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I agree, only in the BDSM world is your ability to take higher levels of pain a bragging right. The descriptions I write aren't meant to show how tough I am or how bad my clusters are, or even to scare people into believing they are worse than they are. Yes, everyone experiences pain differently, what one person finds excruciating, the next person will brush off with little thought. Do we need to convince people who don't have clusters how bad they are? Yes, I think we really, really do. Have I gone over the top with that, clearly some people think so. I had a job awhile back where my manager bragged to me how he had only ever had one headache his entire life. Not even a migraine, just one headache. And this was at a time where I was getting signed off work for up to 7 days with a single migraine. He just didn't get it. He didn't understand how it was a problem and why it was affecting my work. So much so, that the company paid for me to see a headache specialist and get a proper diagnosis. Once I had that, he backed off. But he still didn't get it. And that is one example of discrimination I received BEFORE I had clusters. I've often said, that if I could have a super power, it would be the ability to touch someone and give them a 5 minute cluster headache. Now, you might think that is harsh, but it is the only way people will understand it. Short of that super power, I put my pain into words. Here is a description of one of my worst ever clusters. There is no exaggeration in this, this is how it felt, and is taken from my diary written at the time. The part about where I was standing outside my body, looking down on me, is called Depersonalisation, and sometimes happens when someone is in an extreme situation. And lastly, I would say, if you don't like my descriptions, that's fine. Don't use them. But you can't say that isn't how I perceive clusters just because it isn't how you perceive clusters and think it's over the top. My clusters are not your clusters. Mox