Patients who suffer from migraines or cluster headaches often feel misunderstood

The majority of those surveyed know someone who has had migraines or cluster headaches.

43 percent don’t have migraines themselves, but know someone who does. For cluster headaches, that’s 14 percent.

15% of those surveyed had migraines, and 3% had cluster headaches. About a fifth have an infection at least weekly, half or a few times a month, and a third a few times a year.

Patients often face misunderstandings, and therefore often experience feelings of guilt and shame.

Three out of four patients say that others do not understand the feeling of a migraine or cluster headache, 63 percent feel others do not value their limits, 41 percent think their friends and family find it boring and annoying when they talk about their condition, and 39 percent think others find it boring and annoying frivolous or weak. Slightly more than half feel guilt when others have to think about migraines or cluster headaches, a third are ashamed of it, and 30 percent have depressive thoughts about it. a quarter of Patients sometimes lie about why they canceled an appointment rather than admitting that they had migraines or cluster headaches.

The knowledge about migraine in non-patients is not very great.

Sixty-nine percent of non-patients believe that stress is a major cause of migraines, and 41 percent that de-stressing is one of the best ways to get rid of them. 74 percent do not know that the average migraine attack lasts from one to three days, and 34 percent believe patients have it for a maximum of 3 hours. 35 percent believe patients simply have a headache or tension headache and call it a migraine to make it seem worse.