I am not a long hauler. In 1999, I had my first migraine. I rarely had headaches. This was not that. I thought I was dying. Drove myself to the ER. They did a cat scan. And then they sedated me. By 2006, I was having three to four a week, having to be sedated to reboot. I had daily headaches... And this is where I confronted what I hear you confronting here.

I got tired of hearing myself say, 'I have a headache.' People actually stopped asking me how I felt- they knew the answer. Overcoming the 'identity' of I am this headache took a moment. It was a serious inner struggle. It took me two years to get migraines down to one a year. I have gone the last 7 years without... I lied for a while, answering how are you with, "I am well, thank you. And you?" I had to get off of me quickly. Remembering a narrative detail from someone else's life story minimized my self analysis- so "And you? Didn't you tell me you had' X?' going on?'"

How about, you're a survivor?