“The process of getting an accurate migraine diagnosis was one of the most confusing, fearful, and difficult periods of my life,” Natalie Sayre tells SELF. Sayre, 28, lived with chronic migraine for years before getting a diagnosis.
After the onset of her first migraine when she was 19, Sayre’s migraine attacks worsened, but she had a pretty limited understanding of the scope and intensity of the condition. At the time, she focused on what she describes as Band-Aid-type solutions, like taking over-the-counter and prescription migraine medications whenever a migraine attack struck in hopes of lessening or shortening the episode.
“It wasn’t until I’d pushed myself to the brink of daily, debilitating pain and was forced into medical leave from my first full-time position that I took migraine disease seriously,” she says.