Dealing With Headaches

Although there is a lot of truth in a civilizations mythologies, those are not the kind of myths I’m talking about. Here, I’m using “myth” as in “misconception”. And there are certainly a lot of myths about migraines…as there are with just about everything else inthe universe. Here are three migraine myths that maybe you have had to deal with.

#1: A Migraine Is Just A Headache

If I had a Prozac for every time I heard that one…

Although migraines and really bad headaches happen in the same area (the head), a migraine is considered a disease with head pain as the main symptom, while headaches….are headaches. There usually is a direct or sort-of-easily definable reason why you have a bad headache (with the exception of cluster headaches, which seem to be their own species of pain). It’s usually easier to be able to either prevent or treat a bad headache.

However, with a migraine, the cause is difficult to determine and the pain is usually on only one side of the head. Migraines usually have a whole host of other symptoms along for the ride, such as auras, nausea, dizziness and extremem sensitivity to light, sounds and tastes. Despite what you may read elsewhere about contraction and dilation of blood vessels, we do not know physically what happens to the body during a migraine.

#2: Only Crazy People Get Migraines

Sadly, no. Completely sane people can also get migraines. If migraines were always linked to mental disorders, then they might be easier to treat. But that’s not the case. There is a deeply ingrained stigma in our species of anyone who claims to have ANYTHING wrong with their head. The brain is seen as the seat of sanity — so anything out of kilter can make someone wonder if anything ELSE in the brain is out of kilter.

Migraines are often a sympton of PMS/PMT (Pre Menstrual Tension), epilespsy and clinical depression, so that might be why this myth is still alive in our culture.

#3: You Can’t Die From A Migraine

Although I don’t mean to cause panic in the streets (or the virtual streets of the blogosphere), I would be lying through what’s left of my teeth if I said a migraine couldn’t kill you.

Migraines (RARELY) are symptoms of potentially fatal conditions such as a stroke or a coma. People with migraines are 2.2 times as more likely to get a stroke, according to the British Medical Journal.

If you get migraines, please don’t be afraid to go get help. It can take a long time to find good help, but it’s better than not looking at all.