Influenced to Try a Face Massager for Migraine

I got influenced. Social media has my number and got me good. I’d been feeling frustrated by my current healthcare team and plan. I asked for medical advice and was told I had to wait over a month for my regularly scheduled appointment. When I went in, they prescribed me a new maintenance medication but the prior authorization still hasn’t gone through, despite them promising me they sent it. I had a lot of work to do and was feeling like I was about to have a perfect storm of situations that might lead me into a bad migraine patch.

How was the face massager advertised?

I had a stressful, busy work event coming up and knew I’d be maxing out my rescue meds unless I got very lucky. I kept getting shown ads for these face massagers. I’ve fallen prey to influencing before, with mixed results. Those eco-friendly shoes hurt my feet. The “best t-shirt ever” really was the best t-shirt I’d ever had. I was dubious about the efficacy of a face massager that promised to reduce eye strain and headaches. But I had eye strain and headaches. And it was almost my birthday.

What happened when I tested it out?

When the eye mask arrived, I lay down, fully expecting to hate it. I was dubious about it as a migraine cure because it was heat-based and I’d always used cold on migraines. I could turn the heat off, though. The vibration setting was a bit too rough, but I kept the heat and the pressure up high and also turned on the repetitive, meditative music. I rather enjoyed the twenty-minute massage.

Saturday rolled around and I was over it. My kids were fighting and we were rushing around. I told them I was “taking a calm down” and put on the mask. My child came in and interrupted me no less than three times during the twenty minutes, but I did still feel more relaxed after. Monday, after a busy weekend, I could feel the brain fog setting in. My computer screen started to get blotches and I knew I was minutes away from falling down a migraine rabbit hole. I marched myself to bed and used the eye mask. Then I went outside and got some fresh air. I didn’t get a migraine. Psychosomatic? I wondered. But I was happy to be headache free.

Did the face massager really work for migraine?

If nothing else, the chance to sit quietly in the dark without opening my eyes to check the time, look at a screen, or scan my space for tasks probably made the most help. The eye mask only works for twenty minutes and then shuts itself down, so, after the massage, I could fall asleep or get up and get back to my day. It wasn’t a huge sacrifice to take twenty minutes out of my work from home day in order to relax. Why wasn’t I doing this already? My therapist had long been asking me to meditate, but I hated it. I’d gone to acupuncture but it was getting expensive and hard to schedule. But the at-home comfort of a one-time purchase made the little break seem possible. It’s a bigger lesson, here. I should take micro breaks, should force myself to look away from one screen or another more often. If the face mask does “work” as it advertises it does, great. But if the reason it works is that it gets me to take a break, then I’d say it was worth the money.