You feel a familiar build up of pain. Small at first, but there. Maybe it’s just a headache, you think. You hope. But you’re working and you need to tough it out, you tell yourself. You can’t keep missing work, you can’t keep delaying this “to-do!”
Just one more hour! It’ll go away…right?
Wrong. Before you know it, your headache is a throbbing, stabbing, migraine. All you can think about is your pain and how to stop it. Every noise is a siren, every light a high beam into your brain. Your muscles in your neck and shoulders seem to harden like rocks and your stomach clenches.
Not again, you think. I can’t miss work repeatedly like this. Or skip dinner tonight with the family. Lose out on time with friends over and over. Miss tucking your children in.
Does your family think you’re avoiding them? Do your friends think you’re pretending, that this is just an excuse to duck out?
The guilt sets in, the stress, the anxiety, the sadness.
You can’t face being stuck in a dark room, alone, stuck with this pain.
You can’t keep missing out on life.