Today's prompt is 'How does humor help you cope?'
In my opinion humour is the best coping tool you could possibly have. If you can laugh at a situation that is the best possible perspective you can view it in. Also, taking notice of the entertaining things in life can be really quite fun. I’ve found that for a year or two now I automatically interpreted things and situations (provided they aren’t something serious) in the most humorous way possible. Sometimes I actually crave comedies. Laughter releases endorphins which are natural pain killers, and helps relax the body. I can feel that this is true, because some days I’d laugh for whatever reason and realise for the first time that I’m extremely tense and actually in a lot of pain. Then usually what would happen is that I’d want to keep laughing for quite a while, longer than appropriate if I’m with people, so I guess my body really knows what’s good for it! Laughter may not be the absolute best medicine but it’s pretty damn close. Some websites/pages that I find funny: - Damn You Auto Correct (though I should warn that it does have swearing on it) - Post about subtitles on Harry Potter video (need to be familiar with movie to understand it) I think I'll gradually add to the list when I find websites worthy enough to be added.
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Prompt 25 is 'Lincoln: Who's your favorite historical figure who lived with Migraine or another Headache Disorder?'
I don’t have a favourite historical figure as much as I just like the idea of people taking their experience with migraine and using it to help inspire the creation of something that people will look at and enjoy for a long time. Two well known people who did this are Lewis Carroll and Vincent Van Gogh. Lewis Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland. There is a part in the book that describes Alice becoming suddenly large then suddenly small. This is thought to be inspired by a certain type of migraine aura, Todd’s syndrome, which is also called Alice in Wonderland Syndrome. Vincent Van Gogh is thought to most likely have had migraine and that the auras caused by his migraines may have inspired some of his painting. Their work is well known and as popular as ever. I suppose it’s why I’m mentioning them in particular, but there are many more out there. I found a list of visuals artists, writers and musicians online which were quite interesting. I had no idea there were so many people out there. Prompt 15 is 'Harry Potter: Write & name a spell for getting rid of a Migraine/Headache attack.'
Harry Potter is awesome :D I've read all the books multiple times, seen all the movies, multiple times, and got a beta account on Pottermore. Just today my dad was watching a show and a character said 'The Ministry' so I thought 'Ministry of Magic?'. So given this Harry Potter background a spell for migraine didn't really seem right to me. A little bit like taking a pain killer, a temporary fix. If you want it to go away properly, you need a potion. So here's the Cephalea Auferet potion: Ingredients: - 3 small moonstones - essence of dittany - Honeywater - Ginger root - 3 medium sized peppermint leaves - a handful of lavender petals 1) Grind the moonstones into powder and place into cauldron. 2) Add 5 drops of dittany and 3 of honeywater. 3) Lightly heat potion until it turns a light pink. 4) Slowly add finely chopped ginger root until potion turns deep pink. 5) Grind peppermint leaves and lavender petals together with a mortar and pestle and add to potion. 6) Leave potion to sit overnight. It should be a deep purple colour in the morning. This potion would fix everything for a single migraine attack and make it all better. If it was real... As if I needed another reason to want to go to Hogwarts... Prompt 12 is 'The Box: You are the experiment: What situation in your Migraine/Headache Disorders treatment has made you feel most like a
guinea pig or lab rat?' I have always hated trial and error. In primary school maths we’d have these puzzles where we’d have to try out different numbers until we get the right combination and I always found them so boring and pointless. I mean, that’s hardly a practical way to get the answer, right? So now it’s a weird twist of fate that I seem to be doing the exact same thing, except now with medicines. At least numbers were pretty harmless; it’s a pity the same can’t be said for drugs. Medicines for migraine are tricky in that no one can say, ‘Here, this will definitely work,’ so the only way to move forward is to try some medicines out that have worked for other people and see what happens from there. It’s like I’m playing trial and error with my body, and I hated trial and error enough just on principle when it was a no risk thing with numbers. So my answer to this prompt is simple: ALL OF IT. Everything has been, ‘try this and when you come back tell me if it worked’. And then it hasn’t worked so I get told to try something else and come back later. It’s really quite frustrating. The fact that the risks of trying the medicines, even if they’re small, exist, make it even worse. But as long as there is a chance of an improvement I have to try it out even if I don't like it. This prompt is: 'Pretty Woman: What do you do to look good when you feel like crap?'. So it was strange when one day I felt the impulse to put some make-up on, just before going out. But not going out, going out, but just going out of the house to go grocery shopping with my mum. It was a day when I didn't just feel bad, I felt fragile and somehow putting on make-up helped make me less fragile, allowing me to go out into the real world without ‘breaking’. In general though, I do nothing. I usually feel well enough to pass for normal, and then if I don’t people have stereotyped me as ‘quiet’ anyway. It’s funny how much difference a smile and a bit of a laugh at whatever’s happening can make in convincing everyone around you everything’s fine. One example is when I went to see Les Miserables with three friends. The ending made me and one other friend cry. The two friends who did not shed a tear throughout the whole thing (how could they!) were good-naturedly teasing the one friend who did cry about crying at the end but didn’t seem to notice that I’d been crying in the slightest. All I did was smile, laugh a bit at the teasing and nobody looked twice at me. Now, that’s not a serious example but I have used this before in other situations and it seemed to work as well. People tend to want to believe the best to be true. I guess looking good doesn't have such a high place on my priority list. Like sure, I want to look nice enough, but I don't want to go to too much trouble, especially when I'm not feeling well. ‘When you walk through a storm Hold your head up high And don't be afraid of the dark At the end of the storm There's a golden sky And the sweet silver song of the lark Walk on, through the wind Walk on, through the rain Though your dreams be tossed and blown Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart And you'll never walk alone You'll never walk alone’ - You’ll Never Walk Alone, Carousel Prompt 5 says ‘Carousel: You'll Never Walk Alone’, which happens to be the name of a truly amazing song. I did this song for a bit in singing and immediately feel in love with it. It’s perfect in every way. It’s not just that the melody is beautiful in the simplest possible way. It’s the lyrics as well. But I’m guessing this prompt is supposed to be about the meaning of the song, not a rant about how wonderful the song is so I’d better stop praising it. I can never say that I walk alone. I have a really supportive family and my friends are really great people. I’m not sure how that happened… my sister can’t say the same… but it’s really quite awesome :D I don't know if my friends know what difference a simple conversation can make some days. I hope they do, but then is a conversation normally a big deal? Sometimes I wonde I tried to find a youtube version of this song that I completely liked, and I couldn't but this one comes pretty close. The beginning's a bit too showy-offy for my taste but it gets good ones the singing starts. And when I say good I mean really good. Prompt 4 is 'Finding Nemo: "Just keep swimming": How do you keep going in life when Migraine or another Headache Disorder deals you a difficult set back?'.
In short, I have no idea. Probably by exploiting my natural ability to be extremely stubborn. It's really quite a great asset. To tell you the truth, I chose this prompt purely because of that video, not because I had any particular insight into this topic. But I chose it, so I guess I should try to think of something to say. I guess I live my life by the philosophy, 'it's okay to lose the battle, as long as it isn't the war'. If something doesn't go the way I would like, I don't think of it as failing, I think of it as a tactical retreat. Then, because of the whole stubbornness thing, I generally start plotting how to try to make it work again quite soon after. That's not to say that it doesn't annoy me when things go wrong. It really does, sometimes more than other times depending on my mood. But in the end there's no point in stressing about it and it's best to use my energy in making a contingency plan. So to quote Dory: 'When life gets you down do you wanna know what you've gotta do? Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.' Dory is a wise fish. As I wrote earlier I'm picking and choosing my prompts due to exams, and the one I'm choosing first is 'The Hunger Games: "Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor": What healthy habits have you adopted to put the odds of better Migraine & Headache Disorders management in your favor?'
For some reason, I started answering this prompt, and then suddenly I had an idea for a fanfic. It may be a bit morbid of me, but I started wondering how having migraine would affect a tribute in the Hunger Games. Could it ever be considered a strength or would it only be a weakness? Anyway, to explore it I'm writing a fanfic. It's probably weird, but now I'm curious and I can't help but wonder. If anyone's interested you'll find it here. Now back to the prompt. It's actually surprised me how much my habits have changed because of migraine. I sleep way more than I used to because I can't stand not to. I feel the need to drink water way more than I used to, so I've started carrying a drink bottle with me wherever I go, even for a short car ride. My food choices have changed ever so slightly. I try to stay away from MSG since I'm completely sure it's affecting me negatively in some way but it's hard to know what's in anything these days. It's not much, but I guess it's better than nothing, and I'm always trying to get a little bit healthier in an attempt to make my life just a little bit better. |