Whether you have them every day or every three months, headaches definitely affect your quality of life. MIDAS and HIT are two questionnaires to assess the extent of the impact.
Before I recognized how seriously I was affected, a doctor gave me the MIDAS test. The highest score on the test, which indicates severe disability, is 21+. My score was above 100. Needless to say, the results floored me.
This was what it took to see just how bad my headaches were. In the ensuing months, and years, I would recite MIDAS every time I questioned the realness of my illness. Every time I blamed myself, I repeated my mantra. This made a huge difference in how I perceived and dealt with my headaches.
If you question how real your headaches are, these tests are invaluable. They can also help you assess your pain from one time period to the next.
In addition, you can show the results to people who are close to you, but don’t really accept what you’re going through. As they remember the last one to three months, the pieces may slowly fall into place.
You are definitely not a wimp! Perhaps your mantra could be, “Midas. I’m not a wimp. Midas. I’m not a wimp. Midas. I’m not a wimp….” 🙂
K
You just blew my mind. My results were well over 100, too. I don’t even know what to say except thank you. Maybe this knowledge will help me accept that I’m dealing with something serious, not just a wimp.