When you live with migraine, sometimes it is frustrating and you feel misunderstood because most people who are not affected by it think it’s just a bad a headache. Doctors who treat migraine disease sometimes do not understand how it impacts patients and will tell us to take Tylenol to feel better. Patients sometimes are left suffering because not all doctors are headache specialists, and it can be hard to find someone who will listen and truly understand the impact migraine has on someone’s life. Doctors sometimes will say things to patients that some people may see as insensitive, which makes it very clear to us that you don’t understand. There are a lot of things I wish doctors could understand about migraine because it would lead to better care and improved mental health. What do I wish doctors understood about migraine? In this post, I am sharing a few things people with migraine disease wish their doctors understood.
It’s not just a bad headache– When you live with migraine disease, sometimes it can be difficult to find someone who will listen to you because it is often believed that migraine is just a bad headache. Migraine is a type of headache, but it’s not just a bad a headache, and it is a neurological disease that causes more than just head pain. If there was one thing people with migraine wish their doctors could understand, it’s that it needs to be treated as a full-body disease, not just head pain. Some people with migraine experience light sensitivity or vomiting during an attack because head pain is not always the first symptom. There are a lot of different types of migraine, some that are more serious than others, and we need to stop treating them as just a headache. Head pain is only one symptom of migraine, and there are so many others that are often overlooked.
You can’t just live with the pain– When I first started experiencing pain from migraine, I struggled to function because the pain was so bad that I could barely get out of bed. My neurologist at the time almost gave up on me and told me I was going to have to live with the pain. I understand that most doctors only treat migraine but don’t understand how it affects patients because if they did they wouldn’t telling patients to live with the pain, Migraine pain needs some kind of pain management because severe pain can cause severe depression and significantly affect someone’s quality of life. Luckily, we were able to find a medication that reduced my migraine pain because if not, I would barely be able to function most days. I wish doctors would be more sensitive and could understand that you can’t just live with severe pain. Severe pain can affect some people’s ability to get a job and doctors often don’t understand that. I understand that doctors sometimes don’t understand why you are in so much pain but telling someone “to live with the pain” is a very insensitive way to say “I don’t know.”
I’ve tried Excedrin– When you go to the doctor with severe migraine pain, the first thing your doctor will probably say is “Have you tried over-the-counter remedies such as Excedrin. Yes, I’ve tried that and the reason I am here is because it did nothing for my pain and it didn’t work. If over-the-counter remedies worked I wouldn’t be at the doctor because prescription-strength pain medication can have a lot of ugly side effects and is always a last resort.
Unmanaged pain can lead to mental illness– Doctors sometimes do not understand the impact severe pain has on someone’s life, and will be very quick to tell us what we are experiencing isn’t real. I wish doctors could understand that unmanaged severe pain can lead to someone getting severely depressed and not want to live anymore. Doctors don’t always see the negative impacts pain has on mental health because if they did, I like to think more doctors would take invisible pain more seriously. People in pain are more likely to become mentally ill than someone who doesn’t experience chronic pain.
You are probably seeing me on a good day– When I go to the doctor to talk about my pain, it is very rare that on the day of my appointment that I will have elevated pain levels. I wish I had experienced increased pain on the day of my appointment because it would be a lot easier for me to explain that to my doctor. Doctors often only see patients a couple of times a year, which is only a small percentage of the time, and you couldn’t possibly know how it impacts me the other ninety-nine percent of the time. People in pain become experts at hiding their pain because not everyone cries endlessly. I think that we could improve care for migraine patients and people in pain in general if doctors took the time to understand how it affected our lives all the time, instead of only focusing on what I am feeling at that specific moment. Pain can change on a daily basis and you are probably seeing me on a good day because my pain never wants to flare when I am at the doctor.
My pain is not caused by anxiety– When you have an invisible illness such as migraine disease, sometimes you will be dismissed by doctors and told you are just anxious and to see a therapist. My migraine pain gives me anxiety because you never know when your next attack will be, but my migraine pain is not caused by anxiety. People in pain have more anxiety than those without pain because sometimes we are not listened to by doctors, but it’s not in my head and treating anxiety will not make my migraine pain go away.
People with who live with pain, depend on their doctors to help them have less pain but when you tell someone to live with the pain you are not helping us but harming us I understand that doctors don’t have the answers to everything and don’t expect my doctors to understand pain they have never experienced but I do expect them to listen to patients because there are some things school can teach you. Doctors are experts on treating medical conditions but patients will always know their body better than you ever will. Listen to patients because there is nothing worse than not being believed and feeling like you have to prove your pain. Migraine is invisible but the pain is still very real even if you struggle to see it because not all pain will have visible symptoms. What do you wish your doctor could understand about migraine pain? If you liked this post, please leave a comment below and share it with your friends.
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