Yow!!!    Print out the opening page on this site and also the letter from the OUCH site a give that to your Dad.
     I did that for my coworkers telling them I wasn't looking for sympathy but I just wanted to let them know what I was going through just in case the saw me acting a little strange.
     They were all shocked.
     I know if one of my daughters had this problem and showed those pages to me, I would definitely get the message. 
     It's not so much that people, including your Dad, are not sympathetic, but no one could possibly know what we all go through no matter how you try to explain it.
     Hang in there with your Dad.  He just needs to be educated.
                                   JPC

Parents are so often in denial when it comes to their children.....no matter what the circumstances.  I've been guilty of that as a Mother.

Bet your Dad would kill for you if push came to shove.  So often people just don't understand and that doesn't exclude parents, friends, family, etc.  Sad but true.

Hang in there...

Jackie

Let me throw my 2 cents in here. FORGIVE!

I come from a LONG LINE of migraine sufferers, BUT really did not know this UNTIL I was diagnosed with CH. Apparently my grandmother, father and SON all suffered from migraines, but being a person who'd never had a headache an aspirin wouldn't cure (until CH) I (as well as the rest of the family) thought they were "faking". By the time my son was "diagnosed" I had already been diagnosed with CH (and asked if anyone in my family suffered from miagraines to which I answered "no").

To say I felt (and still feel) horrible that I let my "child" suffer with migraines when I could have done something is a mild chastisement. I don't remember my grandmother's headaches that much, but do remember my dad's "sick headaches" (thought they were just to get out of doing something - he always got them when he was stressed as does my son).

So from a parent.... there's no way we'd "knowingly" let our child suffer if we thought we could do something, but sometimes we're just ignorant and unknowing. Give your Dad time and educate him. Sometimes we're just not as smart as you think we should be.

Of course, it's a two way street. When I get hit with a CH - my darling son has a habit of saying, "Gee Mom, it's JUST a headache - why don't you take an aspirin?" Paybacks are hell...

Hugs BD

A good question about the severity of the headache being affected by the location.... It reminds me of a quote I once heard - Where attention goes, energy flows.

I think there is a slight difference in the severity if I am in public vs at home.  I find that my relationship to the headache is what makes the difference.  If I am at work or in public, there quite simply isn't the option to start screaming, cursing and crying like a lunatic, no matter how bad the pain gets.   However, sometimes the tears start flowing from one eye no matter how controlled I am trying to be. 

When I am in public, I put my attention on keeping it together, minimizing the pain and getting through it. I deliberately calm and distract myself as much as possible and, with a few exceptions, it does keep the hit from getting as bad.  Rather than hitting an 8 or higher, it might stay down at a 7 - extremely difficult to function through but possible if I give it everything I've got and have no other option, anyway.  I just tell myself I have to get through this so I can get home - and I do.  There have been a few exceptions over the years, of course.

When I am at home, I am not as easily distracted and all my attention goes to the headache.  Rather than fearing losing my composure, I fear the pain.  Where attention goes, energy flows... I put my attention on the pain and it takes over.  I put my attention on maintaining my composure and I can force myself to function through it. 

Kushka

Kushka has found the target: working toward a detachment which helps shifts attention from the pain, our suffering, our victimhood [going back to my message several weeks ago on this question], and helping us shape a state of mind which encourages the pain flow around--rather than thru--us.

(A long time ago we had a useful run of messages around this very topic: how do we cope with the attack vs. being controlled by it.)