Skip to Accessibility Menu Skip to Login Skip to Content Skip to Footer

Tell us about your symptom and treatment experience. Take our survey here.

My Life With The Ups And Downs A Migraine Brings

Bine's avatar image

By Bine

1 min read

Hi, my name is Sabine. I am writing from Germany. I am 51 and was diagnosed 40 years ago. I had to stop my career as a language teacher one year ago due to my worsening migraines. As I have a long story to tell, I will split it in several parts.

Part I: Ages 10-19

I don’t remember my first attack, but I remember having terrible stomach aches. Those were so bad that I could not go to school and eventually my parents sent me to the hospital. I stayed for 1 week, but nothing was found. The doctors told my parents I should start a hobby in order to relax. That’s when I started horseback riding. Shortly afterwards my headaches started. After having seen a neurologist, the diagnosis came quickly: migraine without aura.

By providing your email address, you are agreeing to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

I did not have many attacks, maybe 1 per month, which I treated with ginkgo. It helped, or I strongly believed it did. In 1993 I passed my A-levels and started an apprenticeship. After 3 months, my life broke down. I had 1 attack after another. The ginkgo didn’t work anymore and after a month I couldn’t go to work regularly anymore. I tried hard, canceled my complete private life in order to relax as much as possible, but the attacks didn’t stop. I found a neurologist who told me I was suffering from tension headache and who also suggested that I was unhappy with my apprenticeship, my boyfriend (my now husband), and that I should leave my family as they were also responsible for my poor condition. Unfortunately, he wasn’t willing to pay for the needed apartment and so on. ;-)

Leaving work due to migraine

In the end, I had to quit the apprenticeship because of too many absences. I felt like the biggest loser. Everyone around me was successful and happy and all I could do was stay home trying to cope with the pain. My life went on like this for almost a year.

This article represents the opinions, thoughts, and experiences of the author; none of this content has been paid for by any advertiser. The Migraine.com team does not recommend or endorse any products or treatments discussed herein. Learn more about how we maintain editorial integrity here.

Join the conversation

Please read our rules before commenting.