One of the most misunderstood and overlooked issues with Migraines is this...
Migraines can and do kill!
I've seen people say, "Yes, I know Migraines can be painful, but come on, a Migraine never killed anyone. There's even a psychologist I know who tells patients that Migraines don't kill because she doesn't want to upset or panic them.
Today, it's time to state the sad truth that Migraines can and do kill. It's not the Migraine attack itself that can kill, but that doesn't make the deaths any less attributable to Migraine disease and Migraine attacks.
Possibly the least direct impact Migraine has on life and death is that it increases the risk of stroke, heart attack, and cardiovascular disease. Greater than 1400 more US women with Migraine with aura
die annually from cardiovascular diseases compared to women who do not have Migraine.*
Migraines can also precipitate Migrainous strokes, which can be fatal. I've know this to happen with more than one Migraineur I knew, including a young woman who had a second Migrainous stroke just days before her 21st birthday, and the second one was fatal.
Possibly the saddest and most needless of all, Migraine can and does put people to the point of suicide. Based on a sample of Americans, suicide attempts are three times more likely in individuals with migraine with aura compared to those with no migraine, whether or not major depression is also present.*
This weekend, a bright young woman took her life because she'd lost hope of improvement in her Chronic Migraines. In my book, Migraines killed this young woman. Not a doubt in my mind.
To my fellow Migraineurs - Please, please, please don't ever give up. Keep partnering with your doctor to explore Migraine preventive / management options. If your doctor is out of ideas, I'll work to help you find one who isn't.
To doctors and other health care professionals - Please tell your patients the truth. Think about it this way - If you tell them that Migraine can't kill and they discover that it can, what can that do to their trust in you and other health care professionals?
I don't want to frighten people, but it's important that we recognize that Migraine and it's impact can indeed kill. If we don't admit this and talk about it, how can we work to keep it from happening?
Over the weekend, a 22-year-old young woman took her life because she'd lost hope of her chronic Migraines ever getting better. Migraine disease took this young woman's life. We MUST recognize this issue and endeavor to prevent these tragedies.
* Alliance for Headache Disorders Advocacy. "Fact Sheet." 2010.
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© Teri Robert, 2013
Last updated June 10, 2013.
Migraines, Support, and Unnecessary Rudeness
The Internet provides us with more opportunities to give and receive support than ever before, which can significantly improve our health and our quality of life.
There are, however, unique problems with online communication and groups formed for support. There are two that tend to raise their ugly heads with increasing frequency:
Let me give you an example...
Because of the work I do, people tend to add me to Facebook groups without asking or telling me. I've been getting notifications of posts to one such group for some time now. Yesterday, I went to the group to see what it was and why I'd been added. I clicked on the link to see the list of members and find the group administrator. She wasn't one of my Facebook "friends," but I clicked to go to her Facebook page anyway. She has her privacy settings set so that you can't see what's on her page unless you're FB friend, so I couldn't tell anything about who she is or why she might have added me to the group.
So, I went back to the group and posted, "Why was I added to this group. People shouldn't be added without being asked." Well! That started a firestorm. People thought I was being "snarky," even though I was just asking a simple question, and they quickly posted some incredibly nasty comments to me.
It turned out that the group was an online support group set up to help a young woman who's having severe problems with Migraines. The members who posted so nastily saw their comments as "having her back," and herein lies an enormous problem.
Having someone's back doesn't have to be done by being unnecessarily rude and nasty toward other people. Nor is having someone's back an excuse for such behavior. In fact, it makes the whole group, including the young Migraineur, look really bad. People with Migraine and other headache disorders need to stick together, not tear into each other.
I implore everyone to think twice before saying something rude and obnoxious and consider...
The bottom line is that living with Migraines and headaches is difficult enough. None of us needs extra stress from misinterpreting what other people say or being the target of nastiness and rudeness. So, let's just not do it.
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© Teri Robert, 2013
Last updated May 7, 2013.
Posted by Teri Robert on May 07, 2013 at 12:09 PM in Awareness and Advocacy, Commentary, Migraine Disease, Migraine Support | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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