Explaining Migraine to Others

Here is a link I wrote a while back answering a forum question re: when friends and family don't understand your Migraine Disease http://bit.ly/yDycFb


I have fought this myself on a very personal level. Some of my experiences have been initially devastating.


what are your experiences like with friends and family? Do they understand you and your Migrianes?

What's most frustrating for me is after telling someone I have a migraine, they ask me later how my headache is. Those are the people who can usually be educated, but unless someone has had a migraine, it's nearly impossible to explain.

How do you explain your Migraine to them?


I usually start out with something like "You know, Migraine is a genetic neurological disease and head pain is only one part of an attack..."

My immediate family members that suffer from migraines themselves completely understand and are very supportive now that my migraines have gone chronic. I am still attempting to educate my husband on all the intricacies of the neurological disease that is migraine. He usually asks how my headache, like you Sally, and I usually respond because I usually ALWAYS have a headache. I can usually muster through all the other aura, pro and postdrome symptoms unless it has completely beaten me.


With my chronic diagnosis I am making it a point to make information available to anyone that has questions and to point people in the right direction when I hear/see them giving out wrong information.