My epiphany!

I had an  epiphany the other day that I thought I would share with you all. You may or may not agree with what I have to say, and I am o.k. with that, but I want to share my epiphany with all of you in terms of being recognized. I don't know about y'all, but I noticed that the only pictures I tend to share on my personal page are pictures when I am feeling good, not when I am suffering from a debilitating migraine.

I got to thinking, how can I change the stigma of migraine, if I too am guilty of only posting pictures of the good days, not the bad days. I share my misery with you all, because you understand. I don't share a whole lot about my misery on my main page. I know that people got sick of seeing my page with nothing but migraine related posts. I know that some people blocked me because they were sick of seeing it, which is completely understandable. I chose to start a blog about my medical journey so that my FB page wasn't full of migraine info only. Those who want to know more, can go to my blog and learn about my journey and more about migraines. I don't know how many people read it, but that doesn't matter either. Writing is very therapeutic for me.

I decided that for the next few weeks, I am going to post pictures of me at my worst, suffering from debilitating, excruciating and painful migraines. My husband and my girls will take the pictures. How can we change the stigma of migraines if we only share our good days and not our tough days. I don't know if this will be helpful or not, but I a curious to see what kind of response I get. I feel like I am not doing myself or any other migraineurs' a favor if I don't share the bad days too. I am a little leery. I am going to try it and see what happens.

Education is KEY! Even if we hate to show our pictures and allow people to see us at our worst, we should consider doing it. All the make-up, immaculate hair, perfect nails, and designer clothes are not what makes us beautiful. True beauty lies within ourselves and this beauty shows itself by the words we say and by the way we treat others. We don't need a pity party or people feeling sorry for us. We deserve respect and we need to be treated with love and compassion, just like anybody else. CMA will never get recognition if, we as migrainers, aren't comfortable sharing our story.

Has anybody else ever thought of this? Am I the only one guilty of posting about the good days?

My blackout shades that I wear when I sleep, I especially need them during the day when I need to hibernate.

The text above is a post that I put on the Chronic Migraine Awareness (CMA) wall. Chronic Migraine Awareness is a non-profit organization that is doing everything they can to help raise awareness. CMA is a private support group for migraine sufferers. There are currently over 3600 members and I was recently made an administrator of the group. I was approached from other admins and they asked if I was interested in being more involved, of course I said yes. So, I have a job now (volunteer), but I finally have something of worth to do.
I posted that post a couple of days ago and I am blown away by the response that I got from my post. I received over 110 comments of people telling me how brave I am. I had many tell me that I am such an inspiration to them. I had many share their story of how they too are guilty of only posting pictures of their good days, not the bad days. Too many of us are too uncomfortable sharing pictures where we don't look good. I thought about this for several days, and I got to thinking (deep thinking),  how can we ever change the stigma of migraine if we as migraineurs only show others our good side, wearing our brave face. Because we are all so scared to be open and share what our life is really like, it will be very difficult to change the stigma of migraine.

I know that by doing this I may upset some people, but that is not my intention. I know that most people don't like to see the "negative" side of people's lives, they want to see the happy, triumphant moments. I know that by being more open on my personal FB page, I run the risk of being blocked by people because I may appear to be a "debby downer". I am o.k. with that. I know what kind of person I am. I can look myself in the mirror and not feel ashamed at all for the person that I am. I am one that loves to make people smile. I am not afraid to show myself in any way.

In order to change migraines from an invisible illness to a visible illness, we must be willing to share the good with the bad. We must be true to ourselves. We must be brave, show pictures and tell stories of our challenging times.

I am so touched that I have inspired others to do the same thing. I hope that you will support us and help raise awareness.

I want a little bit of my life back. I would love to be able to make plans. I would love to drive farther than up the street and back. I would love it if I could empty my bladder independently, when I have a migraine, without having to cath myself. I would love to walk without a cane. But for now, these are challenges that I am fighting. I don't know why I have been given this big trial, but I will embrace it and I will do what I can to make it through. I don't expect sympathy or pity. I don't want people to be afraid of me. I don't want people to think that I use migraines as an excuse to hide from life. If more people saw not only what my life was like day in and day out, but other migraineurs' lives as well, I think their opinion of migraines would change. Many would understand that there is more to migraine than just a headache.

I am going to make a difference. I know I can do it, especially if I have a lot of love and support to help spread awareness and educate as many people as possible.

I want to inspire people, just like this meme says.

This is a very inspirational song, I heard it for the first time when another migraineur posted it on the CMA page. I hope you enjoy it.

The song is called "Overcomer" and it is sung by "Mandisa".