To think my friend has never had a proper migraine and has no idea what she's talking about?

[Sleepswithbutterflies]

I had to cancel on a friend last week due to migraine. Friend was a bit snippy about which I get - it's annoying when plans are cancelled at short notice. She said when she has a migraine she just takes a couple of paracetamol and carries on as normal.

Ha ha ha. The migraine I experienced last week affected my vision, speech, balance and caused loss of feeling in one side of my body. I was sick over and over and over again and at one point dh contemplated phoning an ambulance. Paracetamol? Ha ha ha. I don't get them often but when I do they're a force to be reckoned with. Even now my head still feels bruised and I'm sensitive to the light. No way could I have gone anywhere, driving would have been a bad idea. At one point I couldn't remember my own house number.

Aibu to think she actually has never experienced a real migraine because if she had she would have a bit more sympathy than 'take a couple of paracetamol and carry on as usual.'

Yanbu my friend does exactly the same or doesn't understand why I mightn't want to exacerbate a headache by drinking as I live in fear of it turning into a migraine.

People do like to pin serious medical conditions on everyday if mildly painful occurrences.

I suffer from severe motion sickness (I am quite 'sicky' anyway - had awful sickness in both pregnancies) but the number of people who think I should just take a pill. Oh, if only I'd thought of that!

My late brother was dreadful for this.

Cold = flu
Bad cold = pneumonia
Feeling slightly sick = pester the doctor . Tell everyone you are ill and something is going round (even if it's a hangover!)
Pain in tooth = ulcer, agony.
Headache = migraine
Slightly loose bowel movement = dirorea (can't spell it!)

Pain in the arse = him.

Yanbu. Migraines make me contemplate cutting my head off. If a limb hurt that much, I'd do it!

Just wanna say though, since i started my newest (tricyclic) antidepressants 2 years ago, i've only had ONE! :)

YANBU.

I've only had one migraine and it was horrific. I was almost vomiting with the pain and couldn't open my eyes or speak. What your friend has is a headache.

Beyond, which is that? I have to get control of mine. I take nortryptiline but I still get them regularly.

Yanbu. A friend commented in fb she was decorating and her and another friend were chatting and decorating friend said she had a stinking migraine. I thought no you don't not if your face booking and decorating.
I don't get migraines as often as I used to but a bad headache is not a migraine.
Some people just seem tonesbtbyo make out they are more I'll than they are. Just don't get it. Why wish things on yourself.

YANBU. If paracetamols sort out out her headaches, she isn't having migraines. With a migraine, your digestion shuts down and pills like that do nothing at all - other than, in my case at least, to make me vomit.

I don't think anyone understands the true pain of a migraine until they've actually had a full blown one with nausea/vomiting/ auras and the head splitting pain.
I'm currently trialling various drugs to try and reduce how many I have. Oh such fun.

Lougle, its lofepramine :)

I wouldn't wish a migraine on anyone.
I'm limited with what I can take as we are ttc (and failing but you never know) and thank god only get them occasionally. Having them frequently must be entirely debilitating.

After 12 hours of it I wanted to die. It worse than labour, acute appendicitis or breaking your leg. I'd suffer all of those over an hour of migraine.

I tend to fix these sort of people with a dead eye stare and say, "well yes of course if I made the effort over the drooling, slurring, visual disturbances, constant vomiting and inability to stand then maybe I could carry on as normal" with a headtilt

Anyone who calls a migraine a headache has never actually had one.
They're thankfully pretty rare for me these days but they can knock you it for days

I get humungous three day headaches on a regular basis that only respond to me taking Migraleve. I'm not sure whether they are migraines because I can carry on, but am clearly under par.

You have my sympathy because it must be awful for something like this to completely take over your life.

I get irritated when people say they have flu but managed to struggle into work. No they don't have flu. If they did they wouldn't have been able to get out of bed.

Dunno about the decorating though, youmake, i once worked for half a shift in mcdonalds with a migraine coming, at the sort of sore eyes stage - popping up to the toilet to throw up, as they were short staffed and wouldnt let me go home when it was only "coming" (i was about 17 and less vocal than i would be now). It wasnt at the ridiculously painful stage til i got home.

YANBU. I've only ever had two migraines in my whole life. I'm impressed you could even text or phone your friend to tell her you were cancelling. They were absolutely horrible.

I get headaches sometimes and whilst I am fairly intolerant of them they are nothing to do with migraines.

for people who get lots of migraines.

YANBU, I had frequent migraines from 8-20years, it was hellish & severely impacted my life & schooling. I've just been to the doctors & was advised they are likely to come back when I go through the menopause. I genuinely could cry, I can't go back to living with them. Has anyone else experienced this?

I used to have trouble with people not understanding my food problems associated with migraines....having dinner at a good friends and she was going to cook lasagne...I asked if she could use mild cheese (ok with that) I would even go and buy her some....she said she was ok and had some...when we got there (starving and really looking forward to it) she said that she'd used strong cheese and only a little red wine....that would be ok wouldn't it? I could scrape the top off? I had salad....I try not to do anything that would trigger a migraine...I have been in bed for 3 days, sick and would have cut my head off if I could have raised it from the concrete pillow.....I don't have many now but am still very careful what I eat and try not to get too tired or stressed....

I did it as soon as my vision went weird. I knew what was going to happen!

I've had a few recently that have wiped me out for three days at a time, I think mine can be triggered by hormonal fluctuations. My DH had to come home from work because I wasn't capable of being in charge of the kids and was slurring my speech.

If there's no aura or nausea I can soldier on to a certain point, but really there's nothing you can do but go to bed.

It is difficult because some people use the word migraine as synonymous with headache, and it is then hard to get people to understand the difference.

There are degrees of migraines though. I get the aura and feeling queasy but often get just a mild throb in the head after rather than a proper headache. Obviously I know I'm lucky but your friend might not realise there are different degrees of migraine.

I used to get migraines in childhood but, mercifully, grew out of them.

Even the most debilitating adult headache I've had has not been anywhere the same league as a migraine.

Your friend was definitely being unreasonable. I think most people understand that migraines can be very debilitating. I will say though that I get mild migraines. I really do. I get the aura which lasts 30 minutes or so and is really unpleasant, the headache itself isn't too bad, especially if I take some paracetamol as soon as the aura starts. I've only had one proper horrific one and the pain was unbelievable, I feel so so sorry for anyone who has to deal with that on a regular basis. I still remember it 11 years later and shudder. So if anyone broke plans with me because of a migraine I would assume they were genuinely struggling.

In fairness I had somebody telling me I couldn't have flu once as I was out of bed - the day after that I was admitted to hospital as an emergency due to severe dehydration!

I do know what you mean, though, it is annoying.

I know when mine are going to happen so I have a window where I can still just about focus. If I take medication within half an hour of it starting I can just about function. It doesn't go completely but I can focus better. Before the medication kicks in I have a kaleidoscope of lights around my eyes which means I can't focus on anything so certainly couldn't go on a computer or read. I had one the other day when I was meant to be meeting my mum. I had to ring her to cancel as it was easier to do that than text. I slept most of the day with no tv or anything on in the background as the noise would have hurt too much. I'm rarely sick though because I almost always take medication early enough. They do vary for different people.

MrsAmeretto- I was like you from 9-15 then they stopped. I'm now 42 and they came back when I was about 37(our family have a history of early menopause). I could be lucky but they are really infrequent and not as bad as when I was young. X