syrinx

When I was 19, my doctor told me that if I didn't smarten up, I would "will myself into a wheelchair". This is not fabricated or embellished in any way. She really did say that. It's now many years later and what strikes me about it is how irresponsible that comment was on the part of a medical professional. Even though little was known about migraine in those days, what good could possibly come from such a statement? What would this remark do to improve my life? Was it a scare-tactic, or perhaps some variation of "tough love"? No matter how you look at it, this doctor said something that is first of all impossible, and is also insulting and potentially dangorous. Migraine can be a symptom of Multiple Sclerosis (MS). The unfortunate scenario she suggested could actually be the outcome for someone with head pain. And that would mean the MS was the patient's fault—according to this doctor.

She was wrong, and I knew it back then. I was fortunate in having two amazing parents who raised me in an environment of critical thinking. They pointed out that experts can fail, officials can make mistakes, doctors can misdiagnose illness, and that, unfortunately, some innocent people are wrongly convicted of crimes. By the time I was 19, my father had died, so I only had his teaching to fall back on. My mother—who is the original rebel with a million causes—is doing just fine and continues to inspire me. But my critical thinking got me through those rough years when I would hear such useless comments as this. What I don't understand is how anyone could arrive at such a ridiculous conclusion: the willing of oneself into a wheelchair. No matter what the time period or the instruments available for diagnosis, this is absurd.

Not everyone who has migraine has a supportive family that encourage critical thinking. Most go along with whatever the "experts" tell them. If you don't, you are being difficult, and that proves you don't want to be well.

I will say this: we are living in better times, but not yet the best of times. We still have pressure coming from sources over which we have little control. Television commercials advertise "Advil for Migraine", which is a little like "Advil for Cancer" or "Advil for Heart Failure". What this means is that people with tension headaches take the Advil and claim it worked on their migraine—which they didn't have in the first place. As I've said before, migraine is a throw-away term that is abused by advertisers to make bad headaches sound worse than they are. In fact they are not treating migraines, but these advertisements equalize what we have with what everyone else has. And you can take my word for it: this is not the case. A headache—no matter how bad—is not a migraine. Adverstisers can be very evil this way. Their tactics dilute the serious nature of our illness, while "wimpifying" the discomfort of those with occasional aches and pains. If anything, the advertisers contribute to willing their audience into wheelchairs. All the while, we migraineurs push onward despite our very real pain.