By now you may have heard that television reporter Serene Branson suffered a migraine on national television. As a longtime migraine sufferer, I can’t bring myself to watch the video that has spewed some of the most hateful comments I have seen on the Internet in years. Like Serene, I suffer paralysis and slurred speech when I have a severe migraine along with nausea and dizziness. I also have a strong aversion to light and sound, which means that I have to sit in a dark, quiet room for hours until my migraine subsides. The saddest part of this so-called viral video is that so many people think it’s a laughing matter. Sometimes I wonder if the reaction to Serene’s migraines is simply because she is a woman. If it were an older white man, would people have reacted the same way?
- She didn’t have a migraine. Obviously, it was fake. (Yes, I’m sure her hobbies include faking paralysis and faking slurred speech on live television.)
- She is making it up. (And I assume her doctors made this up as well?)
- She had a migraine because she is blond. (So if she was a brunette, it wouldn’t be a migraine?)
- She said gibberrish because she’s a journalist and everything journalists say is gibberish. (So, if she were a neurosurgeon, what she said wouldn’t be gibberish because nothing a neurosurgeon says is gibberish?)
If you suffer from migraines, please do not read the comments on any site. Some are insightful, but more are heartbreaking and prove that people don’t know the difference between migraines as opposed to common headaches that can be cured with over-the-counter medication. My mom still doesn’t understand the difference, despite the fact that I along with my dad and several cousins suffer from migraines. (Also, you should buy The Migraine Brain as soon as humanly possible, if you don’t own it already. This book makes me want to drive to Boston, show up at Carolyn’s office, and curl up on her couch like a baby.)
Although I still haven’t watched the video, I’ve noticed that a lot of commenters have compared what they say to a stroke. I can’t be entirely sure, but I can’t imagine people doubting that she would have a stroke. So why do they doubt that she would have a migraine? Is it simply the age old tale that we are afraid of what we don’t understand? Strokes are familiar. Migraines are not. They require visits to neurologists, a type of doctor I didn’t even know existed until after I had my first migraine and the emergency room doctor suggested I get one as soon as possible. (Yes, severe migraines can lead to emergency room visits.) Or is it simply the age old tale of it being easy to ridicule women from the anonymity of your own computer? What do you think?
I think part of the issue with migraines is that the symptoms can be so wide-ranging. I get auras, nausea, and a headache that I’d rate as a 6 or so out of 10. My grandmother gets auras but if she take an aspirin, no headache — I’ve never been able to get that to work. But I have found that I get a “pre-aura” stage where everything looks oddly removed, like I’m seeing it on a screen, and if I drink something caffeinated during that stage, I won’t get a migraine. For a friend of mine, absolutely nothing but the strongest prescription meds work. I think it’s hard for people who don’t get them to understand something that varies so widely and can be absolutely devastating to some people and an occasional inconvenience to others, sort of like how a lot of guys don’t understand cramps.
Such a good point, baraqiel! Since I started talking openly about my migraines (I don’t know what I was afraid of before), I’ve noticed that everyone has different symptoms and different ways to relieving the pain. Like your friend, only prescription meds work for me as well … combined with a lot of quiet and darkness. Your last sentence is SO accurate.
I hadn’t heard about this at all so I goggled it. I found a little interview with her that makes it clear that this was her first migraine. I can’t even imagine how scary it must have been for her given that she had no idea what was going on and the symptoms of this particular migraine mimicked those of a stroke. Luckily it sounds like she’s doing ok and is getting the treatment she needs.
As for people not believing/making fun unfortunately that’s pretty common for conditions like migraines that people don’t understand and can’t see (fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome also spring to mind). I am forever grateful that during my early twenties when I had the most migraines I had bosses who had also suffered migraines and therefore understood when I couldn’t make it into work. It feels terrible to glad that someone else had a painful medical condition but when I think of some of the bosses I had when I was younger like the guy who wanted me to come in to work a food service job while I had five stitches on my finger and thus couldn’t use that hand due to an injury sustained on that job…
I felt awful the first time I saw that video clip, because she’s clearly confused as to why the words aren’t coming out right, and is starting to panic. I’d be terrified if that happened to me. I have never had a migraine, thank Maude, but my mother gets them and I’ve always worried that they’ll sneak-attack me one day.
As for the comments people made about her…I’m going to agree with your theory that it’s easy to be an anonymous asshole on the internet, especially when mocking women. Internet comments are always a reliable source of the worst humanity has to offer.
Good grief they had the woman out there at the Grammys for 12 hours, how much Bieber could ANYONE take? Today interviewed her last weekend, she went down right afterwards and her crew were all over her, it was obviously an episode. Its got to where these are the only comments I read, anywhere. Why did they ruin Gawker?
Kate, that is so true about conditions that people can’t see. And it’s definitely not a bad thing to be grateful that someone else you work with has migraines; it makes the job a lot less stressful. When I was first diagnosed, I missed a lot of work because the aura prevented me from focusing on a computer screen. My former boss was more than accommodating and even referred me to an amazing neurologist. My only concern now is that I won’t find a boss as understanding at subsequent jobs.
I very occasionally get migraines, and they are incapacitating: I get blindspots in my vision, nausea, terrible pain, and just take drugs and go to bed in a dark room to cry/wait it out. I can’t imagine if they were frequent.
My mom, aunts, and grandmother all have/had them, too, but everyone seems to have different triggers, some of which seem weird to me (apple peel?). But I ain’t gonna judge. After my first one came on in a ninth grade geometry class (I thought I was going blind or having a stroke; it was terrifying), all I can offer migraine sufferers is empathy. And Excedrin.
Yet another example of “if you wouldn’t sign your name to it, don’t post it.”
True story: the first time I got a migraine, Mr MM and I were visiting his parents in a small city in upstate NY. When I described my symptoms to the intake clerk, she said, “Oh, I knew someone who had that. She died.”
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As a migraine sufferer myself I was interested in the stroke reports because people who get migraines are statistically more likely to suffer strokes – this was one of the reasons I was ordered to avoid most contraceptive pills by my doctor as certain makes increased the likelihood of blood clots and strokes in migraine sufferers.
It was also why recently I was unable to take a post-operative drug which could have saved me considerable anguish as it had a side effect of terrible migraine like headaches and they thought in my case it would simply trigger a migraine.
Talking of which my migraines were at their worst during my three pregnancies – often lasting 20 plus hours, a period of time during which I was not allowed to use any of my migraine drugs due to pregnancy.
Among my symptoms were severe vomiting (so severe that I have been hospitalised with dehydration in two of my pregnancies and in one of them started to contract early), auras and an inability to stand. Personally I would like to see those ignorant commentators stand in front of a TV camera and try and do their job with a migraine. Idiots.
People like my husband who say they have a “migraine” when they merely have a really bad headache don’t help. (To be fair, his headaches are debilitating and he exaggerates about everything, but still…) Allergies are similar: they can range in severity from merely annoying to exhausting to life-threatening. Sometimes people claim to have them when they simply don’t like something. I have pretty severe allergies to certain things (although not life-threatening) and I get furious with people those people.
I can’t bring myself to watch that video either.
@clairedammit: I totally get why it makes you furious, but please don’t assume that people do it because they’re diminishing how serious allergies are. There are times when saying you’re allergic is the only way to ensure that you won’t be served something that you really dislike or need to avoid. I’m guilty of this myself. MSG makes me feel really sick—jittery, headachey— although I’m not technically allergic to it. It won’t close up my throat or cause anaphylactic shock, but the only way I can make waiters/restaurants take me seriously when I ask that it not be put in my food is if I say “I’m really allergic to this.” I’ve said the same thing when I had to be on a sugar-restricted diet—claiming allergies meant I knew there wouldn’t be hidden sugar in my food. Unfortunately, if you don’t make it seem dire, restaurants generally will blow off your requests, even if they’re totally legit, so sometimes a white lie about allergies is necessary.
@emilyanne – Same about the BC, which I was actually quite unhappy to hear as my childhood GP had known about my migraines but prescribed me an estrogen-containing pill anyway. I quit it after a couple of months for reasons unrelated to me having a stroke (thank god) but have recently gone back on BC and my new doctor was very surprised that I had previously been told to take estrogen.
I have chronic headaches, although I suffered from a couple of mild migranes (light and noise sensitivity) around the time my headaches started. While I may be in pain every day for the rest of my life, I’ll take that over migraines, hands down.
To me, these idiotic comments seems to really be a case of people who know not of which they speak. Sad and disheartening.
Migraines really do suck. Having a migraine on national tv, and having that video broadcast internationally would make the situation even worse.
I sincerely hope that Serene Branson is ok, and she keeps her job.
I too am a migraine sufferer. Though my symptoms are different to Serene’s – with auras, nausea, and the head pain. Sometimes they can turn up so quickly that any window to stop the migraine progressing is shut before I can take the first pill.
Some of the triggers that can set them off is red wine, chocolate, and cheese – 3 of my favourite things!
emilyanne, my doctor told me the same thing about the pill.
Mackey, I think those are three of the most popular triggers. I love cheese, but I only eat it in moderation so it hasn’t caused any problems so far. Red wine, though, always gives me a migraine.
@foureleven – I didn’t realise they were the three most common triggers. I still persist in eating and drinking those things. (coz there are somedays that the taste of a good red and some lovely soft cheese followed by a great dark chocolate are too much to resist)
Count me among those who can’t watch the clip, much less read the comments. I started having migraines when I was 12 or so (after watching my mother, aunts, grandmother, great-aunt, and great-grandmother suffer them for years). I don’t have aura, so often I don’t realize I’m going to have a migraine until I start getting nauseated or feeling like my head has been jammed onto my neck.
Sometimes, I hate “migraine” medication commercials even more than my migraines. Like the Excedrin (I think?) one with the mom and daughter on the beach that’s all “don’t let your migraine become someone else’s problem.” Thanks, TV. Because I don’t already feel awful, you need to guilt me for having a chronic disease, too?