I've heard over and over again that 20% of women experience migraines. That's 2 out of every 10. That's a lot. Every time I hear that I think, if that many people have migraines, why is it so hard for me? I often look around the room and count, thinking, 6 other people in this room have migraines; they don't seem to complain. I've never distinguished between the occasional, maybe once-in-a-lifetime migraine some may have and the constant, debilitating migraines that I have. I read some statistics today to that effect and it helped me feel better about my situation. Even though migraines affect 20% of women in the population, only 4-5% experience chronic daily headaches. Chronic daily headache is defined as pain for at least four hours a day 15 days a year. Only 0.5% of people experience constant pain. That's 1 in 200.
I don't like having a medical condition that affects only 0.5% of the population. However, knowing that everybody and her mama doesn't have this and go on with her everyday life does make me feel better about the way it affects me. It makes me feel less like a baby.
By the way, these statistics came from Paula Kamen's book All in My Head. I guess it's plagiarism if I don't tell you that.
No comments:
Post a Comment