Many people are just beginning to hear about the extremely painful phenomenon known as cluster headaches, but most of them have no idea what it’s like to go through a cluster headache attack. For the average person, it’s just an intellectual awareness. They tend to think that these are just like regular headaches, only a bit more painful, sort of like migraines. Unfortunately for the victims, nothing could be further from the truth.

Suffering through a cluster headache makes having a regular headache seem like a walk in the park, and even migraines don’t even come close to comparing to them.A cluster headache attack is one of the most painful things a human being can ever endure. In fact, the pain is so bad that suicide is not uncommon among people who suffer from this horrible condition, which aren’t onetime events, but regular occurrences. What’s one like?

Imagine you’re lying in bed, and you’re just about to fall asleep, or you’ve just drifted off. Suddenly, you’re aware of a burning sensation on one side of your face. It quickly begins to spread, and it changes from a warm feeling to one of acute pain. You feel the eyelid on that side of the face begin to droop, and it also starts tearing. This is how a cluster headache attack begins.

But that’s just the beginning of the ordeal. Soon, the acute pain has become far, far worse. Victims report that they feel like they’re being stabbed in their eye or it’s like having a hot poker shoved through their eye into their brain. The average person can’t even begin to imagine the level of pain the victim is feeling. Making it worse is a sensation that an electrical charge is driving the pain, amplifying the effect even more. By this time the victim is often writhing on the ground or bed, screaming from the pain, begging God to deliver them. This can go on from half an hour to 90 minutes.

That’s what a cluster headache attack is like. Anyone who thinks they’re like regular headaches but just a little more painful has no idea what it’s like to go through one of these things. Having a cluster headache attack a horrible experience.