The Mindful Migraine

As an Australian, it seems a bit hit and miss what news we receive from other countries around the world. Some things that appear in my news feed appear “brand new” to me, but turn out to have been around for a while.

For example, the Headache Alliance is “a nonprofit organization [in the US] focused on promoting education, research, advocacy and awareness for the 40 million Americans living with migraine and other Headache Disorders”. They’ve been doing great work for many years. On the other hand, the campaign they’re supporting for Migraine Awareness Month this June seems new. The aim was to install thousands of flags to visually demonstrate the number of people living with migraines in the US.

The project website is: flagsforheadache.org

One of the other ‘new’ things for me, was the name of an American actress; Bellamy Young. [I don’t watch a lot of TV – so not recognizing her name is a reflection on me – not her!]

[Image source: Events & Press – flagsforheadache.org]

Ms Bellamy Young is a migraine patient and advocate for the condition, lending her support to the Flags for Headache installation. Not knowing about her story, I went looking for clues about her life lived with migraine…

Turns out most of the news I could find about her relationship with migraine is nearly ten years old. There were several articles from 2016 and 2017 describing her experiences, and whilst they are “out of date” – they still ring true to me, so I thought I’d share some of the points that popped out to me in my reading.

Migraines have been a part of Ms Young’s life since she was a teenager.  “I can’t remember life without them,” she tells BrainAndLife.org. Worse still, because she didn’t realize that her symptoms (including “blinding pain on the left side of her head, sensitivity to light and odors, and nausea”) were part and parcel with migraine, she hid them away and it took years to get a diagnosis. Without a label, there was no medication or treatment options, and as she puts it, “I became a professional at lying in bed waiting for the pain to pass.”

Over time, Ms Young says that rather than get on top of the migraines, they got on top of her, and she began to turn down social engagements to reduce the chance of getting sick. Soon, she felt as if she was either sick, or anticipating the next bout of sickness. She did her best to look for what might be triggering her nameless attacks, and avoid those triggers. She also “experimented with acupuncture and aromatherapy and modified her diet”, and to this day still “avoids red wine, orange juice, and foods with acid.”

The first doctor she went to for a diagnosis suggested the symptoms sounded like a “ladies’ problems” even though her attacks were unrelated to menstruation. It was when she sought a second opinion, that a doctor recommended a medication which included a combination of triptans and anti-inflammatory prescription medicine.

The medicine worked and life became more manageable. [Hooray!]

Womans Day includes Ms Young’s description of an attack; “When a migraine comes on, mine sort of starts in my left eye and takes my vision down, and then smell and sight. I just have to go to sleep for the day and reset.” She notes that the times in between migraine attacks are often just as stressful as the migraines – worrying about whether you’ve had enough sleep or water, or if you’ll lose more time off work. This worry then becomes stress which then risks triggering a whole new migraine.

To help her minimize her migraines, Young advocates walking for exercise, and mediating before bed (“I don’t like to take the detritus of the day into my dreams.”) Her third approach is singing; she finds it very cathartic.

In an article on The Cut, Ms Young notes, “I find that a little consistency in my lifestyle, hydration, sleep, and meditation help stave off my migraines.” On discovering a medication that helped her, she felt “liberated” as she could stop the pain before she lost a whole day. Importantly, she states that “taking consistent good care of yourself,” is a central approach to minimizing migraines, but adds, “that’s not always possible in this day and age. We drive ourselves so hard, but the more we’re aware of how our lifestyle choices impact our health, I think the better we’ll all be.”

Here’s her Instagram page and post about the flag initiative: Instagram

It makes me sad that it took so long for her to get a diagnosis, and that she was originally dismissed by her first healthcare provider. I’m thrilled though that she was able to find a medication option that worked well in combination with her lifestyle changes.

Whilst some of her triggers and symptoms sound similar to mine, others are a bit different – it’s a reminder that there are overlaps AND variations between migraine patients and their conditions – and a suggestion about why it is such a tricky condition to treat; there really is no one size fits all option for every patient.

That said, hydration, exercise, sleep, mindfulness and keeping track of your triggers are a repeat theme with almost everyone that I meet or read about.

Keep up the good work everyone – whether you’re helping advocate for others, or for yourself, whether you’re feeling better all the time, or still trying to understand your diagnosis… we’ve got this – every step we take is a step in the right direction.

Take care taking care you awesome people,

Linda xox

PS – if you’re new here, there’s a free trigger tracker you can download and use on my RESOURCES page, as well as PDF templates for those of you who are trying to implement a healthy lifestyle routine (regardless of whether you have chronic pain or not).