「故事·听力」I Have A Migraine And It Drives Me Crazy
I Have A Migraine And It Drives Me Crazy
This is Rita. She has a sad story to tell about how illness ruined her life. It may seem an overstatement but you’ll understand in the end. What is this horrible thing, you might ask? Cancer? AIDS? Nothing of the sort – Rita’s talking about a very trivial thing called a migraine.
A migraine, you’ll say, we all get migraines – they don’t destroy people’s lives. Unfortunately, there’s a huge difference between a migraine and a headache, even a strong one. If you’ve ever had one, you’ll definitely understand what Rita has in mind here. Do you know the Cruciatus Curse from the Harry Potter books? The one that inflicts endless pain on people that can drive them to madness? That’s more or less a good description of a migraine.
Rita has had episodes since her early childhood. However, the point is that they’ve become fiercer and more frequent as she’s got older. She can still remember what she was like in her early years. She was very curious, and pretty bright. Years have passed since then, and now she has only a memory of that girl. She hates to say this, but she feels sorry for herself. She has never done anything to deserve being punished like this. Migraines don’t occur for objective reasons – it’s just a matter of luck and genetics (mainly luck). What happens with her? First, she sees an aura. These are flashes and tracks of light, and they could even be considered beautiful if they didn’t mean that soon after she’ll experience excruciating and unavoidable pain.
Migraines strike you spontaneously with all their force. Just imagine: you’re busy doing whatever you’re doing – working, driving, reading a book, and you’re suddenly paralyzed by pain that feels as if some kind of creature is pushing through your skull. And there’s more to it than that – dizziness, vomiting; intolerance to sound, light and smells, and more. The symptoms vary, and they can accumulate during your life. And the best part of it is that it can’t be cured, so you just need to accept the fact that you will keep getting them like, forever. And so, Rita used to be an energetic child. She had lots of ambitions. Now she’s finishing school with worse than mediocre test results and she’s not sure that she even wants to enter college.
It doesn’t mean that you become stupid. Rita doesn’t have any problems understanding her school subjects, which is strange when you look at her grades. The thing is that when you’re suffer from chronic migraines, they can strike you at any time, and you need to accept the fact that you have to postpone everything you have planned and just lay yourself down in a dark, silent room and pray that it will pass soon. It means that the word “deadline” doesn’t make much sense to you. And then there’s your social life! You try to make friends, and it actually goes alright until you start skipping one meeting with them after another. What’s worse, you become permanently irritated and paranoid, expecting a migraine to start at any moment. Would you want to have a friend like that? Probably not.
Okay, you might say, just try to predict them and act accordingly! But the sad thing is that there are lots of unpredictable, random triggers that cause migraines. For example, your period. Overeating. Skipping your meals. Oversleeping. Not sleeping enough. Sudden loud noises. Low buzzing noises. And every sufferer has their own unique set of triggers. For Rita, for example, it’s the smell of mint and the scent of coffee. It sounds funny, but if you concentrate you’ll notice that the whole planet smells of mint and coffee!
Rita’s tried all the different types of medication, and she doesn’t miss any new one that appears. Her poor parents spend all their money on doctors, and it doesn’t bring her any relief. She realizes that soon she will have to start working, and she’ll also spend all of her money trying to cure it, most probably without success. However, Rita doesn’t want you to think she’s a super-negative person. Ok, most of the time she lives like a zombie, but at least you can be a zombie with a well-organized life! Yes, that’s right – migraines really teach you discipline. You sleep exactly 10 hours a day, no less, no more. You eat only freshly cooked, healthy meals. You exercise all the time. Ironically, apart for the migraines she’s a very healthy person.
So, why does Rita think that this illness has ruined her life? She can’t live a full life, travel or simply go to the movies with her friends; she can forget about having the career she’s always wanted; she’s screwed up her studies, and her social life is pretty miserable. Even her personality has changed – now she’s always grumpy and irritated. And she’s not losing hope that one day they will find cure for migraines, and she’ll finally live the life she has always wanted to, go to university, and all in all be the happiest person in the Universe!