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Whitney Cummings Speaks Up to Fight Migraine — Her Own and Yours Too
‘It’s time to stop minimizing and normalizing pain,’ says the Emmy-nominated comedian. By Don RaufReviewed: March 11, 2020Fact-CheckedComedian Whitney Cummings is an advocate for migraine care.Robyn Von SwankAs a stand-up comedian, Whitney Cummings makes people laugh for a living, but as a person who has lived with migraine her whole life, she wants people to know that this debilitating disease is no joke. That’s why she is speaking as part of this year’s Migraine World Summit Onstage event to help people understand how serious migraine can be. The cocreator and producer of the hit TV show Two Broke Girls says that when she started having migraine attacks as a young girl, her family and doctors would dismiss her crippling condition. “I always thought I must be ‘crazy’ or ‘dramatic’ for always having a headache and other migraine symptoms, but it’s time to stop minimizing and normalizing pain,” she says. Although it’s been a long journey, the 37-year-old entertainer has now figured out ways to tame her chronic disease. Everyday Health recently sat down with Cummings to talk about her history of migraine and why’s she stepping forward to help others who are coping with the disorder. Everyday Health: When did you first start getting migraine attacks? Whitney Cummings: They started when I was a kid. I remember going to Disneyland, and being the person who ruined the trip because Whitney has to go to the car and put a pillow over her head. A trip to Six Flags amusement park had to be cut short because Whitney has a migraine. I feel like I was always the bummer in my childhood. EH: How bad were these attacks? WC: My migraines were so debilitating. I couldn’t see out of one eye and my left side would go numb. I always thought I was dying. I was always having to go into dark rooms and to the school nurse’s office. I remember a lot of silent suffering. EH: Why were you suffering in silence? WC: I was so ashamed and embarrassed about it, because it’s not a pain you can prove or show. It’s like when you’re a kid, and you say you have tummy ache. Every kid is saying that, so when you go to the nurse’s office, they are like, “Yeah, right.” They don’t believe you. Plus, it’s hard to initiate getting help, because migraines are hard to describe when you are in them. You are not able to observe what’s going on because you are in such pain. People would say, “Tell us what your migraines are like,” and I wouldn’t remember because I was blacked out and unconscious from the migraine.more on Migraine Migraine Experts and Celebrities Kick Off 2020 Migraine World Summit at Live Event
EH: How did your parents handle these episodes? WC: There wasn’t a lot of information about it back then. My parents said, "Calm down, relax, you’re being dramatic, how bad could it be?" My parents sent me to a psychologist — not a neurologist or a headache doctor. They didn’t know what was going on. They thought I was, like, a liar. It does sound like a lie — a kid saying I can’t see out of one eye for three days. I don’t know if I’d believe it. EH: Did it get to a point when they realized you were having a serious health issue? WC: I had some real debilitating ones when I was 12 or 13 when I flew in a plane or went to a sleepover at a friend’s house. I didn’t realize until later, after meeting with a bunch of neurologists, that the migraine brain doesn’t like change. It likes regularity and routine. So if I was outside of my routine, or going to bed at 4 in morning, it would be bad. I remember going to friends’ houses for sleepovers and just lying there and saying, “Oh my god, I have to go home,” and I would have to call my mom. As a teenager, that’s pretty traumatizing. You want to be friends with all the girls, you want to fit it, you don’t want to be the person with this weird ailment. At that age, I remember a doctor saying that I should go on birth control for the migraine — not for the pregnancy protection, but to see if it would help with the headaches. EH: Did things start to get better for you then? WC: No. As I got to college, it got worse, worse, worse. A big one of my migraine triggers is an increase in adrenaline and cortisol — which comes from stress, which we all have. It’s a neurological imbalance. So when I went to college I was really stressing out trying to get good grades. Also, I wasn’t eating well, I was drinking too much coffee, I was dehydrated, I was in a bad relationship. I was making a lot of the mistakes that we all make when we leave the house. I was eating chips and staying out till 4 in the morning and drinking. I noticed that other people would have a hangover, but I would have a five-day hangover. I couldn’t see the next day. I thought, “That’s not normal.” EH: Did you learn from these bad experiences? WC: I started to recognize my triggers, but it’s taken me 15 years to really know them. My personal triggers are sunlight, eye strain, and hormones and adrenaline. Sometimes the stress leading up to something can trigger the migraine, and even the stress of anticipating a migraine can bring one on. Alcohol can be trouble for me, too. It took me a long time to figure out how to drink — how to relax and have a good time with everyone but not have a five-day inflammatory migraine. So I can do tequila, and I can do organic red wine, but I can’t do vodka, white wine, and Champagne. And that’s totally fine. EH: How do you handle or minimize stress now? WC: For a really complicated ailment, there are some really simple solutions, but it takes a really long time and a lot of trial and error to get to those solutions. I keep my routine as much the same as possible — so I try to wake up at the same time every morning and sleep at the same time every night. Exercise that relieves stress helps me, but I have to be careful. When you do strenuous, muscle-tearing exercises, you produce lactic acid, which can disregulate your neurochemicals. I will try to exercise three times a week now and really take care of myself during that time by eating right away afterward and hydrating myself. EH: Do you take any medication? WC: The treatments I’ve tried have been mercurial — sometimes they worked, and sometimes they didn’t. I went on a thyroid medication and antidepressants. I was off sugar and off gluten. Along the way, I went on Relpax (eletriptan), Namenda (memantine), and Imitrex (sumatriptan), but I was taking Imitrex so much at one point and my headaches got worse. I take beta-blockers now, which help hugely. I didn’t find out about them until about three years ago. I know if I have a big meeting, or a big audition, or a big performance, or anything where I know I’m going to be nervous, I just take one preemptively, so that I’m not blasting my brain with adrenaline. My goal is to keep my neurochemicals, my hormones, and my blood sugar levels as consistent as possible. An IUD [intrauterine device] that helps regulate hormones has been a game changer for me. EH: And how do you handle your other triggers — sunlight and eye strain? WC: I went to an eye doctor and got eyeglasses, because sometimes straining to see can bring one on. I don’t stay on the computer for more than 30 minutes at a time, and I put my phone on dark mode. In the studio, there are a lot of spotlights, so sometimes I have to sit in a place where a bright light is not in my eyes. If you think I’m a diva, that’s fine. I always wear sunglasses outside. I don’t drive at certain times, because driving home at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, the sun is in a spot that triggers it. I’ll just have coffee and wait an hour before I drive. It becomes that serious in terms of how you live your life. EH: How have all these habits and medication helped to reduce your migraine episodes? WC: I would have migraines monthly before, and they would last for three or four days. Now I get one every three or four months that I usually can get under control in about two hours. EH: Have you ever had a migraine interfere with your performance? WC: In stand-up, you can’t not perform, so there have been times I have gone out on stage with a migraine. The beginning of my migraine attacks will be like I’m in a daze and removed from my body in a way. It’s like a numbness that’s hard to explain, but migraine people will know. It’s like a pressure where your skull is going to crack. I know it sounds crazy, but you have a hard time thinking of even simple words. When words look like figures and hieroglyphics, I know it’s coming. I remember it happening when I was going on stage at a theater, and I saw the exit sign but didn’t know what the word meant. I said, “What language is that?” Then I thought, “Oh, crap!” Still, I went on stage because I know my stand-up well enough to be able to do it. At this show, I remember saying a joke, and about 10 minutes later when I said another joke, no one laughed and instead, the audience looked confused. I knew I must have said the same joke twice. That was really scary. EH: How have migraines affected your relationships? WC: With migraines, you might have to tell a partner that you have to leave a party right now. No one is going to date you unless they are really into you. It weeds out people who are impatient, and shows you those who are compassionate. I’m not in bad relationships because I know my brain won’t let me; they are not sustainable. I argue that migraine people are more fun than other people, because when we don’t have a headache, we are so grateful to just be present. We may lack spontaneity, but there’s a lot of time in bed, if that’s any consolation for a partner. EH: So migraines have a positive side? WC: They are empowering in a weird way. I have developed a confidence that I don’t think I would have had if it weren’t for the self-preservation that I have needed. Migraines have helped me find out who I am, what I need, and how to stick up for myself and claim space. I’m the person on the plane who, when a woman takes out perfume (which can be a trigger) says, “Excuse me, ma’am. You can’t do that.” And everyone on the plane says, “Thank you!” EH: Did you expect to become a spokesperson for migraine care? WC: In my book (I’m Fine ... And Other Lies), I talk about my struggle with migraines, how many work opportunities I missed from them, and my journey of figuring out these headaches. I didn’t think anyone would care, but I was flooded with emails and letters. People would come up to me on the street or crying in airports, saying, “Thank you. I had no idea. You helped me figure this out.” People may not have time to go to doctors and do all the research that I’ve done, so I feel like it is my responsibility to pass along the information that I have learned. Treating migraines is like playing whack-a-mole: you solve a problem and then another one comes up. But I’ve have thousands of dollars of medical advice and experiences, so I would like to share what I’ve learned. Life is hard enough that you should not have to suffer with a migraine. If we can send a man to the moon, I say, why can’t we stop migraines? NEWSLETTERS Sign up for our Chronic Pain Newsletter
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