MIGRAINE INFORMATION - My Several Worlds

Table of Contents

Two Decades of Writing. Sharing Helps Me Out

Migraine – not just a headache.

Migraine is a neurological disease with many painful and incapacitating symptoms. Symptoms include pain, disturbed vision, sensitivity to light, sound and smells, feeling sick and vomiting. It is the sixth most disabling illness in the world. More than 90% of sufferers are unable to work or function normally during their migraine attacks.

As a chronic pain patient suffering from Axial Spondyloarthritis, fibromyalgia, and MECFS, headache activity is a regular part of my life as all three diseases feature migraine and chronic tension type headaches as symptoms.

Note from the author: I’m using dark backgrounds for my images because it’s easier for those of us who suffer from photophobia. Migraine patients know that bright lights can trigger migraine activity. This site is also accessible for my readers. Please click on the wheelchair if dark mode is more suitable to you for reading.

Facts about Migraine

Migraine – not just a headache.
Migraine is a neurological disease with many painful and incapacitating symptoms.
Symptoms include pain, disturbed vision, sensitivity to light, sound and smells, feeling sick and vomiting.
It is the sixth most disabling illness in the world.
More than 90% of sufferers are unable to work or function normally during their migraine attacks.
Migraine is equally disabling in men and women, but it affects three times as many women as it does men.
Migraine activity usually starts at or after puberty. It usually hits adults during their prime and most productive years, but children and seniors are also deeply impacted by it.
Migraine is typically undiagnosed and badly treated in at least 50% of patients. 50% of patients do not consult a physician.
Physicians around the world usually receive minimum education on headache disorders during medical training.
It’s important to treat migraine activity quickly. Untreated attacks typically last from 4 to 72 hours.

Migraine Information & Awareness

Migraine patients know that every month is migraine awareness month, but here are the dates that we usually become more active in raising awareness for this disabling and complex neurologic disease that is a leading cause of disability in people under 50 years of age.

June is our Migraine Awareness Month.

That is when the migraine community is most active in trying to educate and raise awareness about life with migraine.

We have two awareness weeks for Migraine Awareness in September depending on where you live in the world. September 4-10, 2023 is the first week in September that we ‘celebrate’ and yup, I’m late this month because of migraine activity! I intended to publish this page at the beginning of September. Typhoon weather in Taiwan amps up my migraine activity significantly.

Traditionally, the last week in September from the 24th to the 30th is also celebrated. You’ll see more on this page for that week as I get ready to launch this page fully for migraine patients around the world.

Words to describe migraine activity

Having the right words at our disposal to describe migraine attacks to doctors is always useful. Here’s a simple list of words that you can use to help your doctor understand how disabling your migraine activity is. I started creating simple vocabulary lists years ago to help patients use easy words with their doctors in Asia who don’t speak English as a native language.

As it turns out, lists like this are far more useful than you’d think, especially when more and more countries have doctors and medical staff joining the workforce from other countries.

Aching	Band-like	Buzzing
Crushing	Dull	Electric
Exhausting	Jabbing	Jarring
Jolts	Nagging	Nauseating
Pounding	Pressure	Prickly
Pulsating	Sharp	Shock-like
Sickening	Splitting	Stabbing
Sore	Squeezing	Throbbing
Thrumming	Tight	Tingle
Vise-like

Here are some other ways to describe what a migraine can really feel like…

Migraine can include pain, pressure and fatigue or exhaustion that goes far beyond a bad headache. The exhaustion can be so bad, it makes it hard to sit upright even though you haven’t moved.

It’s often compared to a throbbing and relentless ache that never stops. Migraine can feel like a jackhammer in your head. It literally feels like someone is drilling into your brain.

Lights and noise get louder and brighter and thinking becomes harder to do.

Does it feel like your brain is being squeezed in a vise? Hello! That’s a migraine.

Sometimes it feels like your head is too heavy for your neck to support.

Often, you can hear your heartbeat echoing through your brain and skull.

Does any of this sound familiar? Welcome to the Land of Migraine.

Purple is our official color of awareness for migraine and headache disorders.

Finally, as I do with all my resource and landing pages, feel free to check back here as I add more information to this page and built it with further resources and up to date research.