Pet peeve: when people call a bad headache a migraine.

I appreciate that if you've never had a migraine you don't know the difference, but if you've never had one kindly shut up. I know that sounds mean but ... let me explain.

With a bad headache your head really hurts. You might have concentrated pain in a given area or it might spread a bit into your neck. You may have issues with light or sound and it may be difficult to concentrate. Cool.

With a migraine you'll get "auras" which vary but can be auditory and/or visual distortions. Your sense of touch goes bonkers and not only can you not "concentrate," but you will be unable to think at all. You may not be able to move parts of your body or walk straight.

Any light, sound, or even touch can be incredibly painful heaped on top of your head and probably neck back and stomach being in excruciating pain already. You may start throwing up.

And your inability to walk, see, hear, move, speak, or think is not entirely from the pain. Yes, these actions will be incredibly painful during a migraine, but the reason you can't do them is not due to the pain, it's because your brain is currently hating on you.

With a normal headache you can take over the counter medications to get the pain to subside in about a half an hour.

With a migraine even if you have prescription medication you're out for the next half a day minimum. Some people have migraines that last 72 hours.

I managed to do the reverse of most migraine sufferers. I had them as a kid and then they mostly went away after puberty. For most people it's the opposite. But my medication for my migraines was basically a heavy sedative. It was MEANT to knock me out.

And the other thing is migraines do lasting neurological damage if you don't let the sufferer rest or have their meds. They leave actual scars in the brain. A bad headache doesn't typically do that, but migraines do it so commonly that most MRI techs recognise them immediately.

You can tough it out through a bad headache. You CANNOT tough it out through a migraine.

And let me tell you migraine sufferers are not being wimps. I've broken bones, gotten a concussion, had whiplash and the WORST pain I've been in was a migraine.

Seriously. Most people won't have to experience this, but there is a kind of pain that you cannot work through. I'm not downplaying headaches, because they're not nice, but migraines are a whole different beast.

Do NOT tell a migraine sufferer to tough it out. Because they're waaaaay the hell more metal than you if you've never had one.

And of course a big problem with this is that most migraine sufferers are women and ... well people in general disregard women's pain.

Again, I'm a bit of a daredevil and I've taken the cuts, hits, and falls that doing that entails. I know pain. Migraine pain was orders of magnitude worse than any of those injuries including the serious ones. A *component* of a migraine is indeed a severe headache.

Severe headaches come with migraines, but a migraine isn't just a severe headache. If you haven't had a migraine imagine the worst headache you've ever had, multiply that by ten and add the feeling of being stabbed repeatedly in the eyeballs plus the inability to move or speak.

Even if migraines were not painful they come with so many weird neurological extras that a person suffering one will not be able to process so much as a simple conversation, will be temporarily effectively blinded, and might not have the motor abilities to walk.

It's one of those pains that's so intense you stop realizing you're in pain. I really can't describe how crazy it is to people who haven't experienced it. So ... if you don't suffer from migraines - and you would know if you do - do NOT call bad headaches migraines.

If someone says they have a migraine get them to a dark room where they can lie down and just leave them be. Handle the rest later. Get them some water, something to throw up into, and a cool compress and just leave them alone.

If it turns out they just had a headache then they won't say "migraine" again to you and if they had a true migraine then you've just helped someone avoid neurological damage.

I'm so fortunate to not really get migraines anymore, but I just get so mad when people toss the term around or worse try to tell someone with them to tough it out. PLEASE have a care for what it is you're talking about.