"I get headaches, too."
This and other comments like it are among the most exasperating things people suffering from a migraine can hear.
"A lot of people try to say these 'helpful' things that just drive people crazy. And the funny thing is you hear the same things over and over," Dawn Buse, Ph.D., a clinical health psychologist and director of behavioral medicine at Montefiore Headache Center in New York, told the Huffington Post. "Generally they're saying these things because they want to help, but it often comes off sounding uncaring or flippant or like they just don't get it."
To understand it better, the Huffington Post team asked their Twitter and Facebook followers, along with Buse and Dr. Jason Rosenberg, director of the Johns Hopkins Headache Center in Maryland, for their least favorite comments about migraine headaches.
Reassurances from others that they suffer from headaches as well was just one of the cringe-worthy things sufferers said they encounter on a regular basis. Although everyone has suffered from a headache, a migraine is entirely different because it is a neurological disease.
Another thing migraineurs don't like to hear is: "Move around, you'll feel better" or "Do something to take your mind off of it."
According to Dr. Rosenberg, the perverse nature of a migraine means it's impossible to get your mind off of it. In fact, "physical activity tends to make it worse," he said.
The statement "it's all in your head" rubbed many the wrong way, too. Buse says that although migraines typically do take place in the head, they are not a figment of the imagination.
"This is a biologic condition that involves the brain and brain structure and neurotransmitters and is quite complex."
