The Stigma and Misunderstanding of Migraines

The face of a migraine sufferer (or me)

Before I started suffering from chronic pain, I thought that a migraine was just a bad headache. I bet a lot of people think that. Migraines are so much more than a bad headache – it’s a whole neurological disease. People with migraines know what a debilitating disease this can be and we are sick of being trivialized.

Kmart is running an ad currently that has a husband and wife taking about surprises with the new Kmart pharmacy. Most of the “surprises” have nothing to do with health issues – for example the husband says to begin how his mother in law was just supposed to visit and then stayed for 30 years. But at one point the wife says in retort that she doesn't have migraines implying that she does have migraines.

Now if the wife was suffering from some other disease like MS, it would be totally taboo for her to say that she doesn't have that disease in jest. For some reason, Kmart and their parent company Sears, doesn't think that migraines are bad enough of a disease that it can be used in this fashion.

Migraines should be considered seriously but obviously they aren't. This makes me angry because I know how hard it can be to suffer from migraines. I end up in tears sometimes because the pain and other symptoms can get so bad. I've also lost several friendships because they think I’m trying to get attention or not as sick as I say I am. I pretty much don’t have any close friends outside of the internet because I don’t get out of the house much.

You can read more about this and even see the ad at migraine.com and you can also go to change.org to sign the petition.