Is anyone offended to hear migraine is "Just a headache"?!
Does it infuriate anyone else when someone calls a migraine a "headache"? It didn't bother me in the past, but as I've gotten worse over the last few years, hearing that ignorant reference just grinds every last nerve I have. I can understand if it's a stranger who is completely unaware of the situation, but when family and friends who have seen your ongoing battles with this horrible disease minimize it to "just a headache," it feels like salt in an open wound. Even my own partner, who gets migraines himself, calls them "headaches." I don't yell and scream at people who do this or sit and obsess over it, but in the moment it happens, I can't help seeing red and gritting my teeth while saying, "It's NOT a headache." Am I overreacting or does anyone else take offense to this as well?
I always say no it is a neurological brain dysfunction that causes a whole body experience. I refuse to let people call it a headache. It bothers me when people commenting on this site refer to migraine as headache. We can be our own worst enemies if we use incorrect terminology.
Hi LizShelton,
Yes - you're not alone! We're trying very hard to take the word headache out of migraine disease. Let me share this article with you from Dr. Young, a leading migraine disease and headache disorder expert; https://migraine.com/expert/fighting-for-migraine-with-words/.
Let me know what you think,
Nancy
It bothers me to no end when people call a migraine a headache. I have wondered for a long time if anyone else felt like that. My husband and kids have done that and there is a look that I give them and they know that they said the wrong word. I just switched my PCP due to him not believing that people can have/get migraines and he always likes to downplay migraines to make it out like there headaches.
I "happily" remind them that my migraines are silent -- no pain. I have familial hemiplegic migraines, so it looks like I am having a stroke. I know that I am very fortunate to not have pain, but I still make sure that people know that migraines are not "just a headache".
