Migraine, Moving, and Depression: What I Realize Years Later

When I got severe postpartum depression after my daughter was born, I found myself analyzing my entire life, wondering how I went from someone who was so happy most of the time, to someone who did not want to live anymore. I eventually came to realize that I had always had obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and it caused anxiety, and I finally got help for it. I also finally realized I had depression at one other point in my life and had not even realized it.

When I was in middle school, we moved for the third and final time. I had just started sixth grade and was almost 12 years old. We had moved a couple of times before due to my stepdad being promoted. The first time we moved from where I was born in Alabama near Anniston to South Carolina. I was only 6 at the time and had just started school, so the move was not devastating to me, and we did not have a lot of money before and now we would have more. I did miss some family though, so when we did get to move back to Alabama two years later I was actually excited about that move, and it meant even more money again, because we were still far from being well off. We would still be two hours away from where we were before, closer to Huntsville, but that was better than how far we were now.

We ended up living in this new place for almost four years and it ended up being my favorite place we ever lived. We moved right around my eighth birthday, so I remember my family taking me to Chuck E. Cheese because I didn’t know anyone else yet. We lived in the country on three acres. My mom and stepdad still rented the brick house we lived in, and would not finally own their own home until our next final move. We got a new dog once we had been there about a year that my parents would end up having until she died of old age when I was 23, the year I got married. I will never forget the day we got her. My parents called us all into the living room and we thought we were in trouble, then my stepdad walks in with a little mixed weenie dog puppy from the pound we named Sissy.

Sissy was a major part of my childhood and truly a member of the family. She was always following us kids around wanting to be involved in everything we did, and finding her way into most pictures. I eventually made a best friend who was like a sister. We were always at each other’s houses. She loved my dog too and I loved her cats. We both took baton lessons at the same place outside of school. She got off the bus with us the day the blizzard of 1993 hit until her dad could come get her, and we got the closest to making a truly large snowman we ever had as Sissy was hopping through the snow nearby chasing rabbits.

When another move and possible promotion a couple hours away near Birmingham, AL came up not long after that, I was not happy about it this time. The dog even had a hard time with the move, because we went from the country to the suburbs and she went from three acres and wandering as she wished and coming back in the house whenever she wanted, to a fenced-in backyard. My mom had to start taking her for walks in the morning, and she would often break free if we left a door open too long, but she always came back usually within about three hours or less. She also once learned how to jump their small fence until my stepdad found something to put at the top of it to stop her.

The move was hard on my mom as well. Where we used to live, she would get off at 4 p.m. every day and went to the gym regularly with my stepdad. In the new place, with the same company, they often worked her to death and she would sometimes work until 9 p.m. Our allergies seemed to get worse and we all got sick more too, and I think it was partially due to living closer to a bigger, more polluted city like Birmingham.

Right before we had moved, I got a call I had made Silver Belles, which was the highest honor at my baton place. High school girls were in it and I was going to be in sixth grade! My mom had trouble finding a baton place like the old one I went to at first and I never got put back into it. By the time I could try out for majorette in high school, which they would not let you do until 10th grade here, I did not think I was good enough to even try to make it anymore. I think my sister had just made the dance team before we moved, so I know she went through her own similar troubles. My stepbrother was in college by this time, but our move to the country I loved so much, was the move I think was the hardest on him. He was in high school and went from a big city to a country high school, and just did not feel like he fit in, and he had to leave his long-time girlfriend.

I would eventually understand his pain. In this new school district, there were as many people in the high school for ninth to 12th grade as their had been at the entire K-12 school I went to before. Yes, every grade was in one school, so it was an adjustment to say the least, especially at a time I now realize is hard for most kids that age regardless of moving. My daughter is now 13 and in eighth grade, and sixth grade was a rough year for her and most of her peers. Everyone is hormonal and mean and going through so many changes. I felt like there were already cliques here and we did not have those yet at my old school, or maybe we did but I had so many friends I had not noticed them until I had no friends at first.

Even though I had always enjoyed school and did well in school, the first couple of years I cried a lot and I missed a lot of school due to migraine headaches. My mom had migraine before and knew how painful they were, so she did everything she could to try and help me. She would miss work to take me to a headache clinic, I had an MRI done and was checked for jaw issues, etc. We never figured out the cause, but the headaches eventually stopped. I now realize it is because over the next two years I would eventually have a good group of friends and was very active playing drums in band and loved it. I also enjoyed high school more and ended up meeting my future husband there. The fact he had to move here in seventh grade and leave his best friend was probably what bonded us the most.

Back when we moved, we did not have Facebook and FaceTime, etc., but now we do and I do keep in touch with my childhood best friend. She lives in D.C. now and I have met up with her both times I visited. Instead of mourning how close we might have still been today had I not moved, I now realize I might not have my husband or daughter if we had not, and moving enabled us to have opportunities we never would have had otherwise and resulted in some generational curses being broken.

I truly think I had depression back then now. It was not talked about as much back then, so my parents nor I had any idea, but I feel like if the same thing happened to my daughter today, I would realize it and be better able to help her, and I think that means we have made a lot of progress in society, although we still have a ways to go of course.