Archive for the ‘Managing’ Category
May 21st, 2008
It’s a little bit like having the emergency supplies ready for a power failure or having the first aid kit stocked and
ready. We talked awhile back about having your lists ready in the post How do you Manage Life with Migraines? so that you don’t have to think about what you need when you are in the midst of migraine and can’t think.
Teri Robert has posted a terrific article on My Migraine Connection this week called MAPP Your Migraine! MAPP stands for Migraine Action Plan and Pack. In it, Teri pulls together many of the wonderful resources she has created for migraineurs, including helpful articles and checklists. In addition to having a treatment plan ready with your doctor, a plan for the emergency room, plans for managing kids or home responsibilities, and a place set up in your home where you can be quiet, safe and comforted, Teri also recommends that you have a bag packed for travel with everything you might need if you get a migraine away from home. I say thank you, Teri, and I recommend that you hop on over to My Migraine Connection and read the article!
I also want a backpack built into my jacket like this penguin so I really don’t have to think about it!
– Megan
Migraine brain on practical track.
Penguin image courtesy of Ambra Galassi
Tags: emergency plan, Migraine management, migraine plan, treatment plan
Posted in Managing | Comments (2)
May 20th, 2008
Hi all. Adrienne at WEGO Health interviewed me and published the interview yesterday in her blog at WEGO Health. Take a look at the Spotlight Interview if you’d like to learn more about what I’m up to with Migraine Management Coaching, handling my life, what I’m working on and all that jazz.
Cheers,
Megan
Coming to you from a 10 day migraine free streak – Woohoo!
Tags: migraine, migraine management coaching, WEGO Health
Posted in Managing | Comments (0)
May 19th, 2008
I posted last week about compact fluorescents and their impact on some migraineurs, epileptics, people with lupus and possibly other conditions. While we work on getting Congress to amend the law which would phase out sales of incandescent bulbs by 2012, here are some thoughts about energy saving alternatives you can use at home. Thanks to my friend Dave Cohen, of DEC Architect, an architect specializing in green design, for these suggestions.
1. Turn your lights down low – installing and using dimmers with your incandescent bulbs can save a surprising amount of energy. Using a light bulb at 75% of full wattage can actually cut electricity use by 50%! If you’re like me, you prefer the lights on the low side to ward off migraines anyway.
2. Pull your window curtain – use natural light as much as possible! If you are doing new construction,
build to take advantage of natural light with the orientation of your windows and use of reflective surfaces to catch and multiply that natural light. Even with existing windows, let as much light in as possible, and do what you can to reflect it back around the room.
3. Shine the light up – (sorry I ran out of Bob Marley references there) torchiere style halogen lights can illuminate a room with less wattage than an incandescent. Halogens are one of the lower energy use lighting sources that are under further development. Shining the light up on the ceiling spreads it; it is also easier on migraine brains than light shining down into our eyes.
4. Light up with LEDs – LEDs are another alternative technology which are being further developed. You know, those bright little green, blue, etc, lights? I know some migraineurs have trouble with LEDs, which can be very bright. An LED light which can be dimmed would be a great alternative. (They could also save a lot of energy by removing the LED lights on my computer power cord, so my darn room could actually be dark at night.)
Any more energy saving, migraine friendly lighting tips? Please share them in the comments. Thanks to Dave Hobbs and his comment on the last post, for inspiring this post!
– Megan
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine (but not too brightly…)
Tags: Bob Marley, compact fluorescent, halogen, LED, migraine
Posted in Managing, Music, Tips & Techniques | Comments (3)
May 11th, 2008
Another piece of the puzzle fell in place for me yesterday, as I watched a podcast of Dr. Richard Lipton, professor of Neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, explaining the difference between Migraine & headache. Thanks to Marijke Durning, R.N. of Help My Hurt for posting the podcast in The 
Difference between Migraine and Headache. I recommend the podcast as a general explanation of what a migraine is and what sets it aside from an “ordinary” headache. You might ask your skeptical or uninformed friends and family members to watch it.
The new idea for me had to do with Dr. Lipton’s explanation of the role of caffeine. I already knew that:
- caffeine is a vaso-constrictor and so can help treat a migraine attack in progress, by constricting the dilated and inflamed blood vessels around the brain – in fact there are several migraine medications that contain caffeine, such as Cafergot; and
- caffeine withdrawal can trigger migraine attacks (I have experienced this first hand in a too rapid attempt to get caffeine out of my system).
It is also common for some migraineurs to have smooth sailing during the week, only to be beached by migraines on the weekend, our supposed “time off.” This happens to me frequently. Since migraine triggers are “stackable,” we often have to analyze what may be in the stack to figure out what actually triggered the migraine. Explanations for the weekend migraine include:
- stress let-down – perhaps the body’s reaction to a drop in the stress hormones we produce to function during the work week;
- change in sleep pattern – a trigger for many migraineurs who find we need to keep our bed-times and waking times as regular as possible to avoid migraines;
- change in eating patterns on the weekend – if you eat much later than usual, your body may
interpret it as missing a meal! (I have found that I need to get up and feed myself on a Saturday morning to avoid a migraine. No waiting for Danny to get up and cook one of his weekend breakfast feasts – I can’t enjoy my Oeufs beurre noir if I’ve already gotten a migraine waiting for him to get up!); and
- I suspect that if you take medications and supplements at the same time in the morning five days a week and then vary that time on the weekend, this too messes with your migraineur’s sensitive brain.
But here’s the new idea (you’ve probably guessed it by now) – if you have a cup of coffee at 6:30 a.m. Monday through Friday, and you sleep in until 9 on Saturday, what do you wake up into? Caffeine withdrawal! If your brain is habituated to caffeine at a particular time and doesn’t get it, the addictive little critter (i.e. your brain) starts screaming for its cup of Joe while you’re still sleeping! Add this factor to the others discussed above and you’re in for a weekend of pain!
I’m not sure what the solution is here – I know, I know, get up at the same time every day. I’m still very resistant to the idea, although I have to confess I can’t sleep past about 8:00 on weekends any more. Perhaps an IV caffeine drip at 7 a.m. – nah – no sleeping in that way! Cut out morning caffeine entirely – radical notion!
Dr. Lipton recommends limiting caffeine to one cup per day, and using more to treat migraines when they arise. I am going to give this a try. And I will have my one cup per day after lunch! If you decide to try is as well, a word of advice. To avoid withdrawal migraines, cut your caffeine back very gradually. If you have 3 cups in the morning, cut back to 2 1/2 for at least 3 or 4 days. Then cut back to 2… You get the picture.
Happy Mother’s Day all you moms out there! I am about to be served my breakfast in bed. (I got up at 8 and had toast and coffee. This one is for the ritual of it.) Wishing everyone a pain free day.
– Megan
Caffeine addict, heading back on the wagon. Trying not to repeat yesterday’s weekend migraine!
Cup of Coffee image courtesy of Tammy Green; Breakfast image courtesy of Ian Rotea; Alarm Clock image courtesy of Chris Metcalf
Tags: caffeine addiction, caffeine withdrawal, Dr. Richard Lipton, Migraine trigger, Mother's Day, stackable trigger, vaso-constrictor, weekend migraine
Posted in Managing | Comments (7)
May 9th, 2008
It was a tough call, but our judges Kerrie of The Daily Headache and Diana of Somebody Heal Me have
selected our winners in the Weirdest Migraine Triggers Ever contest (with yours truly called in as a
tie-breaker).
Remember, these triggers were all weird enough to beat my pouring-down-rain-with-wiper-arm-scratching-windshield trigger!
And a drumroll please, the winners are:
1st Place to Koryn for the Crayon Dilemma (note – no gold crayon used in photo):
The weirdest trigger that I’ve ever came across was one of my step aunts. Since
a very young age, the gold crayon in her crayon box would induce a migraine. No
other gold colored other stuff, or real gold its self does anything, but just
the gold crayon. Strangeness. All my step aunt had to do was look at her gold
crayon. Poor thing couldn’t color with it at all. Her mom ended up going through
her crayon box each year when they bought her new ones for school and take the
gold crayon out. Her teacher watched in class if the projects used crayons. Very
strange trigger.
2nd place to MJ (of Rhymes with Migraine) for the Exhaust Fan Mystery:
The last apartment DBF and I lived in was a studio, with only one large-ish
window that opened onto a courtyard. Our apartment was wedged into the corner,
which meant we had hardly any air circulation at all, especially in the summer.
This particular apartment building also had a high turnover rate among tenants,
so our neighbors changed relatively frequently.
About two months before we moved out of that apartment, I discovered a new trigger. One afternoon after work, DBF and I were minding our own business when all of a sudden this stench, an unbelievable (and unidentifiable) stench came – not wafting – but pumping into our only window. I had a migraine within seconds, as my eyes teared up and I looked desperately to
DBF, begging him to close the window. Mind you, this was the summer and our apartment did not have A/C. Neither of us could stand this stench though so he closed the window without complaint.
We complained to the leasing office the very next day, but of course when they came to check it out, no cause could be found, as there was no trace of the stench.
Unfortunately for both of us, every evening after work, like clockwork, this stench would be pumped into our apartment and we’d have to close our window. We quickly became wise to the stench’s ways and closed the window when we came home from work. We continued to complain to the leasing office, telling them we had to leave our only window closed, but they were mostly useless. They claimed the woman in the apartment below us had left for vacation
without cleaning her fridge, and her food had spoiled, which had caused the stench. But the stench continued after this problem had been cleaned up, so I was skeptical of this explanation.
Fortunately, DBF and I both have backgrounds in architecture, so we decided to investigate the source of this stench for ourselves. We noticed the exhaust vent for our downstairs neighbor’s
apartment was directly outside our window. Ah ha! At least once a day, the vent fan inside this apartment would cycle on, venting the apartment, and pumping the stench into our window. The stench would disappear again when the fan cycled off.
That same week we figured this out (this had been going on well over a month now) we dragged the apartment manager into the courtyard. We pointed out the exhaust vent and told her our theory. She got her maintenance guy and went to the woman’s apartment – which, apparently, smelled so bad that our apartment manager was gagging in the hallway. (She got no sympathy from me!) Here’s where the story gets even better. Our apartment manager, after discovering the source of the problem we had been complaining about for over a month, started to
politely request that the woman in the stinky apartment clean up her mess. The
woman did not clean up her mess. The manager was unwilling to do anything other
than knock on the woman’s door, so DBF finally taped the exhaust vent closed so
we could open our window again.
We found out later that this stench was cat funk. This awful woman
refused to clean up after her poor cat, and had been keeping its filthy
litterbox under the exhaust fan. So, I’ve now added “cat funk from rude and
filthy neighbor” to my list of triggers.
Third Place to Deborah (of Weathering Migraine Storms) for the Dehydrate-Rehydrate-Run Conundrum (note – you can read the entire story at Weathering Migraine Storms at the link above – I have excerpted it here):
I have found a unique little trigger I gave myself while I was trying to alleviate the woes of the migraine blues. I found myself going round and round in a battle of “Catch 22” with fluids.
A word of caution – if you are in the midst of migraine and are looking to
hydrate or re-hydrate, be very cautious of the ingredients in your bottled
fluids. If they contain “sucralose” or “sucrose syrup” you may think twice before drinking twice. Why? Your body just doesn’t absorb them thar ingredients, thus you just poo them in liquid-like form, rapidly, if you continue to drink and drink and drink them.
Case in point, Moi: The first week of the month, I end up at infusion with the monster. I’m the usual squinting, “headachy” nauseaous self. (for lack of words right now), I have two bottlesof said syrupy water with me. oh yummo. Start infusion a little later. drink drink. Notice after a few days, and oh four bottles of the stuff a day, lots of diarrhea. hmmm, sometimes that
happens with migraine.
Two weeks go by, OH, WAIT! I had also started Melatonin to get some MUCH-needed
sleep. Whew, almost forgot that. so anyhoo, I’m sleeping, I’m drinking more of the water because the weather was actually getting pretty nice here. The sun was, whoa, shining, and, AND, the weather was warm. I don’t care much for water, it makes me gag, and gagging is a precursor for barfing, which will in itself is just gross, so I like the taste of the lemony syrupy
vitamin water that I was drinking. Plus, I felt I was getting all kinds of oober benifits with the added B vitamins. blah blah blah. drink more tastey syrupy water.
In the meantime, I’m noticing a need to, well, go to the “office” a little more often. than usual. Me poo has started to um loosten. By the end of the week, loosten had come to a full-on explosion. Every few hours. Which, naturally made me drink more. Didn’t want to DEHYDRATE! Each time I’d eat, my food would slide into home within 1 1/2 hours. I was running like A-rod,
faster, faster, faster each time. God forbid if I was in public!!!
Naturally, another storm hit me in the skull. The more I “liquidated my assets,” the more I drank. For fear of becoming dehydrated, it’s all I could do, drink more of my yummy water; and it hit me – like the brick that hit my head, maybe it’s the vitamins in the water doing it!! So I took myself off the water for a week.
But I was still having the. problem. So I thought, maybe the Melatonin?? I took myself off that. We decided, maybe there was something else going on; we called my internist. They had me in that day, did all kinds of blood work, and I had to (give a sample), to which I apologized for! Oh the questions the questions I was asked. When the blood work came back ok, Deb and
I were talking about the water; and I read to her the ingredients – AHA! It was the sucralose. I cannot absorb it so my body just – gets rid of it and everything else with it. I’ll say.
*(By the way, I have been informed that Glaceau Vitamin Water, pictured on the truck above, contains no sucralose or aspartame. I didn’t mean to implicate them, I just love a pretty picture.)
And an Honorable Mention to Laura for a lengthy list of triggers, including the Antihistamine-Pollen Paradox:
- jalepenos
- sun/ heat
- too much sleep, not enough
- Alcohol (especially red wine)
- salt
- cheese
- salami/ preserved meats*
- change in air pressure
- change in altitude <- i hate that one!
- soups*
- Chinese food*
- stress letdown
- pms
- Claritin <-AGH!
- dehydration
I tell you, I live in an area where the pollen is horrible and most allergy meds
give me a severe migraine. It’s miserable.
*(Little editorial note – wondering if the starred items all have MSG in common? MSG is a pretty common trigger.)
Thanks to the judges and all the entrants for playing along. And dear readers, if you have a weird trigger to share, you can leave it in the comments below.
For more about triggers, and how to avoid them, come join the discussion: Migraine Management Coaching: Know and Reduce Your Triggers. For more on Managing your Life with Migraine, register for our e-course in the upper right corner of this page.
– Megan Oltman
Now don’t get trigger-happy!
Crayon Image courtesy of Ed Schipol, Exhaust Fan image courtesy of cito/John, Vitamin Water image courtesy of Wendy Seltzer, Bee image courtesy of Adrian Campfield
Tags: Dehydration, Managing, migraine, Odors, Pollen, Trigger
Posted in Managing, Silliness, Weblogs | Comments (5)
May 5th, 2008
My computer is well again, thank goodness. And I have just been through a bad migraine patch – 6 of the last 11 days. For those with Chronic Daily Headache or Chronic Migraine (Migraine 15 days out of the month), that may not sound too bad. A few of my migraineur friends have lived with the same migraine for 6 weeks or 5 months. On the other hand, for others who have 1 or 2 migraines a month, or less, that may sound awful. I used to have 2 a year. The good old days!
(By the way – do I have Chronic Migraine myself, or is mine still considered episodic? I have not hit the 15 days a month marker yet, but I seem to be close some months. We’ll see what Dr. Young has to say at the Jefferson Headache Center when I go in June.)
But life goes on. I learn more all the time about managing this disease. I always try to share what I am learning. I have been thinking a lot about managing Migraine triggers. Part of my recent bad streak is probably due to having been in a course that activated many triggers for me. Lack of sleep, florescent lights, lots of noise, having to concentrate way beyond my fatigue point. It took me about 4
days to recover from 2 days in that course. It was a price I paid willingly for a useful piece of professional knowledge. I can’t always avoid triggers. But I will try not to do weekend courses like that without spending a few days in bed afterwards.
My friend, neurological-chiropractor Dr. Heidi Kaufman introduced me to the concept of neural fatigue. I
haven’t found a good reference on this yet, but basically the idea is that neurons get tired out and stop functioning as well. I experience this when I am exposed to a lot of noises at the same time – I lose my ability to sort one sound from another and all I hear is undifferentiated noise. Parts of the course were like that, as some participants insisted in talking across the instructors. I believe this is an instance of what Dr. Hayrunnisa Bolay described in her research findings of
a mechanism that leads to problems with discrimination of tones and
lateralization of sound, particularly in a noisy environment, in
patients with migraine.
“Cochlear Dysfunction Apparent in Migraineurs,” April 12, 2008, RM Global Health. (Thanks to Rain Gem for pointing me to this fascinating study.)
Another instance of just how weird this disease is: for some time now when I am fatigued, I have trouble with spatial perception. This occurs most often in a car, where I have trouble perceiving how close or far away other objects are. It feels like everything is moving too fast for my brain to catch up, to quote one of my buddies in a recent discussion on the MMC Forum. I find myself afraid I am going to fast, or that I am about to hit something when there is actually plenty of room. In case you’re worrying, I pull over right away if this happens when I’m driving. It happens most often when my husband is driving, and I flinch and gasp at what appear to me to be near misses, when actually he is leaving sufficient distance, slowing down and stopping quite appropriately. I am wondering if this is an instance of Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, an unusual sort of migraine aura which affects spatial perception. I enjoyed this article in the NY Times blog a few months ago, and here’s a new one from Teri Robert: Alice in Wonderland Syndrome – The Basics. Since Lewis Carroll was a migraineur himself, he may have been describing his own experience when he wrote of Alice’s strange growth and shrinking. Adventures in Migraine-land.
I may appear to be rambling. I may, in fact, be rambling. I’m leading an exploration of migraine triggers right now at WEGO Health. It’s part of a series of lessons on Migraine Management Coaching. Please come and visit if you’d like to look more deeply into what may trigger your migraines, and how to manage your triggers!
– Megan
Now the dogwoods are blooming – life is great!
Tags: Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic migraine, cochlear dysfunction, disease management, migraine, migraine aura, neural fatigue
Posted in Managing | Comments (4)
April 14th, 2008
I love carnivals, but with a migraineur’s sensitivity to crowds and sound, it’s hard to stay out in the carnival long. Here’s a very quiet carnival you can enjoy at your own pace!
The April 2008 edition of the Headache & Migraine Disease Blog Carnival is up at Somebody Heal Me. Many thanks to Diana Lee for bringing us a lot of ideas on topics of particular interest and importance to us.
For the April 2008 carnival Diana solicited submissions on the topic of “your best basic advice for coping with migraines”. There are a lot of entries this month, varying from the intensely personal to the scientific and informative. Look forward to lots of good reading! Please go over to Somebody Heal Me for all the links. I will mention a few here that I’ve had the chance to read.
Sue at InnerDorothy presents My Brave and Hopeful Heart. A moving picture of accepting reality with grace. Teri Robert at My Migraine Connection presents Migraines & Headaches: Coping and Staying Whole with some clear and encouraging advice to help us feel in control. Kerrie Smyres at The Daily Headache presents the hopeful Three Things Each Day, Even if That’s Only Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. Deborah at Weathering Migraine Storms presents a moving personal picture Coping with the Pain. Debbie Fister presents a very practical list for limiting migraines and dealing with them when they occur at Coping with Migraine and Chronic Pain posted at Down the Rabbit Hole: The Journey of a Migraineur. Janet Geddis presents a checklist you shouldn’t travel without at Migraine & Travel posted at The Migraine Girl. Eileen Gray presents Fighting the Good Fight posted at My Life with Migraine. Eileen inspires me with her determination. Rena at Dealing with Headaches presents Tom Cruise: The Spirit of Migraine. As usual, Rena made me howl.
I’m looking forward to reading the rest! Enjoy!
– Megan
Tags: blog carnival
Posted in Communicating, Managing, Weblogs | Comments (0)
April 13th, 2008
I wondered if I should cut my hair, and several of you said yes, including my Mom. I’m old enough 
now not to resist Mom’s advice – it’s usually quite good! Not to mention being mature enough to listen to the experience of my fellow migraineurs. And so, I justify what may be just a vanity post by saying… short hair is a help in managing life with Migraine. Less weight on the head, neck and shoulders. Less fussing to do. Less to worry about. If only simplifying our lives was always this… simple. Here’s the new look.
– Megan
Tags: managing life with migraine
Posted in Managing | Comments (1)
April 11th, 2008
I had a couple of posts on coping with migraine that I thought would work fine for this month’s blog carnival, but I couldn’t resist doing some on-the-job research. Yesterday I had a splendid set of opportunities to get a migraine, followed by an opportunity to cope.
It went like this: First, to create the desired research environment:
1. Sleep badly.
2. Rush through getting ready and go out in rush hour traffic to coffee with a business associate. Choose the hip, cool, NOISY coffee shop.
3. Stay in the coffee shop for 2 hours afterwards doing professional reading with the noise battering your
ear drums.
4. Step out into the gorgeous Spring day with the Bradford pears in full bloom along the street (they are very pretty and I am allergic to them.) Sneeze a lot.
5. Lead a seminar over lunch. Have the attendees show up late so your lunch is late. Get ravenous before eating. Then have an intensive seminar on a challenging topic, that you have never led before.
6. Back at the office, discover a major error in your publication that will cost you money you can’t afford.
7. Receive worrisome news about someone.
8. Cry.
There. A near perfect research environment. The only surprise was that the migraine pain was mild, and didn’t begin until about 6 pm.
And on to the coping:
1. Unsure yet whether it’s a “real one” or just a tension headache, take the mild and mainly ineffective 
pain-dullers available to an allergic person like me. (Endorphigen D-Phenylalanine supplement and Magnesium Choline Trisalycylic acid). Drink a lot of water (16 oz or so).
2. Take a fifteen minute gentle walk. This will usually clear a tension headache for me.
3. When these don’t impact the head pain, eat a light dinner. I cannot take my triptans on an empty stomach, as the ache and pressure in my trunk from the triptan will make me nauseous on an empty stomach.
4. Take the blessed and cursed Imitrex. (Blessed for usually 
halting the migraine, cursed for making my head go all stupid, making my whole body ache, and intestinal ickiness.)
From here on in, it’s all about comfort.
5. Receive hugs from husband and any offspring so inclined as to offer them.
6. Hug kitty-cat who will probably not come snuggle on the bed. (He
comes once in awhile. But generally considers our bed to be the territory of elder cat who died 7 years ago. Can’t convince him otherwise.)
7. Lie down on comfy bed. Lights low. Soothing adobe-orange walls. 
Many pillows. And my stuffed animals.
Wally is the perfect size to hug.
Pepito is very soft and exact holding-in-hand size.
Willy the Wooly Mammoth is really Danny’s, but I borrow him for my other hand (he’s my favorite but don’t tell).
7. Buckwheat filled eye-mask can be cooled in the freezer, blocks the light, and puts a soft comforting pressure on my eyes.
8. Husband or offspring checks on me after an hour or two, usually bringing cups of tea and medicinal dark chocolate.
9. Gentle comedy on the tv goes a long way.
10. Sleep.
– Megan
There’s got to be a morning after.
Tags: comfort measures, migraine treatments, Migraine triggers
Posted in Managing, Musings | Comments (8)
March 23rd, 2008
Hi there – Happy Easter to all who celebrate it. I am up and walking around on a beautiful, chilly, early 
spring day, with bulbs poking their green noses out of the dirt (and a few, their bright flowers.) I am headache free for the first time in 5 days and enjoying a lovely family visit. I really don’t feel in the least like complaining. But I thought about it a lot while I lay in bed this past week with sinus Martians and Migraine beasts fighting for control of my head. (They both won.)
Some folks just don’t like to complain. That preference is generally seen as virtuous, stoical (for which read, a good thing) and considerate. Hazel Reese’s autobiography, a tale of a life with chronic illness, is entitled I Will not Complain. I don’t intend to take anything away from the non-complainers, they have my reluctant admiration. You may have guessed that I myself do not often rank among their numbers. I do think there are several ways to look at, and use, the practice of complaining, or not complaining.
What are you complaining for? I mean what is the point of complaining? Actually there can be several points. The complaining we don’t like, the kind we, well, complain about, is the complaining that has no purpose other than to make us feel sorry for the complainer. Whining. Whinging. We don’t want to go visit Aunt Sue or we’re hardly friends with Bill anymore because all she/he does is whine. Taking it down a level, what we’re really objecting to is an evasion of responsibility. If only you knew how bad it was for me, you wouldn’t expect so much of me. If only you understood, you would take all these burdens from my shoulders.
There are several other reasons to complain, though, which are perfectly responsible, even virtuous. We can complain to get it off our chests, what we coaches sometimes call clearing. When I sit down to a coaching session with a client we usually spend a few minutes noticing if anything is getting in the way of our ability to be fully focused in the present – and if something is, we name it so we can put it aside. “I’m feeling sad about…, I’m upset by…, I’ve been angry about…” Those emotions keep on operating in the background and color the way we think and what we see as possible, if we don’t give them voice, whether we write them down or share them with someone who will help us clear our minds.
And then there’s complaining to get results, to make change, to change history. Most of us have seen the bumper sticker “Well-behaved women rarely make history.” Any social change worth mentioning has happened with a great deal of powerful committed complaining. Public opinion does not change without an awakening of empathy. You can awaken empathy by complaining, by making sure someone else really gets it, really understands your world. I’m thinking about the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), which took a great deal of powerful committed complaining. For those of us with invisible illness, with Migraine Disease and the other chronic icks that have people saying “but you don’t look sick…”, it might not be a bad idea to complain more. Not like Bill and Aunt Sue, like the ADA advocates.
Try these: “I don’t look sick, but I feel like there’s a squirrel with a chain-saw in my head” (thanks Migraine Chick!); “Oh yes, I’d be fine, if only they’d stop trying to remove my brain with a grapefruit spoon” (that was me for the last week). Or a more sincere heart to heart with the non-migraineur of your choice, asking him/her to support the AHDA (Alliance for Headache Disorders Advocacy) efforts to get a fair share of NIH funding for headache disorders!
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead
– Megan Oltman
Gripe, gripe, gripe!
easter egg photo courtesy of Jennifer Murawski; spring bulbs photo courtesy of irishninja01; hyacinth photo courtesy of B~
Tags: Advocacy, chronic illness, commitment to change, complaint
Posted in Communicating, Managing, Rant | Comments (4)
I love carnivals, but with a migraineur’s sensitivity to crowds and sound, it’s hard to stay out in the carnival long. Here’s a very quiet carnival you can enjoy at your own pace!
