Joanne Lee SmithChronic pain and symptoms recovery Nurse / Coach

Migraine Recovery: Finding Peace and Lessening Pain

27 Jan 2026 · 2 min

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1:31

In this excerpt from her YouTube video, Joanne Smith shares a candid, decades‑long personal history with migraines, describing how she suffered from frequent attacks—often weekly, sometimes twice a day—for over 30 years, with only brief remission periods. She recounts a recent therapeutic session focused on migraines that helped her gain clarity and shift her mindset: she stopped fearing the attacks, recognized they were not life‑threatening, and adopted an "unbothered" attitude toward their occurrence. Joanne frames this mental reframing as a key component of her broader "recipe for recovery," extending the same approach to other chronic issues she experiences, such as back pain, neck pain, and eye problems. By taking small, daily steps and reducing emotional reactivity, she aims to gradually improve her overall well‑being.

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And the expectations that I was having being like, oh no, I hope this doesn't happen. But wow. And when I actually did the session a few months ago on migraine, which I did talk purely about that, I worked it out that I had had regular migraines for over 30 years of my life. Like, for over 30 years, it was very rare that I would go for a few months In between, and often it was every week or twice a week and sometimes twice a day. So yeah, sorry, I've gone a little bit off track, but I think it's still relevant for the recipe for recovery. It was the clarity, but it was also being— not knowing and caring when, and just not really giving attention anymore, just being unbothered. Oh well, if that happens, I'm willing to take the chance because now I know what it is. Now I know that it's not dangerous, even though, like, I'd never had any— like, it never— it put me in bed for a few days, but I'd never had a fatal thing from it. So I just reached that being unbothered. I'm using the migraine as an example, but it's the same with the other symptoms. Back pain, neck pain, eye issues. Just each day, just little steps towards expecting it to be a bit better and being a bit less bothered.