Gemma Stark: A Change in Life

Gemma Stark shares about dealing with migraines and what’s helped her.

In January of this year, my head began to throb, and I was confused. I had always gotten headaches from time to time, but never this prominent or frequent. I had no idea why it was happening. It stopped me from doing things I did regularly before like volleyball and school. 

Every day felt like an endless loop of feeling fine, then suddenly not. About one in ten children have repeated headaches due to migraine. At first, I told myself I was probably being dramatic and that people go through so much worse. But it was taking up my life. I had migraines all day, every day. I started taking medication to try and stop my migraines in March. It made me feel even more hopeless because it never helped. 

So, I tried everything else I could think of, including avoiding dairy and fake sugars, and taking vitamins. None of these worked. I became careless and stopped doing anything altogether. I tried again and again to block the headaches out. 

That ultimately didn’t work so I decided to restart and try medication seriously this time. At first, it was hard, I would forget to take them before school started and had to suffer the entire day. Slowly though, I remembered to take them every morning and I started seeing progress. I still get migraines and headaches a lot, and I probably will get them for the rest of my life, but I have seen improvement. 

This life change taught me to advocate for myself, when I’m not feeling well, and I have become more responsible and independent. It has also made me more grateful for the life I get to live. I’m very grateful for my family, and my friends. They have always been there for me, and I’m so lucky for that. With a Perspective, I am Gemma Stark.

Gemma Stark is an eighth grader. She lives in Marin County.