Migraine Trilogy Part 2: Migraines Through the Ages: What History’s Most Famous Sufferers Teach Us About Living Well Today

In 1885, Lewis Carroll made a diary entry that stopped him cold. He had just
experienced, as he put it, “that odd optical affection of seeing moving fortifications,
followed by a headache” [1]. He was describing what we now recognize as a classic
migraine aura — the visual disturbances that precede an attack. Carroll, of course, had
no idea that the shimmering, shape-shifting world he was seeing would one day carry
his name. Today, neurologists use the term “Alice in Wonderland Syndrome” to describe
the perceptual distortions that can accompany migraine aura [2]. The rabbit hole, it
turns out, was neurological.

Carroll is far from alone. Across centuries and continents, some of history’s most
brilliant, prolific, and consequential figures lived with migraines — not in spite of their
greatness, but alongside it. Their stories don’t just offer comfort to today’s sufferers.
They offer something more useful: a window into how people have coped, created, and
persevered through this condition long before there was a name for it.

Want to Read More?
Contact me to request the full article.