I think I've got a migraine coming on

(*collapses to floor in spasms of vomiting, crying and tunnel vision)

(okay, being a bit melodramatic, but, you know, it MIGHT STILL HAPPEN!!)

What is the difference between a migraine and an ordinary headache?

I've been getting migraine auras for years, without the headaches.

But now I've been getting inexplicable throbbing headaches which don't respond to medication of any kind. Or have I just been using the computer too much, and need to get new glasses?

Two classic migraine symptoms are sensitivity to light and sound and auras. My wife takes daily medication to prevent her migraines, but when she gets one, the aura precedes the headache by about 30 minutes. If she takes a good dose of painkillers and avoids bright light and bright sounds, she can often head it off.

There are aura-less migraines, so don't think that they absolutely must be connected. I suppose if yr headaches responded well to (prevention with) topamax, say, that would be good confirmation that you have migraines.

A migraine attack lasts from 4 to 72 hours. Anything less or more than that is not considerd to be a migraine attack. Also, a migraine attack usually is on one side of the head (but it isn't always on the same side).

Getting your eyesight checked to see if your glasses need to be changed is worth doing. Also check your posture when using a computer - which is especially a problem if you're using a laptop.

The symtomps can also include vomiting but that's not always the case.

Usually it helps to lie in a dark room.

Apparently stress is not really considered to be a contributing factor. But the weather apparently can be an influencing factor. My husband thinks I'm a bit ridiculous but I fear that going to big industrial cities (close to the sea?) somehow affect my migraines: whenever I go to Antwerp, I usually have a throbbing headache. When I was in Hawaii, I had MASSIVE headaches but only on one side of the island. Crazy huh?

Migraines often run in the family. I think also women are more prone to migraine attacks, due to hormone changes? Some foods can trigger migraine attacks as well.

I'm not sure I buy this, but I have read a doc who says that migraine is ultimately undefinable. This is why you hear terms such as "classic migraine".

Sensitivity to light and sound = yes. These last for most of the morning and some of the afternoon, and nothing but lying down in a dark room and sleeping makes them go away.

Except they're not actually painful to the point of interfering with life or anything. More like a dull throbbing reminder in the temples of my head.

Maybe I'm just becoming an old hypochondriac and need to STFU. though my mum suffers from terrible migraines, brought on by caffeine, so she's always hated the fact that I don't get them. So maybe this is payback. Surely I'm too old to just develop them out of nowhere?

Posture? I lie in bed with my laptop, hah. I think I should get my glasses checked. Is it free on the NHS if you're on the dole? I think it is...

I'm not sure I buy this, but I have read a doc who says that migraine is ultimately undefinable.

Yes, very much so. This is one of the reasons I hate saying IRL that I have migraines. But when I'm nearly crawling for my bed, crying or almost to the point of vomiting, there's no deying there's sth wrong. hah.

Kate, they don't always start in your childhood. They did for me, but it can start at any point, I think.

Wondering this myself too lately; used to very occasionally (like once a year or less) have migraines with aura, but lately I've had a lot of aura-less hemicranial headaches with nausea and aversion to light, especially artificial light, and without the aura I'm not really sure if these are migraines or not. Paracetamol/acetaminophen helps a bit but not completely - does that make them not migraines?

(They're a lot less bad than I think of migraines as being - and my sympathies to those of you who regularly get the really shitty ones, which I've had only a couple of times - in that I can more or less work through them, or at least still be at my desk looking approximately workish but feeling braindead, and don't throw up, but I often get them several days in a row, and that's not fun.)

But my computer posture is terrible and at work there is a large grid-shaped light fitting right above my computer monitor just on the edge of my field of vision and I can't turn it off (without turning off that strip of lights for all the other offices on this floor) and I am about ready to put a brick through it.

There are mild migraine and horrible ones. No need to belittle the former because of the latter.

oh man, these.

started getting them about eight years ago, in my case usually triggered an hour or two after strenuous exercise. the pain is concentrated in the head, the back of the neck, and spreads down the spine to the lower back. there's like a clamp on this whole region, concentrated at the base of the skull. really bad ones i get intense nausea, vomiting, and basically unrelenting misery for hours on end.

best way i've found to avoid or blunt them is to take zolmitriptan at the slightest hint of symptoms, or earlier (e.g. after exercise). but some of my migraines have been vicious, unstoppable beasts that laugh at anything I throw at them, including opiates, and twice i've ended up in the ER, hooked up to antiseizure and antinausea IV (though i had a panic attack reaction to one of the latter -Phenergan- that was not amusing).

they're not thoroughly understood, but like epileptic seizures they're essentially a neurological phenomenon, involving electrical/chemical storms in the brain (called cortical spreading depression. this Sci Am article is a great read for anyone interested: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=why-migraines-strike

and btw (many xposts).... no, pre-onset auras are not a required element. some migraine sufferers get them, some (like me) don't.

oh: and one thing that has helped me stave off some of the milder migraines: eating a good meal. (red wine, however: no)

What is the difference between a migraine and an ordinary headache?

I've been getting migraine auras for years, without the headaches.

But now I've been getting inexplicable throbbing headaches which don't respond to medication of any kind. Or have I just been using the computer too much, and need to get new glasses?

― Dances With Psychedelic Owls (Masonic Boom), Wednesday, March 11, 2009 8:59 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark

Have you ever had a concussion? I started getting aura-without-the-migraine when I got a positively hallucinatory concussion one time (but with no unconsciousness or seizure or anything). I've only had about four migraines total and none since the year after the concussion.

Yesterday I was feeding Elisabeth a pink yoghurt. I noticed I was seeing yellow blotches on the yoghurt. It wasn't really there, just saw'em. Very weird.

This is me tonight. Gigantic big massive throbbing stress headache.

But no auras, so probably not a migraine, right?

A aura is not a requisite.

I think a large percentage of my migraines is stress induced, really. I have been trying to suppress'em: taking pills when I feel one is coming. Only problem: they keep on coming. Maybe I should just have a big gigantic one (like in the past) and get it over with? Urgh

If a migraine is a chemical thing, maybe delaying it makes it worse when it finally comes? LIke when you don't cry for ages, and when you finally do cry, all the chemicals that build up make it the most massive cry in the world? I really don't know.

I'm gonna eat a nice big carb-heavy dinner and try to relax.

there's cry chemicals?

if you're coming down with any sort of headache the computer is probably the last thing you want to be infront of.

migraine today

i was a real biyatch this morning and the world seemed super shitty all the sudden until i realized why

There's totally cry chemicals. I don't think it's entirely understood how it works, but crying is definitely more than a reflex - there's some kind of neurotransmitter or chemical activity associated with them.

It's why you often feel better after a good cry.

I'm gonna have to look this up now.

There is a chemical in tears which helps with catharsis - even a two minute floodgates opener will release some.

Yeah, I found an odd post on the Cornell website that talks about crying chemicals and emotions...

http://ezra.cornell.edu/posting.php?timestamp=1166072400

I've been having this intermittent sharp headachey pain for about 24 hours - is that a migraine? (Weirdly, it started shortly after trimming my hair.)

Awww Jesus I probably haven't had one of these in over a year but it will not go away today? I'm not on my game. Fuck a migraine.

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

so i was woken up early morning by this pulsing agonizing headache. (tailing off a little bit now after ibuprofen and eventually more sleep). never had a migraine before now (in my 30s) but also never ever had a headache this powerful and debilitating either. sensitivity to light and nausea but also mild flu-ey shivers too so idk. migraine or something else?

Having only the third one of my life. Recognized the kaleidoscope colors immediately.

Wtf causes these.

I get blinding migraines without the headaches, ones where the centre of your vision completely goes. They were rare for me as well until recently so I had a few panic attacks during the first few. Now I'm just like oh ffs not again when they start coming on. I find turning the light off, putting a cold cloth on my head and trying to have relaxing thoughts helps - when it's possible to do that!

A nurse from my local surgery told me stress can be a trigger.

That would make sense, I had my first panic attack in a while this morning

when you are not accustomed to blinding migraines you might think sheeit I'm going blind/dying/about to have a stroke etc - well I did. But it's quite reassuring when you talk to other people who have been suffering them all their lives and realise you've been lucky up to now. It's a nightmare when they come on when you are having to deal with people face to face for important stuff though.

I had that moment only because I was visiting dad in the hospital and figured of course this will happen while I'm here but then remembered the symptoms

I had a bad one at the local surgery when taking my son for a learning disabled medical checkup, which is already a stressful situation at best. But at least I could talk to the nurse about it while I was there! I think the main trigger for it was when she was going through a health checklist and told me because he is non-verbal I should think about doing a regular testicle check on my son and I felt such horror at that moment I can't even describe it.

Call it Havana Syndrome and see if Biden will give you $150k.

Best I know it’s thought to be a reactive wave of blood vessels closing up and the brain tissue getting riled up in response. Best advice I know of (I am not a clinical Dr and don’t take my medical advice) is large dose aspirin, 900mg or so, and obviously not if you have blood clotting issues or medication for cardiovascular stuff.
I get the aura sometimes - cut and paste scintillations in the visual field - but not the migraine itself. Just makes me more or less blind for half an hour followed by major tiredness.

I looked at using aspirin but figured by the time it starts to work (20-30 minutes) symptoms are usually abating, but that might change.

Starting getting migraines about ten years ago... just headaches and nausea, nothing visual fortunately. I figured out that stress is usually the trigger for me, with either mental or physical exertion causing them. I found that taking Excedrin helps greatly. If I take it when I recognise the feeling of the headache coming on I can prevent the full-blown migraine.

I can't even imagine the horror of a driver getting a severe ocular migraine in a situation where it's difficult to pull over. The symptoms do come on slowly but I'd hate to be in that situation.

well not having a driving license helps but just thinking about it makes me feel panicky.

I've had it maybe six times in my life but the onset is always a blank/"filled in" area to the lower left of my vision, definitely a potential hazard but I generally have half an hour before it spreads to central vision. To be honest I kind of enjoy it, it's so weird.

My father got them a lot and he said he would always immediately pull over and throw up at the first hint of a migraine because it would make for an easier descent than fighting it and continuing to drive.