In Bed | Class 11 English notes

In Bed Summary in Short

In Bed | Class 11 English notes

“In Bed” by Joan Didion is an essay about a terrible headache called migraine. Ahe attempts to describe migraine headaches in general and her own particular.

The author states that she gets an attack of a migraine almost 5 times a month. She takes a certain medicine in order to avoid the attack of migraine. If she fells to do so, she is not able to function properly. Moreover, he doesn’t like to express the truth while filling the form of a job and scholarship. she knows the fact that the exposure will deprive her of opportunity. She doesn’t even express the truth to her friends for fear of losing social prestige.

The author believes that she has no other physical defect to accept migraine. However, she has come to know that it is hereditary complex and she has to live with it throughout life like a diabetic patent. But, she doesn’t lose her heart hoping that there are more terrible diseases than a migraine and she, not the first one to suffer from in the world.

The author imagines that there is no easy availability of medicine for migraines in the market. Although there is medicine, it is prescribed by the doctor only under compulsion. Once the medicine is prescribed, the patient will have to take it throughout his life and it has side effects as well. To her, once the attack of migraine is underway, no drug touches it. Moreover, the pain can be so severe that it can cause the patient to lose eyesight, have stomach problem and make him handicapped as well.

The author is very much thankful to God for having such a husband who is also a migraine patient. She claims that non-suffers take migraines very lightly trying to associate. It with a common headache and the kind of criticism they pass is more painful than the actual pain of migraines. She has begun to treat it as a regular friend in the course of time. She lies in bed in the posture of yoga letting it attack her. She is well aware of the fact that the pain has to go down after it reaches the climax. When the recedes, it takes away all her resentment giving her a kind of pleasured sensation.

1) What are the distinctive traits (symptoms) of migraine? How does it differ from a common headache?

Answer:  According to the author, the symptoms of migraines differ from person to person. However, it says a terrible pain that can last from 6 to 8 hours. Moreover, it can make the patient give alarm with the sudden irrational irritation and the rush of blood into cerebral arteries. Once, the attacks start, it is confirmed that no drug touches it so the medicine which is prescribed by a doctor under compulsion is only taken as preventive. The remarkable distinctive traits of migraines are that their patient is always sensitive by nature and anything to trigger migraines to him. Similarly, another trait of migraine is that the severe attack can cause the patient to lose eyesight, have his stomach problem and even make him handicapped.

Migraine differs from a common headache because it is hereditary and the patient has to live with. Throughout his life. Similarly, there is no easy availability of medicine for it in the market. even if it given it has to make regular to avoid its arrival.

2) What popular misconception about migraine does Didion want to correct?

Answer:  Didion, who have undergone long painful experience seriously by common people? The non-suffers take migraine patient doesn’t want to be cured by taking common medicine in order to have a long rest. They jumped to the conclusion that migraine patients pretend to suffer from terrible pain for their benefits. To Didion, it is totally an imaginary disease for the non-suffers simply because they can't the depth of pain if can create. Therefore, she believes this kind of state they passion for migraine patients is more painful than the actual pain of migraines. The other misconception she wants to correct is that migraine patient doesn’t mean to be the patient if he lacks migraine personality. All migraines people may not have the same migraine personality.

3) What intellectual does Didon have towards migraine?

Answer:  Didon, who have suffered from migraine in her life, has been able to know that she can’t escape from it at all in spite of her several efforts. So, she doesn’t get much terrified as she used to be previously at the onset of a migraine. In the course of time, she has begun to realize that the fighting spirit towards migraine can’t to listen to her pain, rather it magnifies it. So, she has started treating migraines as a friend attached to the core of a heart. With one set of migraine and its symptoms. She lies in the posture of yoga in bed concentrating on pain only. She lets migraine attack her hopping that it has to go down after it reaches the climax. Naturally, when the pain receeds it takes away all her resentment giving her soothing pleasure.