First Draft

3/23/2021

This past week I conducted further research into migraine stigma and worked on my final product opinion-piece. I began writing my piece by first introducing myself at how I am qualified to talk about this topic as well as how I can enlighlighten my readers about the difficulties facing migraine sufferers today. I went into detail about the institutional stigma involved with migraine by first discussing its reference within corporate workplace efficiency and Social Security and Disability issues. Using these frames I was able to introduce two essential terms as employees who suffer from migraine often have to make a choice between losing their job due to a record number of absences (Absenteeism) or continue to work while suffering from the disease (Presenteeism). Then I also talked about the SSDI or social security disability insurance and how migraine and all its branches of disease type are simply not listed in the books of the SSDI that allow a patient to receive financial compensation. After finishing this first part of my opinion piece I went to Dr. Masrour to receive advice on how I could better improve it and she recommend that I begin my piece with a more personal touch and evidence based writing should be considered secondary, in order to evoke strong emotions from the reader I must tell how I seen and dealt with migraine stigma as well as how I have classified it throughout my life. So for this next week I plan on revising this rough draft and include more of a personal narrative within the piece instead of just scientific data.