Leaning in to love your migraine brain

What’s your superpower? The migraine brain is hypersensitive and working fast all the time, not just between attacks. So that means that many of us with migraine can do things the migraine muggles just can’t.

So often in health things that are different from the norm are described in negative terms: defect, abnormality, and so on. But actually, some of the things about having a migraine brain are pretty cool, and if you can control the attacks we can use those super powers for good.

I was a pretty decent radio announcer when I was younger, and I didn’t realise until my 40s that part of that is because I have superpower hearing. My doctors would refer to my noise sensitivity as a ‘symptom’ – a bad thing that should try and be treated. But when I worked in radio, being able to hear the bad edit, or listen to 5 or 6 things simultaneously, was a great asset I didn’t know I had.

One thing that was not such a great asset was the speed at which I talk. I can talk really fast! I still have my old bosses voice in my head telling me to ‘slow down’. I used to have signs up in the on air studio reminding me to slow down, and sometimes when I’m doing an online meeting, or perhaps giving evidence to a parliamentary inquiry, I still put up signs telling me to slow down. But now, with the joy of working with lots of other people with migraine through Migraine Australia, I realise that lots of us talk fast! And those who don’t can still understand and keep up with those of us that talk fast! We can hammer through an agenda that would normally take an hour in under 30 minutes. Love it!

I love how fast my brain works (outside of the actual attack phase where I become stupid…). I remember my aunt once told me as a kid that I was the kind of student that is really frustrating for teachers… they spend all this time preparing a lesson plan thinking it will take a full hour, and boom, I’ve done it in 10 minutes. I’ve always been like that: I get things fast, pick up new skills fast, can connect the dots and see the big picture and the detail at the same time. Unfortunately, putting ‘I have a migraine brain’ on my resume is not yet seen as a good thing – but it should be!

My hypersensitivity to food – more commonly called food intolerances – is not something I love. But I know that I can taste ingredients in things pretty easily, and I don’t think others can do that too. So I’ll keep leaning in to find the good in there too.

Learning to love your migraine brain can be very tough, particularly when you are besieged by attacks that make you so sick. But I have found it a very helpful for thing for my mental health. Embrace your superpower!