The Migraine Brain
Warning: This is a crappy drawing!
Helloooo and welcome to the 15 new Brainees that have joined us since my last post. Also, many thanks and apologies to those of you who recently had to endure promotional emails from “me.” These were actually sent by Substack on my behalf without my knowledge, and I have now turned them off.
About halfway between one essay and the next, I usually post a crappy drawing. It’s my attempt to distract you from the fact that it’s taking me so darn long to write something. But be warned! I’m not actually an artist. So, if YOU are a real artist, or you’re on the fence about continuing to read this newsletter…maybe skip this post and wait for the next essay. But if you want to give your brain a break from intelligent content, read on!
Speaking of brains, today’s drawing is in honor of Migraine Awareness Month, aka June. I’m *sure* everyone knew about Migraine Awareness Month already, so I’m just reminding those of you who forgot that you should BE AWARE OF MIGRAINES. You never know when they might sneak up on you and ruin your life. They’re worse than meter maids on street cleaning day. Plus, some studies have shown that awareness of migraines is 99.9% effective in preventing migraines1.
Anyway, what I want to make you aware of during Migraine Awareness Month is the concept of “The Migraine Brain.” It’s a term that’s used a lot amongst migrainey people to describe how a brain affected by migraine disease (Migraine being the most common neurological disease) is different from a “normal” brain. Though Migraine is a largely invisible malady, the changes it works on the brain are real and observable with functional MRIs. When migraines become chronic, as mine are, some of the effects on the brain become permanent, meaning that chronic migraine sufferers are dealing with varying degrees of neurological nonsense all of the time.
Because this newsletter, Oops, My Brain, is actually named for the phenomenon of migraine brain, I figured I’d better draw you a little map of what day-to-day life with a migraine brain feels like. It’s done in white-on-black because that’s easier for migraine brains to read.
So, the next time you find a typo in one of my posts, or you wonder why I thought it was a good idea to open an essay with a fifty-seven-word run-on sentence…it’s just my brain, raising awareness of migraines.
Stay alert, my friends! Don’t let a migraine catch you unawares.
This is totally not true.
Lol Natalie, as always, this made me giggle despite the fact that migraines are a shit storm. You forgot "shit storm" on your map. But I loved all the other destinations you mentioned. Almost sounds like a vacation if you're a cup-half-full kind of person 🤣
In other news, I had no idea migraine awareness month was a thing! June is also National Rebuild Your Life month...I was more heavily focused on that.
And finally, I feel guilty admitting this to you because you've probably tried it without success, but have you ever been given the Sumatriptan/Naproxen treatment combo? This was a brand new prescription for me and I had the opportunity to use it on a migraine morning recently. It was like some kind of witchcraft!!! Within about 30 minutes all traces of migraine were gone. The only side effect I experienced was tiredness but that beats pain ANY day.
I've spent most of my life suffering from migraines. I only discovered my migraines were from a misaligned bite, that was 7 years ago. I also have temporal mandibular disorder, lock jaw and arthritis. The TMJ joint is one of the least researched joints, even though so many people suffer from this painful condition (temporal mandibular joint disorder) Thanks for sharing your post.