Hi All,
A post on the Facebook group made me think about this today and I thought I should post it here. I see it often on Facebook where people just never seem to get well and then begin thinking that they are dealing with something entirely different that has nothing to do with migraine. Then others jump on the bandwagon and before you know it, there’s a whole new pseudo diagnosis being invented before your eyes to explain what we are dealing with. And so here’s what I think are the main factors that stand in the way of people getting this migrainous vertigo condition under control. I have failed myself in most of these areas at one time or another. The important thing is to be AWARE and to keep steering the ship to calmer waters and sunny skies.
So why do people fail to get well?
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[size=110]1. They refuse to accept that they are migraineurs (migraine denial), refuse to believe that migraine disease can cause neurological problems at the scale we live with or they are misdiagnosed by an unenlightened health professional (told Meniere’s disease or uncompensated labyrinthitis for example).
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Number 1 then leads to people chasing red herrings or believing in chronic diseases that simply do not exist or explain what is happening. There are entire industries of dubious health practitioners that perpetuate this sort of poor thinking and so people waste untold amounts of time, money and energy. We’ve seen it here many times.
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Failure to identify migraine triggers or not avoiding triggers even when they have been identified (e.g coffee). Triggers can be nearly anything and I have found that sometimes I have thought it impossible that X could be a trigger only to find that it is.
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Failure to lead a migraine lifestyle (e.g. going to bed and getting up at the same time every day, drinking enough water).
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Inadequate or poorly trialled migraine medicines or a fear of medicines and so no trial ever occurs. This is a big one I have come to realise. Even smart people I know with a very good handle on migrainous vertigo will either flat out fear medicines completely or have some other belief system in place that kills their chances of ever being free of this illness.
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Lack of support from family, partners, health professionals in executing the above.[/size]
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I’d be interested in hearing what you guys think. I don’t think there’s a single person I have come across who was not well and who didn’t fall into one or more of these categories. I’m not trying to point the finger or make anyone feel bad about this because it just happens. We’re human. For example, I missed an important trigger for 9 years! I was in denial for the first 2 years. I have definitely missed triggers and dabble in them when I think I can get away with it (coffee being my weakness). I could probably say that I have not adequately trialled all medicines properly either because work got in the way; however, I’m going to try propranolol again. Nabeel is a great example of a person who just kept at Topamax despite it kicking his ass only to have success on trial number three. Inspiring to say the least.
Scott