Write About Your Migraine Experience: Prompt 1

By Lisa Robin Benson

1 min read

Migraine disease can be very isolating, and sometimes it's hard to describe your experience. Well, creative writing can help! In this series, I'll share some inspiration, and give a new writing prompt in each video.

Let's get writing!

This is the first of many prompts to inspire you to write about your experience with migraine, either as someone with the condition or as a caregiver. I'm starting these in the New Year since many people want to start new habits, and maybe some of you want to write more!

Come join us!

Writing by Sarah Murray-Cooper is taken from Artists Against Migraine Facebook page.

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.

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April.Sluder Moderator
As a big fan of journaling, I love this. It has helped me get through some very difficult times. I love to encourage others to give it a try. April - <a href='https://migraine.com' target='_blank'>Migraine.com</a> Team 
1. Lisa Robin Benson Moderator & Contributor
 <inline-mention username="April.Sluder" user-id="3673371"/> Thanks! Journaling has been very helpful for me so I'm happy to share!
BeccaM Member
Chronic by BeccaM Frustration, fog brain, canceling plans again. Depression, close the curtains, shunning the sun. People think you're shirking, another med stops working. Too much sound, too much light, nothing smells or tastes right. Go to bed, turn out the lights,, maybe I'll be better tomorrow. Good night. 
1. Lisa Robin Benson Moderator & Contributor
 <inline-mention username="BeccaM" user-id="4550005"/> I feel this! Thank you so much for sharing! <3
2. Holly Harding Moderator & Contributor
 <inline-mention username="BeccaM" user-id="4550005"/> I love this. So relatable and true and beautifully composed. Thank you for sharing. - Holly (migraine.com team).
sismo Member
PROMPT The migraine is never on time. It shows up unannounced. It meanders on its way. It comes too soon and lingers too long. The house is a mess. The host is a mess. The feelings are out of control. Frantic. Doomed. This uninvited... guest? Horrible roommate? Undesirable family member? Is it me? Whatever. Whenever. However. Whoever. WHYEVER?! Who knows? I know Migraine. I wish I didn't.
1. Holly Harding Moderator & Contributor
 <inline-mention username="sismo" user-id="3824492"/> This is fabulous. I love the question "is it me?" This is something with which we all struggle so deeply. Is this condition a part of us, inside of us, apart FROM us, attacking us from the outside? The way we picture this...thing...can do a lot to the way we handle it emotionally. I choose to picture it as something outside of myself that visits me on a daily basis that I try to make peace with. What you wrote shows this struggle with outside/inside viewpoint. I'm glad you shared it. Thanks for taking the time. Warmly- Holly <a href='https://-migraine.com' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer ugc'>-migraine.com</a> team.
azreynolds Member
<inline-mention username="Lisa Robin Benson" user-id="3807475"/> , Yes, writing about our experiences helps deal with the frustration of migraine. I share my experiences not only here, but also on My Migraine Team. Recently Melissa Arnold asked me to write about my new binasal occlusion glasses and post it here. I finally finished that story, but need to do one more proof reading. But in process of telling about my story about the success with the glasses, I felt I needed to explain my head injury since it was the beginning cause of my migraines. I found it's very therapeutic to go through that long history of nearly 60 years with migraine. It made me realize that "No, I'm not a baby! I'm a warrior!"
1. Melissa Arnold Community Admin
 <inline-mention username="azreynolds" user-id="3677307"/> I'm excited! No rush at all. <3 -Melissa, <a href='https://migraine.com' target='_blank'>migraine.com</a> team
2. azreynolds Member
 <inline-mention username="Melissa Arnold" user-id="3827796"/> , <inline-mention username="Holly Harding" user-id="3755969"/> , I finished the story about binasal occlusion glasses (BNO). I guess at this point we just wait(?). <inline-mention username="rachel20" user-id="3873727"/> , Binasal occlusion glasses are simply lens with a clear tape patches or nail polish painted on the middle of your lens by the nose piece. These patches interrupt the images your eyes send to your brain, slowing them down so your brain can better interpret what you are seeing. So simple, but so effective! They are using BNOs to help TBI, cerebal palsy and concussion patients with seeing and balance issues. There's not been any research published on using BNO for migraine, but my migraines went from 24-28 migraine days per month down to only 12, so it's definitely working for me.
hungrybus Member
Chronic, unpredictable, inconsistent. 3 words to describe mine. Lives with me for at least 6 years. Can occur in most unsuitable situations. Can leave me alone for 3 months and then get triggered once every week and give mild to severe symptoms. Literally untreatable. Since I have a depression (might be because of migraine, might be something else), I have to take antidepressants (SSRI). This means that triptans, used to treat migraines, are not an option for me, since severe serotonine syndrome might be as bad as it sounds. Writing this after "recovery" of severe case with ER called several hours before - magnesium sulfate did the job, surprisingly. 
1. Holly Harding Moderator & Contributor
 <inline-mention username="hungrybus" user-id="3912281"/> Thank you for sharing your three words with us. Powerful- and illustrates how we often feel cornered by our condition. We have a condition that occurs out of nowhere- and treatment options we cannot take unless we go to the ER? How untenable! And your situation is unfortunately reflective of so many others. Glad you shared as it makes the rest of us feel less alone- more seen and connected. Regardless of how ridiculous it is that we must go to the ER for relief, I'm sure glad you DID find relief there and are feeling better. Thanks again for chiming in. Warmly- Holly <a href='https://-migraine.com' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer ugc'>-migraine.com</a> team
msprague Member
It is difficult to feel buzzy and have fatigue Do I just stay in the house and read? If not breathing hard it is difficult to resigne To stay in the house and be fine. It is dificult to feel weak, To not be abke ti breath or to be at your peak, Not be able to get up and go You must stay in and take it slow The tiredness, the breathlessness, the buzziness, you hope will receeed, That your energy will return with speed Until that begins, I take it slow my friend, This to shall pass, it will end. 
1. Holly Harding Moderator & Contributor
 <inline-mention username="msprague" user-id="3706958"/> love this. you capture the challenge of energy drain- the weirdness of migraine and its symptoms- and the patience involved in awaiting the return of balance and resurgence energy. the importance of pacing while waiting, too. nicely composed. thank you for sharing! Warmly- Holly <a href='https://-migraine.com' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer ugc'>-migraine.com</a> team
rorozco4 Member
 Tra la la, the alarm sounds. Time to wake up! But wait, I have a visitor in my head. I hear him knocking. "I can't let you in,"I declare politely. I have things to do; people depending on me. The knocking continues. I hear a voice, "Your ear is so red!" The house shakes with his persistence. The noise is dense and penetrating . I try to yell passionately for him to leave. But I have no voice. I am helpless. I want to weep with frustration, but My tears cannot fall without a collapse of mountains. With heart now pumping defeat through me I allow my visitor command of my domain. "I have let you in, " I sigh, "so please settle down." The visitor just laughs. 
1. Holly Harding Moderator & Contributor
 <inline-mention username="rorozco4" user-id="3746992"/> whoa. This is so powerful. the powerlessness we all have felt when we fall to our knees and bow to the almighty migraine after protesting with all our might. An awful feeling to sense our plans slipping through our fingers - not knowing how long the disruption will last. leaving us feeling so small and out of control. beautifully written. Thanks for sharing. Warmly- Holly <a href='https://-migraine.com' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer ugc'>-migraine.com</a> team
msprague Member
Love this!!
BobbyJohnson Member
When is last call? Constant pulsing as if my head is the bass line in a club. A sharp pin pricks the space between my eyes as if I’m being examined by a tailor. Loud noise increases the bass line and makes it tough to focus. Laying down in a quiet room helps but the bass line proceeds. Eventually the bass line fades as the final patrons begin to file out of the club, and the prodding concludes. 
1. Rebecca C Moderator
 Really great imagery there, <inline-mention username="BobbyJohnson" user-id="3686511"/> Hoping the bass player takes a vacation to Cuba, and you get some time away from the constant pulsing. *trumpet toot* Best of wellness always - Rebecca (comm advc)
susanmitchell Member
Wondering why this is happening to me. Yet. Again. Although after 25+ years, I know it will come back. What did I do wrong to make it happen again. As if I don’t expect it to? First, I can’t sleep the night before, I wake up in the night with symptoms but am too lazy to get up and take an abortive or just hoping it will go away. Sounds too loud, light too bright, food too much to think about though I know I need protein. It encompasses my entire head if it goes on too long. My migraines last days- sometimes a week or more.
silver Member
I love snow. So when my world was blanketed two feet deep, and drifts pillowed against every tree, I went for a wild walk in it. I was an old woman, in years, but not in body. The body was reliable and strong. My life was rugged, unspoiled, primitive but healthy. Any comforts I provided myself; the stove, the log fire, fuelled by persistent work from the first dawnings of Spring until the first leaves fell, every year. My daily habit was the healthiest food which I knew gave me strength and kept illness away from me. So when those scintillating lights flickered and sparkled at the base of the Oak tree that snowy day, I laughed like an enchanted child at their bevelled-glass figures and patterns, watched them spread and spike into pointed star-like formations. Snow blindness perhaps. I chided myself for walking in a whiteout for miles without shading my eyes. but was sure no harm would be done. I wasn't far from home. On the seventeenth day, a miasma came. It arrived at two thirty in the afternoon as I ran logs through the splitter. It didn't come with hammer and tongs, it came creeping. It came twinging, like a worm nibbling in the caverns behind my eye. My heartbeat dropped and lurched, and my stomach joined its alarm call. Hands and limbs trembled with an exhaustion I had never known. Tears wanted to rise but stuck at my throat, as the movement of my neck was a marionette beyond my will, in slow motion, trying to shake them off in an uncontrolled leftward glide. All the sweetest thoughts that had communicated between heart and thought were snuffed out and I could not find them. That caused me the greatest sorrow as uncut logs tumbled to my feet. The miasma took everything with it. My world darkened at two thirty in the afternoon with this unnamed alien invasion of my body. It never went away. Doctors told me I was well. Their scientific tests told them so, and the shapeshifting nature of this creeping sickly thing that knocked me to my knees and made me unable to eat one healthy thing, was not typical, they said. Therefore the miasma remained unlabelled for a long time. I could never quite tame it, but as time passed I found glimmers of life in the spaces between it and the present moment of my Self. Sometimes light shone through, for an hour, for a day, and even perhaps for a week. The eye of the storm. I clung to the hope of many eyes of many storms, and the glimpses of blue skies.
migrainesuz Member
Why? Why me? Why again? The thumping. The pressure. The exhaustion. The shrilling noise in my ears. Anxiety kicks in as I try to come to terms with these feelings. Will they pass by in a fleeting moment or are they here to stay? Will things start spinning? Will my eye sight diminish? Will the meds be a helper or hinderer? Will I vomit this time, or just sit with the nausea for a while? So many questions and no one, but the Migraine, is here to answer them. I can’t anticipate the outcome but don’t want to participate, either.
Melissa Arnold Community Admin
Lisa, I LOVE this idea and the amazing talent from our community here. Writing is my favorite thing -- such a therapeutic way to express myself. I'll be following this series with interest. 😀 -Melissa, <a href='https://migraine.com' target='_blank'>migraine.com</a> team
rcmeacham Member
Writing about migraine is indeed a valuable practice. For several years I had a migraine blog. Putting the whole migraine experience front and center was a challenge that at first allowed me to come out of the closet and quit pretending, to lay it all out to anyone who cared to look at the messy display. It gave me a subject for my art and prompted me to sit down and draw on a regular basis. Ultimately it led to a level of acceptance of chronic migraine and with that - the choice to let the blog go and write and do art about other parts of my life. Migraines are still with me, but I’ve learned to surrender to the low-down times and shift my focus happily elsewhere throughout the highs.