Migraines Also Hurt Families
Did we really need a survey on this? You could ask any migraineur and they will tell you at great length what grudges their families have against them and their migraines. When you get migraines, it is very difficult to plan anything, because you never know when those tiny terrorists in your head will set off the next bomb. So, this means you often have to cancel plans at the very last second due to migraine pain.
Anyway, there was a survey done by Merck on how migraines impact families. And — surprize, surprize — it made for lots of anger, disappointment and tension within the family.
The MAXALT Survey
Merck, the makers of MAXALT or Maxalt (rizatriptan benzoate), were the ones who put out and funded the survey. They just stuck it up on their website and after a while, gathered the results up and figured out all of these neat percentages, such as:
- 50% of migraineurs develop depression and thoughts of suicide
- 61% said that their migraines “made life difficult for their families”
- 68% said that they had to take time off of work due to migraines (why is this number so low?)
- 90% of migraineurs claimed that they feared getting a migraine while driving
The Practical Upshot
The practical upshot of this study is that kids and significant others are spoiled. Perhaps their whining is the reason we get so many migraines in the first place. Or perhaps it’s getting hit in the head one too many times form the various soccer balls, ballet shoes or other paraphenalia from the kids’ activities that seem to be an essential part of modern parenting. If you really loved your family member with migraines, you wouldn’t try to make them feel guilty about something they really have no control over.
Having one or both parents with migraines can teach valuable life lessons to kids. They learn that life is full of disappointments and the sooner they adapt to sudden changes in plans, the better off they will be. The kids can also learn lessons of empathy for someone other than themselves. Well, the kids can learn. It’s usually too late for the significant other to learn.
Hopefully, though, this new study will help support governments around the world to make migraine treatments more of a priority — and to make families with a migraineur in them to be more tolerant.
November 13th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
I am very Blessed as my 21 year old son understands. My husband does not, in fact he doesn’t want any facts on migraines, he tells me he doesn’t need to know! So I do not tell hom when I do have one and just try to go on with the things I need to get done in my life myself. My son helps when he is around though, he will make a great husband!