Should You Join a Migraine Forum?
Internet forums centering on one medical condition like migraines are a much less intense version of an internet support group. Support groups can get too personal too fast for some people (like me). Also, you might just have a couple of questions about migraines and don’t necessarily want to go through all of the rigamarole of joining a support group just for answers you can’t Google. How do you pick a migraine internet forum?
Check It Out
It only takes a few minutes to click around a migraine forum to see if it’s worth bothering with. These are the things you are looking out for:
- An active forum: If no one has posted in a couple of days, then you may not get any response to your posts. Move on, Grasshopper.
- That it’s free: There are way too many free migraine forums to bother with a paid forum.
- That conversation is civil: If you click on a couple of threads and only see flaming, screaming and swearing, this is quite possibly not the most supportive community on the net.
- That evil-doers are punished: If any threads ARE full of flaming, screaming and swearing, the admin should be jumping on their backs. If there isn’t any action from the admin, then the forum may degenerate into nothing but a free-for-all.
Some Forums to Check Out
Mayflies are Methuselas compared to the lifespan of many websites, so my apologies if these forums are no longer in existence when you click the link. As of the time of this blogging, they were merrily chugging along.
- Topix Migraine Forum
- MyMigraineConnection’s Migraine Community
- HealingWell.com’s Migraine and Headache forum
- Migrainepage Discussion Forum
- Revolution Health’s Migraine-Headache Community Forum
There are thousands more around the Internet, but these coaught my eye because they were moderated, active and seemed to keep on topic. However (and this is a big however) I have never participated in a migraine or headache internet forum. That’s mainly because I can’t tear myself away from work — it’s not a reflection on any forums in particular.
Remember, the nice thing about internet migraine forums is that you don’t marry any of them. If one starts to bug you, just leave and go somewhere else.
Hope this helps.
September 28th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
I have visited several of these forums. Healingwell.com is mostly people with severe problems looking for help. Mymigraine connection is run by Teri Roberts who is a PhD and very connected in the migraine community..if I could recommend a forum that one would be it.
The Daily Headache is probably the best of the blogs and Kerri does a good job on up to date migraine treatments.