When the Pain Isn’t the Worst Part

Is this you? You wake up already scanning your body, wondering if today is going to be one of those days. You analyze every twinge, every ache, trying to predict if a migraine is coming. 

You research each symptom you are feeling. You take another pill, you read another article, you do all the things to try to stop it.

We get caught in this cycle of obsessing over the pain itself. And honestly—why wouldn’t we? The pain hurts. It stops us from working, from showing up for our families, from doing the things we love. It can land us in the ER. It can ruin a weekend, a vacation, a holiday. And the scariest part is, we don’t know how long it’s going to last. Of course we obsess.

But here’s the piece we don’t often pause to see: the emotional toll.

Migraines bring anxiety—always waiting for the next attack, never able to fully relax because you don’t know when it will hit.

They bring depression—you hate being thought of as the “sick one.” Your family sees you that way, your friends see you that way, and eventually you stop even talking about how bad it is. You smile, you say “I’m fine,” but inside, you’re carrying it alone.

They bring numbness—you try not to, but when you’re constantly being knocked down, sometimes going numb feels like the only way to survive.

They bring anger—why me, why now, why my family? And the anger doesn’t stay inside. It spills out. You get short with your spouse, you snap at your kids, you feel guilty on top of the pain.

Sometimes they even bring skepticism—skepticism that anything will ever work, that all the effort is worth it.

This back-and-forth is exhausting—mentally, emotionally, and physically. And here’s what we don’t always realize: that exhaustion and stress actually fuel the migraines.