Meet the Martial Artist Who Turned Chronic Pain into Advocacy

Cat felt she’d lost everything to chronic pain. Then, her daughter’s illness moved her to take action. Advocacy and the wisdom of martial arts helped her get back on her feet — and help others.

Catherine “Cat” Charrett-Dykes had her first migraine attack when she was about 12.

It felt like a stabbing pain in her head. She soon lost her peripheral vision before experiencing tunnel vision. Her hand also went numb, and she threw up.

Cat took aspirin, slept, and felt better — eventually.

Throughout her childhood, she continued to have symptoms of migraine, including language loss and brain fog.

She didn’t realize it was all part of the same disease. It would be many years until she understood that it was migraine.

Cat almost lost everything when she developed chronic migraine, but eventually found her purpose in the disease as the founder and CEO of Chronic Migraine Awareness, Inc. (CMA).

Through advocacy and martial arts, Cat found a new identity and sense of purpose while living with migraine.

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The difficult road to diagnosis

Although she didn’t know it at the time, Cat’s first attack was a hemiplegic migraine, and the language loss she experienced was aphasia.

When she was older, she began having pain during migraine attacks. She saw multiple doctors but didn’t get the answers she was looking for.

By 2009, Cat’s migraine was chronic, and she had become completely disabled. Cat was working at a martial arts studio and had to quit.

“I just got to the point where I was like, I can’t continue this anymore,” she says. “I was working at the dojo, and I love it so much. But between the screaming and the falling, it just was not a good place. I couldn’t do it.”

Cat began spending most of her time in what she called her “cave.” It was her laundry room: the darkest, quietest place in her house. She felt as if all her roles — wife, mother, sister, friend, employee, martial artist — were being stripped away.

By 2013, Cat was in a serious depression and became suicidal after trying multiple treatments that didn’t work. At the same time, her daughter, then 12, had her first migraine attack — the same kind Cat had experienced when she was that age.

Help is out there

If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, help is out there. Reach out to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988. If someone is at immediate risk of self-harm, call a trusted family member or friend or try 911 or your local emergency number. Stay with the person until help arrives.

Finding a new purpose

Cat was spurred into action after seeing her daughter’s pain.

She had previously started a chat group on Facebook where people with migraine were able to support one another. Though she had felt that her sense of identity had been stripped away a few years before, suddenly, she had a new role: advocate.

“I kind of felt like, well, maybe my niche was the support groups,” Cat says. “Instead of trying to take [migraine] head on, we’ll take it from the left — a little Sun Tzu.”

Sun Tzu is the author of the 2,500-year-old “The Art of War.” As someone with two black belts, Cat doesn’t mention his name by mistake. Sun Tzu’s philosophy and martial arts are intricately tied together.

“The Art of War” stresses understanding your and your opponent’s strengths and weaknesses. While martial arts is a physical activity, it’s much more than that. It’s a way of life with a focus on respect, discipline, and mindfulness.

Cat began to understand that respect was more than just bowing to her sensei. It was respecting herself by acknowledging that she deserved to be healthy and enjoy her life. She saw that discipline was about more than going to the gym every day. It began to help her endure the pain of migraine every day.

Martial arts also helped Cat learn when to talk and when to listen. She learned how to use the energy people were sending her and divert it or use it positively.

Martial arts “taught me about boundaries, those verbal things that come at you, the stigma and stuff like that,” she said. “Once you learn that you don’t have to accept the things that are coming at you, you can just let it go. There is definitely power in that.”

Why advocacy matters

CMA has grown into a global organization that empowers individuals to advocate for their own health through online support groups, volunteer programs, and the Rally Against Chronic Migraine campaign.

Being an advocate gives Cat purpose, and it reminds people that advocacy can happen in many ways. It doesn’t have to involve leaving your house or getting on a soapbox.

Cat points out there was a time when the only thing she could do was communicate with others via computer from her “cave.” Doing so started a movement.

“Sharing a meme may seem pointless, but somebody might go, ‘Oh, you know what, I didn’t know that,’” she said. “And you know what, that one little thing could lead to something else.”

How to apply Cat’s lessons to your own life

When Cat thinks back to her lowest point, she couldn’t have imagined her life could look like it does today. She remembers thinking she would never get better.

Today, she’s enjoying life. She has about eight migraine attacks a month and takes Nurtec in addition to other treatments. Her body feels better, and she can exercise and move again.

Cat gets a reminder from the lotus tattoo on her back. Lotus flowers grow through the mud and murky water before they bloom into beautiful flowers. The lotus flower represents the murky struggle of migraine and Cat’s ability to rise above it.

The journey to find relief doesn’t happen overnight, but with the support of groups like CMA, the lessons of martial arts, and the power of advocacy, people with migraine can access power, resilience, and hope.