110. Why Migraine Social Media Can Be So Harmful

In this episode, I’m taking a soapbox moment to talk about the two kinds of migraine content flooding social media. On one side are the compassionate, sympathetic reels that validate how hard migraine life is, but quietly reinforce the belief that this is just your permanent reality.

On the other side are the quick-fix reels promising miracle supplements, hacks, and easy answers. I explain why both types of content can keep women stuck, one in victimhood, the other in false hope.

Real healing is not about waiting to be rescued. It’s about actively changing the physical, mental, emotional, and even spiritual environment your body is trying to survive in. If you’re tired of the chronic-sufferer narrative and want a deeper, more empowering perspective on migraines, this episode is for you.

If you’re ready to address the root drivers of your migraines, you can book a free consultation at the link below:

https://www.drlesliecisar.com/apply

Free Training: 5 Proven Steps to Being Migraine Free (Even if you think you've already tried everything.)

https://www.drlesliecisar.com/5SHMN

Connect with us:

Website: https://www.drlesliecisar.com/

Free Facebook Group: Healing Migraines Naturally, with Leslie Cisar, ND

Ready to try something radically different that actually works? Read more about my approach here: https://www.drlesliecisar.com/map

In health,
Dr. Leslie Cisar

Episode Transcript

hey yeah
it's Doctor Leslie
so I wanted to talk about something today
a little bit of a soapbox moment for me
you know I make these Facebook reels and you know
the TikTok reels and Insta reels
you know etcetera
social media posts and then they come in my feed too
the algorithm probably knows
when you're gonna get a migraine
before you know you're gonna get a migraine
right at this point
so we've got kind of two categories of reels
so one category is the
very compassionate and sympathetic reel
where we're following the migraine suffer around
and we're seeing how much she's struggling
cooking dinner
taking a shower going to work
going out with her friends right
we're seeing all of the struggles
that the migraine sufferer is experiencing
and we are having our compassion and our sympathy
sort of elevated right
and then of you know
of course the person watching this is
more than likely a fellow migraine suffer right
and so when we see someone
going through the same thing that we're going through
many times it makes us feel better right
and certainly migraines are so isolating and you know
you have to spend a lot of time alone
that it can be nice to feel some connection
and feel like other people are going through
what you're going through
and that you're not kind of like a weirdo right
there's other you know okay
this is what migraine is and even though maybe
I don't know anybody else that's suffering like this
clearly
what I'm going through is kind of normal for migraines
and that can make us you know
feel better in a sense
and then I know you know
a lot of people when they have a migraine
what do they do you can't do much right
so you go on your phone you're laying in bed
you're laying on the couch
you go on your phone
you start just flipping through the reels
because what else can you do
you can't think that much
you can't really move around
or your head starts pounding or the nausea gets worse
so you're just kind of like passing the time right
you're just watching the clock wind down for the day
and hope you can you know
go to sleep finally
and you'll wake up feeling a little bit better
so you know
I know a lot of my clients
they found me because they were in bed with a migraine
and
you know they weren't totally conked out
but what can you do you can't do too much
so they turn on podcasts or they go through reels
and then that's how they find me right
so these sort of you know
sympathetic migraine reels where we're
you know kind of
going through the pain
and the suffering of the migraine
a lot of people are gonna resonate with that
but the underlying message
I mean I see this on most of the reels is you know
you're this is your life
with a chronic neurological condition
it's a sort of this concept of wow
this is your lot in life
this is what you were born with
you're just gonna have to cope with it and you know
hope for the best
and hope you have good people in your life that
are gonna stick around right
like I say it's nice to feel like we're not alone
and that other people are going through
what we're going through
but what's the underlying Assumption
the underlying Assumption is this is the
this is the rest of my life right
I mean
it's not very uplifting and I can tell you it's false
it's totally false
migraines are not a permanent neurological condition
there isn't anything
wrong with your brain I mean
it's a symptom that your body is generating
because it doesn't have what it needs
to function properly and you know
for you and me if our body isn't functioning properly
we're prone to getting migraines as a symptom okay
so if you can identify what your body needs
and you're able to give your body that
then your body is going to start feeling better
and you're going to have less and less migraines
it's it's really that simple
it's not a chronic incurable neurological condition
if it were I would I would be bedridden okay
so we've got that kind of real going on
and then we have the other kind of real going on
so this is the real
where if you're struggling with migraines
it's not your fault
you just don't know about this special magnesium
that was just developed
that's a miracle magnesium for migraine suffers
because the way it's absorbed it
and goes through the blood
brain barrier right
it's like all of these product pitches
the folks that are watching the reels that say
you've got an incurable neurological condition
the people that say I don't know
I don't think that's right
I think that there's just something wrong here
and if I could address it
I'd feel better well
then those people start getting the reels
promoting all of these you know
miracle migraine supplements because let's be honest
on the one side we've got the pharmaceutical industry
which is a multi billion dollar industry
and then on the other side
we've got the natural supplement industry right
and that's another
it's not as big as the pharmaceutical industry
but it's another big multi billion dollar industry
and so
all of those reels are telling migraine sufferers
just what their mind wants to hear
hey you know what
there's just this one thing that you haven't tried
and this one thing is going to be the ticket for you
so go ahead and click to buy
you know
2999 recurring monthly subscription gets you 10% off
right
so this also is false
you're having the migraines
not because of one little thing that's off
so people are being misled on both fronts
hi there
I wanna jump in real quick and tell you about my client
Beth she was getting 15 to 20 migraines and headaches
per month and as you can imagine
this was impacting her work performance
and her confidence she also has two small children
and she was
starting to feel like she was a horrible mom
because she had nothing left for them
at the end of the day but she reached out
and she booked a free consult call with me
and after I asked her about her migraines
and her health history
I felt confident that I could help her
I help women uncover
the root drivers of their migraines
and follow a step by step plan to dramatically reduce
the frequency by up to 90%
without adding more medication
or taking a bunch of supplements
so we built her personal migraine map
followed the plan
and now she will get one to two migraines per year
which she uses ibuprofen to treat if she needs to
verses up to 15 to 20 per month
when we first started working together
that weren't responding well to any medication
she just reached out to tell me that
she got a promotion at work
she's on top of her career again
and has been able to come off all of her migraine
medication but most importantly
she's a confident mom again
and she's attending birthday
parties at Jump Zone with her kids and saying yes
instead of saying maybe later
I've worked with women like Beth
from all over the United States
who were told this is the best we can do
but they were still willing to dig deeper
so
if you're serious about changing your migraine story
go to Doctor Leslie Caesar dot com slash apply
or tap the link in the show notes
and on our free consult
we'll map out why your migraines keep coming back
and the first three steps you can take
over the next 30 days
I do cap new client spots each month
so if the calendar is full
the doors are closed for now
but if you're done feeling helpless
and ready to do the work to heal
pause this episode for 30 seconds
and book that console call
now if your body needs a little bit of magnesium
yes you could have
you could have symptoms that are generated
when there's a little bit of a magnesium deficiency
and then if you have these little
minor symptoms that might pop up with a magnesium
deficiency and you take a little bit of magnesium
or you eat some food that's has magnesium in it
you're going to fill that missing piece
and then the symptom is gonna resolve
and the symptom will come back
if you become a little deficient in magnesium again
right because this is the body's way of saying hey
you know
I need something here it's gotta tell us somehow right
so it tells us via the symptoms
migraines are not the first symptom that develops
I know that we think that it is
I know when I first started getting migraines
I was like how this happened
where did this come from right
it just seemed totally out of the blue
because I thought I was totally fine before this
but I that wasn't the case
I had tons of symptoms that had been developing
and getting worse and so on
for at least 10 years
if not more prior to the migraines coming on
so by the time we have migraines
there are multiple
sort of deficiencies or missing pieces or blockers
migraines are like a second order
or a second
tier symptom pattern that the body generates
you know
after the early warning symptoms have been sent off
okay and you know
not I don't want to say ignored
because we're not intentionally ignoring them
but just you know out of ignorance
we don't know what to do right
so once all of that has gone on for long enough
then the migraines start
so
you're not gonna turn something like that around with
you know Coq 10 B vitamins
the special magnesium
that nobody else knew about until five minutes ago
right all of these little things
and this is what I see all these reels for now
everything's in like a powder or a gummy
we're kind of living in the era of Liquid IV and AG1
where everything's a powder that you put in water right
so now I'm seeing all these reels for
like a special powder that's kind of like Liquid IV
that you put in your water for your migraines
and and you know
this is also uh not going to address the problem
because if it was just a simple nutrient deficiency
you wouldn't have migraines
you'd have much less severe symptoms
when you have migraines you do have
you do have nutrient deficiencies
because one of the things that the body needs
is it needs to have the nutrients that our cells need
right there at the cell inside of the cell
so when the cell is trying to do its work
it's trying to run its biochemistry
the nutrients are right there to run that sort of
biochemical recipe to get that work done
so yes there's definitely
nutrient deficiencies a play with migraines
but
we're not talking
something that's gonna be solved by a capsule
how do we get the nutrient deficiencies
in the first place like I say it
this is not a nutrient deficiency
like I went on a really long hike and I used up
you know a lot of potassium and so
you know
by the end of the day I started getting some you know
potassium deficiency symptoms
muscle cramping and things like that
but I have that because I used up all my potassium
on this you know
10 hour hike that I did right
in that situation
it would be appropriate to take a little bit more
potassium to resolve the problem
but with migraines like I say
it's something that has been
kind of brewing under the surface
for a long time
other symptoms have been trying to communicate with us
that we couldn't you know
really read the signals
we couldn't decipher the language
and so
you're not going to solve the problem just by taking
like a nutrient powder or a capsule or
or something like that
it's more complicated than that
and there are other things going on
than just nutrient deficiencies
as well
so this you know this type of real right
it's like we've got these two camps right
we got the one camp that this is an incurable
neurological disorder
and we're gonna cope with it as best we can
and we pray that the scientists can rescue us
and then we've got this other track that says oh
this is gonna be real simple
this is just like
the one little piece that you're missing
here's the you know
the
the one thing that you never knew that you need to do
and so it's presented to us like it's a very you know
just like a quick fix simple problem
that's gonna be solved by doing something really easy
both of these tracks don't involve us right
the first track where we're sort of you know
coping as best we can
and waiting for the pharmaceutical industry to come in
and and save us
we're not involved in that right
we're not working in the laboratory
that's developing the medications right
like we're
we're just waiting and hoping for somebody else
right to solve the problem
with the other track where we're just sort of
taking this miracle supplement
we're also not involved right
it's like well
I'm just gonna take this powder and water
I'm just gonna take this
and let's see what happens
all I have to do is take a little pill right
I don't that's all I have to do
just take a little pill and then we'll see what happens
we're not involved in that at all
the actual path to take here
is one in which
we are actively engaged in our own healing process
so you you don't restore your health
you don't restore your health when you have a
a chronic debilitating
multifactorial condition by just saying well
I'm just gonna sit back here and see what happens
you know the experts told me to take this magnesium
the experts told me to take this medicine
and I'm just gonna sit back here
and let's see what happens right
to restore our health
is an active process that we have to be engaged in
because we're the one that has to make some changes
our body generates symptoms
when it doesn't have what it needs to
function optimally in the environment in which it's in
so we are in a physical environment
we are also in a mental
and emotional and spiritual environment
and we have to when we're not feeling well
we have to change the environment that we're in
we've got an incompatibility between what the body
has and the environment that it's in
so we have to change that environment
and that requires us to be actively engaged
let me give you a few examples
the physical environment that we're in
is sort of generated by
our culture
and so sometimes
people have inadvertently
put themselves in a physical environment
that's undermining their health
I'll give you kind of an obvious example
if I'm going to stay up until 2 in the morning
playing video games every night
I'm putting myself in a physical environment
that's counter to what is the proper human environment
which is uh relative to our sleep schedule
humans are supposed to wake up
around the time that the sun rises
we're not nocturnal animals
we're not supposed to stay up and be awake
in the middle of the night
and so if I'm putting myself in a physical environment
that's counter to what is a
health supporting environment for a human being
I'm going to struggle OK
my body is gonna generate symptoms
I'm not overtime I'm not gonna feel well right
it's one thing to have a nice
fun night and stay up late
that's great but you know
for six months
if I'm staying up late and playing video games and
you know not in a conducive environment for what
promotes human flourishing
I'm gonna feel it
we may be in a mental and emotional environment
that is also counter to our flourishing
or that is draining our vitality
many times
there might be a family member that is very critical
very negative any little thing that happens
that family member is coming in oh
I can't believe you did that that was really stupid
maybe we're in that type of environment well
how are we gonna cope in that environment well
we might start to become hyper uh
critical of ourselves we might become hyper vigilant OK
you know what
I'm gonna show him if he thinks that I'm a dummy
I'm gonna work really hard to prove him wrong
and then before you know it
we're draining our vitality by trying to meet
an unrealistic expectation
an expectation that's actually
actually a false expectation
this may go on in like a family dynamic
can be very prominent in some work environments too
now we may not be able to change that
we we can't change the other people
but we can change our internal
mental and emotional environment
and how we're responding to the situation
so that we're not draining our vitality
so that takes a lot of work
our spiritual environment may not be conducive
to our flourishing
I've had clients that have been told by a parent that
uh god gave them migraines
because they were too disobedient
god needed to knock them down a little bit
you know they were too proud these types of things
this type of spiritual abuse unfortunately
it happens as a child
hearing that they're going to internalize that
why wouldn't they
and so
the spiritual environment that they're carrying over
might not be conducive to their flourishing
they would be draining again to cope with that
they would be draining their vitality right
well okay how can I be you know
more modest or how can I be less prideful
you know
how can I be a little less I'm too much you know
how can I be a little bit less right
and so then they would start to develop behavior
they'd be holding themselves back
they'd be hyper vigilant they'd be always on guard
they'd be draining their vitality in that environment
trying to meet an unreasonable
or an untrue expectation
this all requires work on our part
this is not sitting back and just like waiting for
you know the white knight the the the miracle pill
that's not
that's not gonna get you into a better state of health
you have to be actively involved
and you have to make changes
so you know
I'm guiding my clients but I'm
I'm giving a recommendation based on my experience
and based on what I think is gonna
you know get them to to the best outcome
without feeling worse on the way
which is a real risk when you have migraines
because any little change makes you feel worse
but
my clients are the ones that have to make the changes
they're the ones that have to change
and particularly when we're looking at
you know some of these environmental mismatches
sometimes they can be you know
can be a little tough to look at
you you know
you have to be ready to take that look
and it takes a lot of courage to do it and um
it takes a lot of honesty
takes some humility
um I've had
you know
I've had some major health crises in my life
and it's required me to take a hard look in the mirror
and uh
humble myself and dust myself off and say OK
how are we gonna get out of this mess right
what changes do I have to make
you have to be actively involved in this process
you can't be just sitting back and
you know waiting for me to wave a magic wand
or waiting for the pharmaceutical scientist
to wave a magic wand or waiting for
you know some supplement company
to come out with new marketing
to convince you that this is a different magnesium
that's been on the market for a long time
that's where I wanted to go today
a little bit of
a little bit of a soapbox post because again
migraine sufferers right they're being presented
what seems to be two different options
one is you know chronic neurological disease
we'll hope for new advances in the quote unquote
the science
and the other path seems to be a different path right
oh well here we're talking about natural stuff right oh
this this sounds different
but when you really look under the hood
sort of
the underlying assumptions are actually the same
on both paths
that you're just gonna sit back and you're just gonna
you know take something that somebody else developed
and then you're just gonna wait and see what happens
and that's not how you're gonna restore your health
I could say something like
you know I
I wish I could wave a magic wand
and I wish I could just give you the magical
miracle herb from the Amazon
that no one else knows about
but me I have some sort of new discovery and it's uh
gonna take away all your migraines and it's
I'm just gonna give this to you and poof
you'll be better right
I hate to say that I even wish that that were the case
because ultimately I don't wish that was the case
because all of my clients that have really
you know we call it a journey right
it's a little bit of a cliche
but all of my clients that have been dedicated to
to actually go on that journey
they found it unbelievably rewarding right
because
we're really understanding ourselves so much better
we're healing things that needed to be healed
physically mentally
emotionally spiritually
we're really becoming I hate to say a new person right
because we're still ourselves
but we're becoming an even better version of ourselves
we're becoming you know
we're stepping into what our actual true potential
God given potential actually is right
and so that's a unbelievably rewarding experience
it's an unbelievably humbling experience too
but but it's it's worth it it's truly worth it
and
I would never wanna deprive
somebody of that experience
and this this concept that we have
this belief that we have this hope that we have
that somebody's gonna come along with the magic pill
and wave the magic wand we're short changing ourselves
we're denying ourselves the opportunity
the dare I say gift
of doing this deeper work
and really healing and understanding ourselves
and stepping in to our true potential
so thanks for listening I'll talk to you soon
hi there
I wanna jump in real quick and tell you about my client
Beth she was getting 15 to 20 migraines and headaches
per month and as you can imagine
this was impacting her work performance
and her confidence she also has two small children
and she was
starting to feel like she was a horrible mom
because she had nothing left for them
at the end of the day but she reached out
and she booked a free console call with me
and after I asked her about her migraines
and her health history
I felt confident that I could help her
I help women uncover
the root drivers of their migraines
and follow a step by step plan to dramatically reduce
the frequency by up to 90%
without adding more medication
or taking a bunch of supplements
so we built her personal migraine map
followed the plan
and now she will get one to two migraines per year
which she uses ibuprofen to treat if she needs to
verses up to 15 to 20 per month
when we first started working together
that weren't responding well to any medication
she just reached out to tell me that
she got a promotion at work
she's on top of her career again
and has been able to come off all of her migraine
medication but most importantly
she's a confident mom again
and she's attending birthday parties at Jump Zone
with her kids and saying yes
instead of saying maybe later
I've worked with women like Beth
from all over the United States
who were told this is the best we can do
but they were still willing to dig deeper
so
if you are serious about changing your migraine story
go to Doctor Leslie Caesar dot com slash apply
or tap the link in the show notes
and on our free consult
we'll map out why your migraines keep coming back
and the first three steps you can take
over the next 30 days
I do cap new client spots each month
so if the calendar is full
the doors are closed for now
but if you're done feeling helpless
and ready to do the work to heal
pause this episode for 30 seconds
and book that console call now