A Northern Ireland woman has opened up about her migraine experience in the hope that she may help others.
Chloe Henning, from Newry, has been dealing with severe migraines for almost two years. At times, the chronic pain has caused her to feel sick, leading to a drop in weight, to name just one effect it has on her life.
The 23-year-old told Belfast Live that she has began to experience migraine symptoms in November 2021.
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"I have never had headaches, or migraines at all until this point," she added.
"All of a sudden I started to take bad headaches, every single day. From November 2021, until today, May 3, 2023, I could count about three or four days that I have had with no pain. I am literally in pain every single day.
"The migraines are debilitating, and so tough to deal with. I have been a makeup artist for seven years and I have had to cut down my working hours massively, and have lost clients that have been with me for years. The stress of that was horrendous.
"With me, I would get eye migraines too, where half of vision would just go. It could be for five or ten minutes or it could be as if I am looking through a kaleidoscope, where all I can see is colour. I am on anti-sickness tablets because the migraines would make me extremely nauseous. I have lost over a stone in weight, and I am small anyway.
"When the pain is bad, I physically cannot eat. There are so many aspects of my life that it affects."
Chloe is awaiting an appointment with a neurologist, and was diagnosed with Chronic Migraines after going down a private route. And now that Chloe knows what she has been going through is migraine related, she's using her platform online to raise awareness, and to engage with others in a similar position to her.
"I am a Christian and I felt really lead to talk about my experience," Chloe added.
"A lot of my clients, who are around my age, would have been in to get their eyebrows or eyelashes done and I had a lot of girls saying that they had the same issues. They felt that nobody else talked about it, and that they were on their own. I wanted to share how my faith helps me in this too.
"Now I am sharing my own personal experience, how I deal with it and how my faith is linked to it as well. That was one of the biggest reasons that I wanted to be public. I found massive support through online pages and social media accounts, and that made me feel less alone about it.
"When I was diagnosed, I didn't think anybody else my age would have it. I found support from other experiences, so thought 'I should do this too', It is much more than a head ache. I have tried so many different medications and they are not working. Some would say 'it is just a headache, take some Paracetamol and you'll be fine', it is more than just that.
"It is literally not being able to move, lying in a dark room with something over your eyes and no noise in the background."
Posting an awareness video on TikTok, Chloe saw views of over 100,000. Her video on Instagram was shared hundreds of times and sparked a conversations between Chloe and scores upon scores of other migraine sufferers across the UK and Ireland.
"When I posted the videos, I never expected such a response," she added.
"It's a much more common thing, migraines, with more people experiencing it than I first thought. If I can help one person feel less alone, then I'll be grateful. I found that by posting videos that are real, people resonate with that. This is real life and it's not always great."
You can follow Chloe's journey on TikTok here or over on her Instagram here.
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