Can Headaches Be Disabling?
by Mike Cohn
I am certain that most people experience headaches occasionally.
These types of headaches most often go away within an hour or so.
Unfortunately, there are other kinds of headaches such as migraines,
allergy head-aches and stress headaches, which can be disabling.
When I say disabling, I mean that the individual experiencing the
headache may be unable to function in everyday life activities.
For example, I have a friend who lives with headaches on a day-to-day
basis. When the headaches come on, she is unable to work or involve
herself in social activities. The only thing she can do is take medication
and sleep off the headache, which prevents her from fully functioning
during these times.
One way that she can prevent the headaches from disabling her is
by taking medicine when she begins experiencing an aura. When the
aura occurs she gets a flash of light in her eyes. If she catches
the aura before the headache progresses, then she is able to continue
functioning in daily life activities.
Depending upon how one defines disability depends on how one considers
a headache disabling. Headaches are not something that can be seen
directly, rather they are a hidden disability. People who have visible
disabilities can also experience headaches. Therefore, they become
doubly disabled. Fortunately headaches are not a permanent disability.
When the headache goes away they are back to square one with their
disability.
The National Foundation
of Headaches has a chart which can be viewed at: www.headaches.org/consumer/topicsheets/chart.html.
This chart is very descriptive and can provide the reader with
information according to the headings listed below:
(a) Type
(b) Symptoms
(c) Precipitating Factors
(d) Treatment
(e) Prevention
