I’ve had this really severe migraine for the past week. Only those who suffer from migraines know how debilitating they can be. A migraine attack makes you feel miserable and useless to say the least. It’s not what some people think it is – that it can get you some respite from work. I’d rather do the work than be weighed down by a migraine.
A migraine attack can set you back in many ways – the things you had planned to do remain undone and they keep piling up; the things people expect you to do only serve to make the migraine worse although these people tell you to take it easy because you know that at the end of the day these things are waiting to get done. The headache never stops.
Every time I get a migraine attack I take a relook at life. I tell myself that I must learn to take things easy; that I must prioritise family first before work. Well-meaning friends tell me to learn to take it easy. But it’s easier said than done, especially if you have lived in the fast lane (of work) for the past 26 years like I have.
My neurologist once told me that all high achievers suffer from migraines and I agree with him to a certain extent .Yes, I’ve been literally working myself to death. I’ve always worked hard from day one of my teaching career. My husband laughs at me and says I have the knack of getting into schools where they work me to the bone. Being a performer is no compliment. At the end of the day, all you get is more work, more responsibilities and more stress. I also spent more than half my lifetime studying. I guess I studied to death trying to do well ( for self-satisfaction, not for anything else); then when bosses recognised my capabilities, I took on the responsibilities thrust my way with gusto – again to prove to myself that i could get it done. Doing a job well somehow gives me an intoxicating kind of pleasure. But I sometimes forget that when the load on the camel’s back (yes, I sometimes see myself as a beast of burden, albeit a patient one) gets heavier, the camel tumbles. But like the camel, I’ll rise and start all over again, I know
So, work becomes one of the migraines of life. Someone once said that ‘man works for his stomach’. I suppose this is not true anymore. I know of people who do not need to work yet they push themselves every day. Our needs have increased. We no longer have three basic needs in life (this is what we were taught during Commerce lessons). These needs have become the migraines of life.
