What is the worst thing anyone has or can say to you about migraine?

Someone kept saying this to me, time and time again whenever I said that I have a migraine:
"All you need to do, is to rub some pepermint oil into your forehead - my daughter finds, it gets rid of her migraines straight away. She swears by it."

I usually say nothing to such (and similar) remarks, but one day I was in a bad mood and fed up, so before I could think, I responded:
"Well, I assure you, that if your daughter was helped by rubbing pepermint oil, she did not have a migraine".
She did not like that, but she never mentioned pepermint oil again.

BTW, that strong smell of peperming oil, can actuallytrigger a migraine for me.

stephgood: i liked your answer a lot. been there e.r. done that. i bet collectively we could get a site and create a book for other migraineurs on this subject. the format and style you used was funny and sadly true. i could write a couple of chapters myself in your format and others. i have daily headaches too! thanks for your response.

i do not know if this counts as the worst, it was bad at the time and place. it def. was the weirdest thing anyone ever said to me.
i hope i did not tell you all this already but here goes.

once a past co-worker whispered (more like a stage whisper-loud!) that "the reason you have all these headaches is because you have never done a past life regression. if you could do that, you would find out what happened to you in a previous life or lives and then you would have no more headaches" this was said to me in a room of about 75plus people at my former boss's wake/funeral service!!!!!!! i never spoke to her again.


oy!


rose

Rose, perhaps the best answer to that person would be:
"I know exactly what happened to me in my past life, thank you.
I met a nasty, heartless person like you, and she gave me this horrible headache that is with me to this day".

mini,

thanks so much, i laughed so hard i had to hold my stomach!


rose

re: peppermint oil. i have actually used this for over 30 years, on my forehead and under my nose. to most smells, i am highly reactive, but somehow, not this one. i love the smell and i love to eat peppermint anything, too.

when i've taken all the drugs for a given migraine that i dare take, there's nothing else to try but peppermint oil. i swear to you that it does NOT take away the pain, but is a counter-irritant, so i can start to forget the pain in my head, because my forehead burns so much!

lol, but really, it does seem to help, so i always keep a big bottle of it around. i use NOW brand. i put 30 drops in my hot bathwater, and that seems to rejuvenate me, also. (if i'm strong enough with the pain, to actually undress and get in the bathtub and soak there for awhile.)

don't discount it til you try it, but please please don't let it migrate into your eyes while you are driving. yikes. i've done this multiple times, and have had to pull off the road til the burning subsides.

it burns but does no damage, and in a couple of minutes you can see again! that comes from putting too much on your forehead. a little will do. certainly it's not a miracle, but it does help a few people. dianne

These posts have made me smile and I've had very similar experiences myself.

Recently a work colleague suggested, whilst I was in agony and about to go home, that I should try meditation, that would cure them. Wow, I so wanted to tell her to **** off you ignorant b**** but I was good and just walked away.

It's the complete ignorance that I find so hurtful, cos let's face it anyone who is genuinely interested in my welfare could very quickly understand migraines if they searched the internet for just a few minutes.

Diane, re: pepermint oil.
I was once given some to try, but as soon as I opened the bottle I got "that feeling" a sickness that tells me it I must not come anywhere near it.
Funny I also like mint tea and fresh mint, I even use it in salads, as I grow it myself, but not the oil, it is too intense. The same with Tiger Balm, I tried it but it did nothing for my migraine.

I do understand what you say about it stinging and therefore distracting you from worst pain in your head - when I had those sky-high migraines in the past, I have been actually hitting my head on the wall, quite hard, for the same reason. For that moment I did not feel pain inside my head, it was on the surface, and I was feeling more in contraol of some pain - I was telling myself.

But I would not recommend it. It is miracle I did not do some damage.

Hi All,

Ok, as always you have come through amazingly. I will go through and find the sayings and post the list. Hopefully, we can all laugh about it.

Thanks,
sailing

'have you been tested for allergies?'

'try reducing stress'

'get out and get some exercise'

Let's see…
1) Have you taken Aleve?
2) A headache can't possibly last 5 days!
3) Hey at least it's not a brain tumor!
4) Come on it can't be that bad you're talking!
5) You need to drink chamomile tea and take magnesium.

For those who think a headache is not a sign of a tumor I have news for you. WRONG.
I too figured if a headache was a sign of a tumor then I'd be dead by now. Not so.
If your headaches start in the middle of the night and wake you up, add instant vomiting due to severity of pain and movement, ringing in the ears, then toss in 5 days of that solid once or twice a month for 10 years and you have a brain tumor.
After 10 years, 5 doctors, 2 ER visits, 1 urgent care visit, finally a doctor sent me to a Neurologist who sent me packing to get an MRI after I described my headaches. Low and behold I had a huge pituitary macroadenoma spewing growth hormone, and two others for extra fun. Always get your head checked. No matter what anyone says, be on the safe side and demand an MRI or CT Scan. My tumor was pressing on my trigemenal nerve. About the worst pain I have ever felt. I'd gladly give birth every day than go through another one of those headaches. That is the only way I can explain the severity of the pain.

"You're a drug addict." [by doctors]

"I get migraines, but take Exedrin for Migraines, and that gets rid of it." [from people at work]

"You always have a headache." [from my children]

If you have migraines all the time, how have you managed to hold down a job for 30 years? [by doctors ] (Me: Because I don't want to live on welfare.)

a neurologist told me her teen daughter had migraines & her greatest hope/wish for her was that she didn't get a migraineurs (sp?) personality.

I don't know if this applies or not but.... once when I mentioned to a family member I had a migraine they told me they had heard "migraine" until they was sick of hearing it. That was probably the most hurtful thing anyone ever said to me. I went for months suffering in silence until they kept telling me about a pain they had & I responed to them accordingly.

'there's no pattern and you aren't improving' - husband after he had been (i later discovered) recording my migraines on a spreadsheet for a while to disprove my assertion that they were improving
'so what do you want from me?' - most recent doctor's visit when I tried to discuss my options during a migraine
'don't mind me I'm having a bad day' - same doctor who was not interested in my situation at all
'you need to do something about those' - mother when she became inconvenienced by them [okay so maybe I haven't quite forgiven her for that one]
'it's (a) the cats (b) hayfever (c) sinus (d) stress (e) lack of exercise (f) ' - everyone

I'm tired of being negative about migraines...but I've got another one and frankly, they make me cranky.

-Have you thought that it might be your pillow.
-Did you go to the doctor for a head scan.
-You say you have a migraine all the time.
-you got another headache.

ggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

that was nice to let out some stress in the web.

I've posted this one in the past but to me it was the classic.

I'm at work, really not well, again, and this was said to my husband:

"Hasn't Marion taken her happy pills again today?"

Hubbie doesn't dare tell me who said it!!!

I am just now reading all of these....sad but true sayings.

From my mother who also gets migraines---"You need to calm down, you are too stirred up, no wonder you have a headache."

BTW- I am a calm person who reads all the time and enjoys working in the yard by myself. My mother is always talking and cannot sit still long enough to read.

Again I also get "You always have a headache!" from my kids when they were younger.

About one of my trigger foods. A co-worker said " you might as well eat it because you will get a headache anyways"

Yesterday, my spouse said that I shouldn't read about migraines so much because maybe it makes me worse.....!!!!!

I looked at him dumbfounded and said "I have something inside of me that is getting worse and by reading about migraines is the way that I quelch the fear and regain hope, otherwise, I'm just alone in misery without a chance of getting out. There is no cure and maybe someone has something that can help".

"Well you don't have to get angry" he said. and that ended that conversation.

My pain clinic doctor: Oh, there is no such thing as a migraine. It's all neck pain.
His neck injections have helped, and I do have some cervical malformations and arthritis, but really! No such thing? Geez.

Oh, God there are so many responses now I almost feel bad adding any, but here are a few that come to mind:

1) "You need to get off all the prescription drugs, and go to a "healer", because there are obviously things in your past you aren't dealing with, and until you "purge" these demons (mostly people who have already died, but are somehow haunting me) you'll never get better."

2) (From my former manager) "You need to find a Ukrainian woman from the old country to cook all your food for you" (Nothing against Ukrainians!)

3) "If you would just learn how to RELAX, you wouldn't NEED these migraines to force you to relax. Be nice to yourself, and your NEED for the migraines will diminish". REALLY???

4) (From many people I used to work with/for) "Now that you've been laid off, the migraines will go away, because obviously they are caused by stress" (been laid off almost a year, no change in migraines)

5) This is the best one - "OH MY GOD!!!! How do you live like that? How can you stand having migraines every day? You have to DO SOMETHING RIGHT NOW!!!! What, you've already tried a lot of things? Well, obviously you need to keep trying, there HAS to be a solution for all this - and you're NOT TRYING HARD ENOUGH!"

OK, thanks for letting me vent!

I almost forgot this one....

"We all thought for sure once you got divorced your migraines would get much better or be gone for good!" This coming from a family member who obviously was discussing this with other family members.

And this one...

"Once you go through menopause you will stop getting migraines or they will be reduced" I have to tell you that I have been waiting and nothing has changed! I was actually hopeful on that one.

"It's probably just psychological! Don't be so stressed/sad/busy and it'll all go away."

Enigma are you living in my house? That's exactly the same conversation I have with my husband! And when I get cranky he's always with the "migraines are not an excuse for being rude." Well health is not an excuse for being ignorant if you ask me.

((((((living))))) big hugs

That is why we have each other. The healthy don't want or need to hear about all that really goes on inside. By going here we are doing them a favor. If he really knew my secret thoughts about this disease, being crabby at his comment is letting him off easy.

BIG HUGS to everyone from the Midwest too. This forum has been a life-saver this week. Wish I'd delved into it sooner but, I prolly had a migraine!!

Hmm had quite a few.

1. Have you tried Advil....Tylenol....Aspirin....Excedrin... any other medication.
2. It's just a headache. I don't see a big deal.
3. Oh, I get migraines too, but it doesn't stop me from doing...x, y, or z. (exercise, social activites, etc.)
4. All time worst.... from my FORMER pastor from the PULPIT, Brenda gets migraines because she's sinning. It's got to be a punishment from God.