Migraine can affect many parts of your daily life. In this video, Linda talks about how migraine affects her life, from her relationships with family to her work options. Although Linda mentioned the challenges of living with migraine, she also highlighted the importance of staying positive.

Taking Breaks at Home

Migraine affects Linda’s daily life at home. “Having migraine affects everything because once you get one, you’re not able to function,” she said. When a migraine attack hits, Linda has to go to her bedroom, dim the lights, and wear earplugs to block out noise. To help with home activities, her husband is a great support: “My husband takes a lot of loads.”

Linda isn’t alone in this experience. A study found that 85 percent of people with migraine said migraine made it hard to do household chores and work.¹ The survey also showed that people with migraine and their partners felt that migraine affected their communication, “reduced the time they spent together, and increased the number of arguments.”¹

Finding Flexibility With Work

Linda is a freelance makeup artist, which gives her some flexibility to work around her migraine attacks. “My boss has been absolutely understanding, and I have the liberty to be able to say, ‘I can’t work these days,’” she said.

However, Linda noted that finding a full-time job has been tough. “It’s going to be extremely hard for me because not a lot of people are very understanding of dealing with migraine and what happens and how you just can’t function for the next days after you get one,” she explained.

Linda also said that before, she lost jobs because of migraine, showing how hard it is for many people with this disease. A large survey found that 70 percent of people with migraine said that the condition affected their professional lives in some way.²

Seeking Understanding in Relationships

Linda explained that migraine has also affected her relationships. She recalled a family trip when she had to miss activities due to a migraine attack, and her family couldn’t understand what she was going through. She noted that these situations are difficult and often stick with her.

Missing social and family activities is common among people with migraine. One study found that 45 percent of people missed leisure and family social activities due to migraine attacks.¹

Coping With the Daily Impacts of Migraine

Despite these challenges, Linda finds ways to stay positive and manage the impacts of migraine on her mental health: “The way I cope with dealing with my migraine is definitely try to stay positive, because that’s the most important thing.” She recommended finding ways to cope and seeking understanding from the people around you.

If you have migraine and it greatly affects your daily life, your health care provider may recommend preventive treatment. These migraine treatment options can help reduce the number of migraine attacks and improve functioning and overall quality of life with migraine.³ Your health care provider can answer your questions and help find a migraine treatment that works for you.

ABBV-US-01692-MC V1.0 Approved 9/2024