Migraines... Love to Hate 'em

[Malkuthe Highwind]

I'm prett sure we've all had migraines at one point or another and it can be described in a variety of ways. Jackhammer drilling into your skull, an axe cleaving your head in twain, a hammer constantly pounding your temples. Long and short of it is, it hurts. It fucking hurts.

They can be silent but deadly, one moment you're fine, the next your writhing in pain. They can be subtle, growing steadily worse over the course of the day. They can be aggressive, leaving you a crippled, whiny tangled mess of limbs groaning inwardly from the pain... Holy crap. Someone make personify migraines into villains. They'll make good ones.

So, what triggers migraines for you? What do you do to cope with them? When you get them, how bad are they?

 

[Fluffy]

Ah, migraines. I have one right now in fact. >:[ The constant pounding in my head and the nausea is just awful. It makes it hard to do anything at all!

I get them from allergies, stress, lack of sleep, loud noises, too much light... If I'm exposed to cigarettes, I get migraines from the smoke. I seem to get them more often now that I'm pregnant 'cause there's extra pain, stress, hormones and even worse lack of sleep during some weeks. It all depends on how relaxed I am. ><;

To help them, I try to go for natural remedies. Acupressure is my favourite of all, I've discovered. There are spots all over the body that when massaged, some of my symptoms go away. Taking a rest in the dark helps me, too. Even if I can't sleep, it does good to unwind in a room with no disturbances. I also find great comfort in using heat and cold to soothe me.

And I agree. They should be personified into villains. xD

 

[Ochalla]

Never had a migraine actually. In fact I rarely get headaches thankfully.

 

[Kitti]

I lovelovelove my hot baths but if I don't drink lots of cool water, they'll give me a headache.
Getting too warm in general, walking around outside in hot temperatures.
Being sleepy! Yech.
Very stressed or angry feelings that I can't find a way to vent in a way that makes me happier.
I have sinus problems, and respiratory issues in general, so these acting up will often give me terrible migraines also.
A prolonged and moderately heavy scent that's musky or spiced. Also, sandalwood. I can't stand to be in a room where any of these scents are fairly heavy because I'll get an awful headache.

My migraines are sometimes just painful and I don't feel like doing anything, I feel foggy and tired. Sometimes, they're so bad that I'm unintentionally crying and I shut myself in my room, turn off all light, press a pillow over my head to muffle sound and dampen light, and try to sleep.

Making them better: a nap will sometimes help, especially if it's sleep related. Sometimes tylenol or ibuprofen will be of assistance. The pressure point, yes! Pressing the pressure point in the hand will almost always at least lessen my pain.

 

[Diana]

I get them A LOT and it's really easy to trigger one for me. >:[ But I have realized that they are from triggers, so I do my best to avoid everything that might trigger one, and it's happily working. >>; They only one I can't seem to avoid is my monthly lady-doom.

My triggers are usually:
- Not getting enough sleep
- forgetting to eat food
- too much cigarette smoke or strong chemical smells
- more than one drink of alcohol
- heat/too much sun
- lady woes


The sleeping thing and the food thing happens more often than I want to admit. ><


To FIX it once I have it? The only thing that works is chugging painkillers and water and sleeping it off. Once I got it, I'm dead. And the longer I try to stay awake with it and just 'push through it' to do stuff, the worse it gets and the harder it is to get rid of it. x__x and it SUCKS. A couple weeks ago I had a nice free five day weekend, and I spent three days wallowing in bed with a migraine. >:[

 

[Fiona]

I get migraines now from reading for more than about half an hour or so at a time. I'm incredibly glad Iwaku has a dark colour scheme or else I'd have them every time I was on here too.
Lack of drinking or eating does it sometimes, more often than not accompanied by dizzy spells.
Asthma attacks trigger them more often than not, and asthma happens when it's too hot, when I do too much rigorous activity, when I pass by anyone smoking, when I get claustrophobic, when I panic over spiders, when I cry or laugh too much...

I think I've likened migraines to having a porcupine crawling around in my head. Most of the time binding something round my head and one eye works, as long as it's tight enough. Other than that, I just use painkillers a lot. We have to buy new ones every two-three weeks at best... >.>;

 

[Villamvihar]

I get migranes very rarely fortunately, and fortunately, they are mostly tied to one trigger only: extreme heat. Even if I drink enough water, my head starts to achve after a while I am out in the sun, although drinking water does reduce the intensity of the pain. Luckily, this rarely happens, so I am mostly migrane-less, if that is even a word. Sometimes, they can be very bad, but they are usually mild compared to some migranes I have heard described.

If I have a migrane, I usually try and wait it out, drink a lot of fluid, massage my temples, and if all else fails, then I drink ludicrously hot tea, which, for some reason, almost always managed to fix my headaches or migranes, or at least reduce their intensity. I only take medicine if the headache is actually hurting my concentration, or I need to pay as much attention to something as possible and I can't afford to have the headache distracting me.