Loved Ones Of People Who Suffer From Migraine Experience How It’s Like For The First Time

Until recently, people thought that getting a migraine means just having a bad headache. The advice is to just take an analgesic, have a lie down and ride it out. For sufferers, it has been impossible to explain to people what they are enduring. Aside from the excruciating and relentless pain in the head, between the eyes and the temples, migraine sufferers also experience other symptoms that make getting through the day close to impossible. They may also be subjected to…

“…visual disturbances, nausea, dizziness and extreme sensitivity to sound, light and touch.” – The Huffington Post

Pain killer company Excedrin has created a migraine simulator which allows people who don’t suffer from debilitating migraines to experience them first hand by wearing simulation goggles. These people have loved ones who get migraines regularly and are taking a step towards trying to understand what they go through. The results were moving. It gave the participants a real insight into what their family and friends went through when they got a migraine.

All the participants seemed confused and exhausted after wearing the goggles. It was only a taste of what the sufferers experienced when having a migraine for a whole day.

In the following images you can see some of the symptoms as the participants experienced them through the simulator. This is typical of what migraine sufferers will see, whilst at the same time enduring excruciating pain.

Loss of Vision

The above image demonstrates a severe loss of vision. A black cloud seems to close in on the world of the sufferer so that they seem to be looking through a smokey tunnel. It must be incredibly frightening and disorienting to suddenly lose vision in this way.

Seeing Spots and Auras


Often a migraine sufferer will start to see spots and auras, which are bright circular lights in their line of vision. Imagine losing your vision suddenly or visualizing spots and auras while you are out in public or at work; or worse still while you are driving or about to embark on to a bus or train. The disorientation could prove to be very dangerous.

The participants were in shock after the experiment and it definitely gave them an insight into what a migraine really feels like. It isn’t just a headache and it can leave lasting emotional, psychological and physical damage in its wake.