Looking for more information about the history of headache and migraine? Read Headache Through the Ages by Seymour Diamond, MD, and Mary A. Franklin( Professional Communications, Inc., 2005), available on Amazon. com.
migraine specialist before he was the first true psychotherapist. In many ways, finding these profiles of people who were coping and being productive was really powerful to me.
It was also powerful to discover that there were 3,000-year-old reports of migraine. It made me feel like I was part of something deeper.
HW: You also write about evolution and the idea that modern environments are not suited for persons with migraines. What do you believe to be the tie between migraine and evolution? LEVY: Migraine is a disease often triggered by flashing light and there is much more of that in the contemporary world than 500 to 600 years ago.
In the book, I suggest that for me, migraines precede storms. So if you think of someone 2,000 years ago, getting a message in their head that they needed to seek shelter at a time when it really mattered made total evolutionary sense. Today we don’ t need to hide from weather anymore, but it still seems to me that the warning system will remain until we find a really good cure for migraine.
HW: One in 10 people experiences migraines. If so many people experience them, why do you think the disease is often stigmatized as“ just a headache”? LEVY: I think migraine is still stigmatized in part because it’ s been metaphorized; people will say“ you are giving me a migraine.” That aggravates real migraineurs.
Also, outside of rushing yourself into an MRI machine and having your head tested, evidence of a migraine is really on one’ s own testimony. And because the condition takes place inside your head, people associate it with psychosomatic moments. People think it is just stress and you can handle it.
In many ways, people stopped thinking of headaches as an actual disease needing real treatment a long time ago. If you go through 19th century literature, the number of female characters who have a head- ache that men dismiss or don’ t take seriously is just massive. There is still that stigma that women with migraine fake head pain to get out of housework, to get out of sexual obligations. It is very Victorian, but that thinking is still there.
HW: Do you think the stigma is going away at all? LEVY: I think the last 10 to 20 years has been going in that direction, but I still think there is a ton of work to do. Headaches are still the number one cause of lost sick days in the United States. But it is encouraging to see a lot more celebrities describing themselves as having headaches. You also see more athletes being scratched from athletic events for migraine, men and women, a fact that I find fascinating. Given the machismo that is a serious part of our sporting culture, that is pretty telling.
HW: What message would you like to give to those that suffer from migraines? LEVY: If you have any kind of headache or neurological disruption cutting into your life, go to your doctor right away. If you can’ t find the advice you need, go to a headache specialist even if the office is 300 miles away. Don’ t be ashamed to tell doctors what you have and how you experience it.
Try not to feel any shame about it in terms of family and work. Have the conversation on the outside, not just internally with yourself. HW
Want to hear more from Andrew Levy? Access the full podcast at www. headwisemag. org / ExpertAnswers.
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