Now, I’m not one to judge the severity of someone else’s anxiety level, but let me share a pet peeve of mine: I hate it when people use the phrase “panic attack” to describe a mild dilemma that clearly came nowhere close to launching them into that all-too-familiar downward spiral of shaking, tachycardia, dizziness, derealization, and air hunger.

You may know the feeling. You feel a migraine coming on, and you’ve got a pill in your pocket that can save you from the pain, the sensitivity to light, and the sick stomach. Of course, that pill — that miracle pill, really — is going to make you lightheaded. Or jittery. Or drowsy and all fatigue-y.

If fatigue, sleepiness, and the jitters have a proven history of making you panic, do you still take the miracle pill?

The other week, I finally bought some light-blocking curtains for the bedroom. (“Helps reduce stress and improve sleep!” boasted the plastic package.) Glad to finally have a dark room to retreat to, I drew the curtains shut. Save the light of the alarm clock, I was in near complete darkness. Ahhhh. Perfect.

For about five seconds or so.

I was half convinced that my brain and my heart had temporarily switched locations. My newly-transplanted heart, I imagined, had gotten cozy behind my right eye and it stabbed my optic nerve with each beat. Put simply, migraines aren’t just painful — they can be scary.