In Bed

In Bed
Joan Didion
# Writer conveys her own painful expression of migraine headache.
‘In Bed’, an essay by Joan Didion depicts her personal experiences with migraine headache, which she inherits from her parents. She presents something unusual about the disease in a more philosophical and meditative domain of thought.
Joan spends her day in bed there almost five times a month because of the migraine headache. She knows that she is going to be attacked by the headache when she feels some sort of irritation and flow of blood in the vessels of her brain. To avoid the attack she takes some medicines and starts to work. In her earlier days, she thought that she would get rid of the disease just by denying it. Sometimes she even tells lies saying that she did not have the attack frequently. But the truth was that sometimes the attack was quite violent and long lasting. However, she feels good that she does not have any other physical problems, such as brain tumor, eyestrain or high blood pressure. She also tries to do all her normal work in spite of it. During the attack her right temple (head) would suffer extreme pain and tears would roll down from her right eyes. She would also vomit. Generally the headache may also be caused by stress, allergy, and tiredness, an abrupt change in blood pressure, a flashing light or a fire drill.
It’s strange that no medicine works effectively in case of migraine, especially when the attack begins. Some people may have hallucination, blinding effect, stomach problem, tiredness and pain in all the senses along with headache. They are even unable to do their normal work. During the attack Didion can’t see and speak clearly. She looks as if she has drunk some wine. But the headache never takes anyone’s life. It is interesting to know what doctors believe about a migraine sufferer. They said that the individual is ambitious, inward, and intolerance of unbearable pain But Didion’s untidy hair and carelessness in house keeping do not point out her migraine quality. However her great effort to write and rewrite a single paragraph for a week reveals some sort of perfection. Finally she accepts the diseases and lives with it. When she has it she simply concentrates on the pain. But after ten or twelve hours she gets some sort of refreshment and spiritual power. She opens the window and feels the air, eats gratefully and sleeps well. She feels as if she is blessed by God. Therefore she is happy.

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In Bed
In this essay the writer conveys the painful expression of migraine headache. She describes the migraine headache in general but particularly focuses on her own experiences as a migraine sufferer. According to her she spends her day because of the migraine pain 3-5 times a month. In the beginning she thought that she could be free from it by simply denying it. But unfortunately the savior pain of migraine never denied her. For writer her identity as a migraine sufferer was a “shameful secret” it was because she had internalized the society’s mission caption that migraine was the result of “bad attitude, unpleasant temper, and wrong think”.
Later, the writer accepted the existence of migraine headache, She accepted it as something with which she would be living, like some people live with diabetes that mean the writer gradually accepted the migraine because she had now realized that migraine was not the result of her bad attitude but the result of stress, allergy, tiredness, change in the air pressure etc. The writer had also understood that migraine was hereditary in nature. According to writer, she has migraine because both of her grandmothers had it; her mother had it and also her father had it.
In the essay Didion wants to correct the society min conception about migraine. To the society the migraine problem is imaginary then heredity. The non-sufferer think that the sufferer refuse to take any medicine thus make themselves sick. As they say,” why not take a couple of aspirin”. The writer describes the insensitive treatment of society received by the migraine sufferer s like her. She even say’s that she is even lucky because her husband has migraine and know it’s pain .At least, she doesn’t have to receive mistreatment front her husband.
Even the doctor are insensitive to words the migraine patient’s the doctor have misconception of a “migraine personality”. They think that a migraine personality is ambitious, inward, and systematic and perfectionist .Once a doctor told the writer that she didn’t look like a migraine personality .Simply, her hair was messy .The doctors too, like the rest of others, are unable to feel the pain of the migraine sufferers.
Towards the end of the essay the writer says that now she has completely accepted migraine as her friend .Now she doesn’t deny it, nor does she fight with it .Thus by using both the impressionistic and impartial styles the writer successfully describes the painful expression of being a migraine sufferer and the mistreatment that the migraine sufferer receive from the society.