For this post Chronically Beautiful teamed up with the Diamond Headache Clinic in Chicago Illinois to bring you information on chronic forms of headaches, migraines, and abdominal migraines.  We also hope to give you information on diagnosis and treatment of these conditions.  The following story is my personal experience with migraines, and abdominal migraines, and I have high hopes that we can openly spread some light on the subject and spread the message of hope for healing!  

I was born with Chronic Lyme disease, but I didn't know until I was about eighteen years old.  The Lyme spirochetes settled in my stomach, to begin with, and I suffered from what I believe to be abdominal migraines for about three years of my childhood.  I recall many days of school missed, lots of doctor and hospital visits, and an entire summer where all I could manage to do was stay on a couch watching TV, playing video games, or reading a book.  Those years of my childhood were my first taste of what Lyme disease had to offer me.  Little did I know the long battle that I had ahead of me.  I personally believe that abdominal migraines can be a symptom of Lyme disease, therefore making the root cause of my pain the bacteria slowly eating away at my digestive system.  After some dietary changes and a lot of suffering later, I believed for a while that I had simply "grown out" of my severe and consistent stomach pain and I was ready, as a pre-teen, to face the world head-on.  Unfortunately, you never really grow out of Lyme disease.  You simply build your immune system enough so your body can handle the high amount of toxins in your system.  I guess for awhile, my immune system kicked into full gear, and I was okay.

As a young teenager, I recall many moments when I would be sitting in a church meeting, and all of sudden the speaker standing at the podium in front of me would appear to be fuzzy and blurry.  I recall large black dots forming on their face, on the walls, and everywhere around me.  I recall going home with the feeling of knives shooting through my brain.  I'd come home to puke, and then sleep until the pain eased up.  I did this a lot as a young teenager.  Unfortunately for me at the time, there wasn't a doctor that I went to that had an answer to my mysterious and seemingly random health problems. I simply had to endure the pain.  And when the medication didn't work or made me worse, there didn't seem to be relief.  There didn't seem to be an answer.  My first tastes of Lyme disease were very bitter.  And at the time I had no idea what I was actually tasting. 

The good news is that I've discovered now that there are things we can do to help symptoms and illnesses such as migraines and chronic headaches.  Suffering from any form of a chronic migraine I know from experience is very real and very painful.  Today we have alternative forms of help and lifestyle change that can improve our quality of life through chronic conditions like this.  For more information on migraines and headaches, please view the following presentation provided for us by the Diamond Headache Clinic.  We appreciate their help and commend them for striving to help people who suffer from painful conditions such as abdominal migraines and chronic headaches.  May we ever keep trying to find hope for healing and healing methods that help to heal the mind, heart, and body as a whole.

Believe it or not, these are all questions and comments that I've received at one point or another along my journey of health and wellness!  It never ceases to amaze me how uneducated the human race is about the health crisis in America, all the different conditions that people can suffer from, and how we're completely unaware of how to help these issues. 

Yes!  I said it!  WE HAVE A HEALTH CRISIS IN AMERICA! And the scariest part about it is that most people are completely unaware of how our health is quickly plummeting to a state where obesity, diabetes, cancer, and chronic illness of all kinds are running rampant in our society.  Feeling sick is the new norm, and trends of "it's normal to feel sick" are increasing more and more every day. 

I will be the first person to say that
It's not normal to be tired all the time!
It's not normal to be hungry right after you just ate!
It's not normal to have frequent occurrences of short-term memory loss!
It's not normal to have frequent headaches and stomach upset!
It's not normal to be riddled with anxiety and depression all the time!
It's not normal to have frequent gas and bloating!
And it's not normal to feel sick on a regular basis!

These are all frequent symptoms that many people suffer from, and they are a result of our bodies crying out for help because of the toxins that we are so heavily saturating our society with.  Ultimately, it's heartbreaking, and here at Chronically Beautiful we are dedicated to busting myths about health and illness, educating the public about healthy lifestyle and how to reduce these symptoms, and ultimately opening up the conversation about illness so that we can have enlightening and positive conversation in a way that helps us to see what our bodies are really trying to tell us.

We live in the "no shame" culture where we highly discourage fat shaming, pornography shaming, and anything that can "make people feel bad."  But behind closed doors, we shame the things that are for our benefit and well being all the time!  As human beings, we use health shaming as a way to make us feel better about our own unhealthy lifestyles, when in the grand scheme of things we're damaging our bodies and minds by speaking and thinking so negatively about healthy whole food, exercise, abundance, vitality, and overall balance and well being.  It's time for a paradigm shift!  It's time to start talking positively about health and wellness, and it's time to realize that people who choose not to each fast food hamburgers and pizza all the time are not making a personal insult to you for choosing to eat those things. 

​To the average person, illness and disease is an uncomfortable topic.  It's something we stay hush hush about because it's "too personal" or "too private."  But the average sick person will tell you differently.  The average sick person has to beg for someone, anyone, to ask about our lives.  To reach into our hearts!  To offer to listen!  The heartbreaking epidemic in America isn't just about the illness our bodies house, it's about the breaking of hearts and the lack of connection that is taking place that all comes down to one root cause: The health crisis in America.

So my message to you today is to STOP MAKING HEALTH SO TABOO!  We all have human bodies.  We all suffer.  We all stress. We all have insecurities.  We all have good days and bad days. So why can't we take our physical imperfections and our own unique individual experiences and use them to create a movement that can change lives and hearts for the better!  Let's make health less taboo.  Let's talk about it.  Let's ask people how they're feeling, and then answer honestly.  Let's get educated!  Let's not mock those who are striving for good health by drinking green juice or saying no to Mt. Dew!  Let's stand together.  And let's make a difference!

Health may be an uncomfortable topic.  But we weren't brought to this life to be comfortable all the time.  We were brought here to struggle, sting, and hurt at times, so ultimately we can learn and become stronger than we ever imagined!  Strength happens when we stand together.  Healing happens when we all begin to be on the same page.  My hope is to bring hope and healing in all aspects of life in order to feel more deeply and discover a deeper level of pure joy.  May we all be striving to find that joy together through health and wellness.