time it came riding on the back of ye old Omicron.

It’s funny, how this whole thing has come full circle. How the external life stresses, like work and social gatherings, had subsided, but internal anxieties have taken their place. I’ve found that a huge trigger has, ironically enough, been a lack of activity. If I stay at home for too long, without a walk outside, sufficient water, and excessive screen time usage, I’ll surely get a migraine. Like a tornado crashing through a china shop. It’s wild how both COVID-19 and migraine triggers became the things that got me in the end. No matter how far I ran from triggers, I’ll end up creating them anyway.

I need to find a happy medium

Intense exertion is a trigger, yet complete stagnation is also a trigger. Are you f****** kidding me?

It just seems like these past two years have reminded me that I can’t simply hide. That staying home is a privilege and not a right. A balance of activity and solitude is what makes my world go round.

Life is never safe

But that has to be okay, at least for me. I can’t keep hiding. Parts of me have enjoyed being able to work from home, other parts have me wishing for the life we all had. As restrictions lower, and social expectations have re-emerged, I find myself having to take care of myself in familiar, yet foreign ways.

I need to fix my diet, drink more water, and force myself to get out more. It’s annoying that my lifestyle has become so sedentary. I mean I’m used to it after all. But I can’t let migraine win over me. I’ll at least do as much that I can. But not TOO much effort, or it might become a trigger too...