Want to share some migraine stories?

Ugh, I sympathize. Sorry you’re going through this! I had them in my teens and twenties, probably at least once a month. Way back then, about the only thing I could do about it was to lie down in a dark, silent room until it passed. Thankfully, I ‘outgrew’ them at some point, and very rarely have one these days.

My oldest daughter (19 years old) has had them for a number of years. Hers were incredibly frequent until she got diagnosed with migraine syndrome (I think?) and treated. She takes daily Rx medication to stave them off, and another RX medication for when they break through anyway. Life is a lot more pleasant for her now. I’ll send your question to her, and maybe she’ll be able to give you more specifics.

We live in the USA. My daughter used to get them almost every day. Then she moved to Japan, and now she gets them maybe once a month. The difference is that in Japan it’s illegal to put preservatives in food.

In the US, if you want to eat food with no preservatives, that basically means don’t eat anything that comes in a package! Only fresh veggies (not frozen), whole foods only (no white bread, etc). Also helps to avoid conventionally grown meats because of the antibiotics or other additives in their food (so only organic or wild meats).

Me-graine or my-graine? Whichever. My experience was with shimmering diamond shapes obscuring my vision, usually one eye or even just part of one eye, at a time, often when I was driving. I was surprised when my physician said that the occurrences were a type of migraine. The individual occurrences lasted less than an hour and only now and then with months between. Haven’t had one in a number of years now. If you must have migraine, it’s not a bad way to go. No pain; just inconvenience.

Yeah, I get the visual thing too; mine looks like zigzaggy sparkles, makes me think of sunlight on waves. I do usually get the headache, too, though, after the visual disturbance fades. Fortunately, I don’t get them often, and they are not severe. I have only had one or two that kept me from business as usual.

I don’t get them, but I know many people who do. Most people I know who get them find ibuprofen to give the best relief if you go the OTC route. I knew one woman who became very addicted to narcotics so try to avoid those if you get migraines often.

Quitting caffeine altogether is a good thing to do in my opinion. It will suck while you withdraw from it. Wean down for a few days, and plan on some misery. Once your done, you won’t have to worry about headaches associated with caffeine though. Having said all that, if you choose not to give up caffeine, caffeine can help get rid of a headache, you just have to watch for the possibility of a worse rebound headache as you withdraw. Headache meds like Excedrin have caffeine, so you need to be sure you read ingredients when using medications.

My MIL used to get them often and finally narrowed down chocolate as a trigger. She stopped eating chocolate and gets a migraine maybe 2 or 3 times a year, it used to be 2 or 3 times a month and they last for 2–3 days. If you can figure out what triggers them for you it might be very helpful.

I know several people who get a lot of relief from the migraine drug Imitrex.

Several women I know see a pattern with their cycle. One woman I knew started getting migraines during her first pregnancy, never had them before, and then they stuck with her.

Most people want to be in a dark room and feel nauseas along with the headache of course.

I get migraines with aura. Seeing something bright like sun shining on metal will set it off for me. This happens to me about once a month. I usually don’t get a headache, but sometimes I do. My vision becomes blurred in my right eye and it takes a good 20 minutes or so before it goes back to normal. I once lost complete vision in my right eye for about 15 minutes, then it was like a curtain was slowly being lifted before I could completely see again. Whenever I have an episode I go to my room and put my face in my pillow until it goes away. I still see zigzag shiny lines when I close my eyes. It’s not fun.

Sorry I’m a little late to the party here, but I’ll add my two cents anyway since @augustlan asked so nicely. ;) Migraines and their treatments are very individualized so just know that our experiences are possibly very different from your own.
Apologies ahead of time for the length!

Starting in middle school, I had somewhat of a “constant headache” that lasted for years; it was at an annoying but tolerable level, but never went away regardless of any medication. Fast forward to around the time that I started 10th grade, I developed a whole slew of other symptoms. I was having extreme dizziness and was very lightheaded, slight balance issues, vision issues, sensitive hearing, auras (though I did not realize that this had been a symptom until quite recently), a bit of nausea, and massive and persistent migraines. At this point, my doctor referred me to a neurologist, who gave me the vague diagnosis of a “migraine disorder.” Basically, it means that I have a constant migraine in my natural state, and that this caused the other problems. So to treat the other symptoms, I treat the migraines.

As for treatment, I went through several options before landing on Nortriptyline, which I take daily as a preventative measure. It’s actually an anxiety medication that has a fortunate side effect of treating migraines, which I only took after trying several medications normally intended for migraines that just didn’t work for me. One even made me so sick that I lost over five pounds in one week. You may not have to take a daily preventative medication, most people don’t; it totally depends on how often you get them. But if you do, just be prepared that you will probably go through some that really suck before you find a good one.

I do still get migraines, though, just not nearly as often and usually without most of the other side effects. For as-needed treatment, I have a few things in my arsenal. For a small to moderate migraine, I usually take three Advil, which does the trick (at least temporarily) about 50% of the time. If that doesn’t work after a certain amount time or if the migraine is already pretty bad, I’ll take Excedrin or Vanquish (which my dad just recently introduced me to and works a little better for me). These work about 60–70% of the time. For the other 30% of the time or when the migraine is pretty freaking awful, I take my as-needed prescription, Relpax. It’s almost 100% effective in eliminating the migraines, but I generally try other things first solely because it’s a pretty expensive medication. If OTC medications just aren’t doing it for you on a regular basis, you should talk to your doctor about a prescription option.

People generally have a few triggers for their migraines. Don’t get me wrong, they can come out of nowhere, too, but certain things may particularly set them off. Dehydration is a big one for me, to the point that I frequently have no idea that I’m dehydrated until I get a migraine. Many people, myself included, will have worse and more frequent migraines around their periods. Overwhelming light or noise are also common causes. Caffeine is another very common one, but I have to disagree with @JLeslie about cutting it out altogether. If caffeine is a trigger for you (and it isn’t for everyone), you can probably figure it out pretty easily and quickly unless you consume copious amounts of caffeine daily. If you have a coffee or a Coke and a migraine follows on more than one occasion, chances are it’s a trigger. This works for determining pretty much any trigger you have. After that, you just need to know your limits. In my case, for example, caffeine from sodas is usually the only type that triggers migraines, so as a general rule I avoid caffeinated soda. But if I decide I want one, I allow myself no more than the amount in one bottle, I have to drink it slowly, and I can’t have one if I’ve already had a coffee (and vice versa). Caffeine can actually help migraines sometimes, but the amount already in medications like Excedrin will suffice, so I wouldn’t recommend risking self-medication with caffeine if it’s a trigger for you. I’ve never personally gotten a worse headache from the small amount of caffeine in those medications, but it is a possibility.

@Fly Since you have much more experience with migraines I am not trying to argue, but just want to point out that I do not think of caffeine as a trigger, rather the withdrawal from caffeine can trigger a headache, including, but not limited to a migraine. So, the headache is not within a few hours of drinking or taking the caffeine, it is more like 12–24 hours after. It can happen when a regular caffeine drinker misses their regular hit of coffee or soda or Excedrin, or even if they usually don’t drink caffeine, but have some one day, or maybe a few days in a row and then don’t again. I absolutely agree caffeine can take away a headache.

I also agree that each migraine sufferer through trial and error learns what triggers their migraines and what helps them. But, I know a lot of people who don’t associate their headaches (I am talking about a regular headache regarding someone who does not regularly get headaches) with the fact that they drank Sprite instead of Coke that day. Or, that they only have a little caffeine now and then and don’t connect that a day after not having coffee for a few days they feel under the weather even if they don’t have a bad headache it might be mild and they feel sluggish. It’s because the negative affects are so long after the intake of the caffeine, and until people really watch for the pattern or test it they tend not to realize. I know migraine people are constantly trying to figure out what triggered their suffering, so I just put it out there as something to consider.

@JLeslie That’s all certainly true and you can definitely get caffeine headaches after consumption or withdrawal, but that’s not really related to caffeine as a trigger for migraines. In my personal experience as well as advice from my doctors and research, if caffeine triggers your migraines, you generally get the migraine within a few hours of consumption, usually sooner. As long as you’re aware of things that might be triggers, you should be able to make the connection relatively quickly.

@Fly I see. Well, withdrawal causes regular headaches for sure. I would assume migraine sufferers don’t want to risk any type of headache.

The only thing that doesn’t make sense to me is if caffeine can help cure a migraine I would think it is because of it’s affect on blood vessels, which is exactly why it helps other headaches also, and why withdrawal causes headaches. So you would think withdrawal can cause a migraine. Just thinking it through logically. But, there may be some other mechanism going on. I might read up on it, now I am curious,

@JLeslie I see what you’re saying now, and I would bet that withdrawal can cause migraines for some people, too. That’s just not quite the same thing as a trigger, which sounds like unnecessary nitpicking, but it’s an important differentiation.