Today’s Challenge: Get the word out! If you, or someone you care about, lives with Migraine, Cluster, or another headache disorder, please join the #MHAM2018 Social Media Challenge. Use the power of social media or your personal blog to announce that you’ve accepted the challenge. Write a message of hope. Tell the world, “We are #NotAlone!”
As the challenge suggested, I took a few minutes to watch the music video, “Migraine” by Twenty-One Pilots. What a perfect song to kick off this year’s Migraine and Headache Awareness Month!
Am I the only one?
It’s easy to identify with the opening line, “Am I the only one I know waging my wars behind my face and above my throat?” After all, Migraine is such an isolating disease that it’s easy to feel like you’re the only one who deals with it. The good news is that our perception is not reality.
- One in four households in the U.S. are affected by migraine. In every 4th house on your street, someone lives with migraine.
- Roughly 12% of the population is affected, totaling over 38 million.
- Your loved ones and co-workers may not admit it, but there are a lot of people you know who face migraine, too.
Hope is the answer!
Yet that’s not the line that caught my attention today. While wrapping up the tail end of a Cluster attack, I was jamming out to the music. That’s when lyrics near the end of the song caught my attention.
And I will say that we should take a day to break away
From all the pain our brain has made, the game is not played alone
And I will say that we should take a moment and hold it
And keep it frozen and know that life has a hopeful undertone
Isn’t that what Migraine and Headache Awareness Month is all about? We don’t do all this just to complain about the misery of life with Migraine. This year is all about reminding us that we are #NotAlone. We don’t have to suffer in silence. Even better, there is hope and healing in knowing that we are #NotAlone.
Let’s take the songwriter’s advice. Regardless of what your head is doing today, take a moment to remember that THERE IS HOPE.