Do you suffer from migraines?

[johnnie]

The other day a woman in the office was talking about her 16 year old daughter having a migraine and then she mentioned to me that she gets migraines too. This morning the other woman in the office called in sick because she has a migraine.

Does anyone have normal headaches anymore or are all headaches considered migraines now? I've had some whopping headaches in my day. Like the time I fell out of a moving car and landed on my head, which is another story for a different day, but I don't think I have ever had a migraine headache.

I know that migraines exist, but sheeezzzz.... it seems like anyone who has a headache these days calls them migraines. Is that just to play the sympathy card because a regular headache doesn't seem painful enough?

So, who here suffers from migraines?

[ThomCat]

1. I get them frequently

and they are no joke. You are in so much pain you can't think. Your eyes hurt so badly you can't see, and just want to be left alone in the dark. Sounds are painful so you want to be left in silence. You'll do almost anything to just make the pain go away, including paying for medication that costs an outrageous amount ($5 per pill) even with good insurance.
x(

[johnnie]

10. 5 bucks a pill?

Yikes

I have heard they are pretty nasty.

[ThomCat]

12. If you don't have any insurance

they expect you to pay someplace near $25 per pill.

I can go through two pills a day for days at a time when my migraines get severe and refuse to go away. Can you imagine how much that would cost someone who's uninsured? x(

[johnnie]

17. Well...

We gotta keep the fat cats on their yachts. Fuckers..

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

2. I get maybe one migraine a year

or a little less frequent.

But when it hits, work is out of the question. Along with driving, TV, eating, or any human interaction. Dark room, quiet, want to die. Feel like vomiting, but it takes too much energy. Then it ends, but I'm still exhausted.

A normal headache, I just pop an aspirin and get back to work. It sucks, but it's not debilitating.

[Connonym]

3. me

I agree that people toss around the term migraine pretty loosely to indicate a bad headache. I've had bad headaches and I've had migraines. My experience is that a migraine really does leave you incapable of functioning. I need total silence, darkness and feel blessed if I make it through one without throwing up.

My sister, on the other hand, claims to have migraines yet is still able to go to work out when she's got one. I sorta suspect that they're not real migraines but maybe I'm just a giant wuss and she's far more stoic than I.

[johnnie]

11. That's what it seems like to me too

I was wondering how many people say they have a migraine when it is just a standard sucky headache.

[ThomCat]

14. Rule of thumb. If pain killers work, it's not a migraine.

I take heavy painkillers for other health problems, and I can confirm from first hand experience that even heavy doses of narcotic painkillers do absolutely nothing for a migraine.

[ScreamingMeemie]

4. I have regular headaches...and then I have migraines.

There is a difference. One I can function with...the other I'm crying, vomiting, and staying away from light, noise, people, the land of the living. there's your difference. It's nothing to take lightly.

[johnnie]

13. Well, I'm not taking it lightly

But when people say something like "Well, I have a migraine, so I'm just gonna hang around and watch the tube", I question how bad can their "migraine" be?..lol

[KitchenWitch]

23. Oh dear - When I have a migraine - the TV is the worst thing

flashy blue lights - changing images - makes me want to die.

[ScreamingMeemie]

28. I didn't say you were.

[skygazer]

5. I suffer from migraines

But yes, there are plenty of people who call any kind of bad headache a migraine. I've always hated the fact that migraines are called headaches - to equate a migraine with a headache is like calling a stroke a dizzy spell.

If you say, "I don't think I have ever had a migraine headache," I can guarantee you haven't. There's nothing like them in the world. If you've ever had a screaming sinus headache, multiply that by about 30,000, add nausea, vomiting, severe sensitivity to light and sound (so sensitive to sound that the gentle clacking of computer keys 6 rooms away sounds like a jackhammer), dizziness and a feeling like you're going to go into convulsions any minute and you have a slight idea of what a migraine can be like.

That said, those women may all be migraine sufferers - women get them more often than men (women are so lucky - we get all the fun stuff).

[johnnie]

15. Yeah, I probably never had one

I have had some where I just want to crawl into a closet and die..lol. But I don't think I would consider that a migraine. I was always under the impression that it is a medical problem that happens quite frequently.

[Tyler Durden]

6. Constantly.

I live almost all the time with a low-grade migraine. This exact moment is an exception so maybe that's why I'm in such a good mood.

When it zooms up to 10 (I call that one the Granddaddy) it just about incapacitates me. Normally they don't get worse than a 7 or 8, and the only thing that knocks them down is Percoset.

[NewWaveChick1981]

7. I used to get migraines once or twice a month. Definitely NOT a regular headache.

:( I had what my doctor called a "classic migraine" with nausea, sensitivity to light and sound, and pain always on one side of my head. Four years ago (in fact, it was four years ago TODAY!), I found out I had a slight hormonal imbalance that was the culprit in my adult acne, and by treating the hormonal problem, I also got rid of migraines. :D Not all migraines are caused by the same things, but mine were definitely related to hormones. If more doctors picked up on hormonal imbalances when people report suffering from migraines, I think fewer people would continue to suffer from them. :)

[johnnie]

16. I do seem to hear it more from women

And chances are, a lot of that could be hormonal and very treatable. But I'm no doctor. :)

[SarahB]

19. It can be.

I was very affected with birth control pills (I suspect the extra estrogen). My daughter has gotten a couple since she started her period. The first one I ever had was just before my first period. Didn't have one for years and then my second one was when I first got pregnant. Men can get them too, but their hormones remain more steady and less cyclical, so there's not that extra factor.

[AlCzervik]

8. i get about 2 or 3 a month a yes they are very different from a regular headache

mine starts behind my left eye, a dull ache that gets worse as the day goes on, the only thing that helps is going up to my bedroom, closing the shutters so the room is almost completely and putting a bucket next to the bed. I get the worst ones when the barometric pressure changes, those ones are almost debilitating.

[Beausoir]

9. I get both. A migraine is a different breed of cat altogether.

Vomiting. Extreme sensitivity to light and sound. Agonizing pain.

I hate them.

[SarahB]

18. The difference between a migraine and a regular headache.

With a migraine, I was nauseas (or puked), dizzy, couldn't stand the light, felt like a bat was taken to one side of my head, and sometimes it was precursed by an aura (visual disturbances regarding light perception related to the vascular changes). When I went back on birth control pills a little over 2 years ago, I'd have them at least once a week. Once I switched my birth control around last Summer, I have only gotten 2 or 3. And yes, with insurance the pills are about $5 each (I take Imitrex 50 mg tabs).

[Critters2]

20. I think I was getting migraines when I was in grad school,

but didn't know that's what they were until later. I'd get UNBELIEVABLE pain on one side of my head--near the back of my head. Not at all like the regular headaches in the forehead. I'd be nauseated, and often threw up. I couldn't stand light, or much sound. I'd go into my dorm room, pull the shades and crawl under my covers. If I was lucky, I'd fall asleep. But often the pain was too great for that--and regular pain relievers were useless. I just had to tough it out. I used to call 'em "my sick headaches", and guy pal (did I mention my fag hag tendencies?) knew what that meant, and would just STAY AWAY--though he wanted to help, which was really sweet.

About a year ago, I read a description of migraines, and recognized it as EXACTLY what I used to have. But they've stopped completely. I haven't had one since grad school--20 years now. So, I figure they were caused by something in my diet or hormones or stress or something. Whatever caused 'em, I'm glad to be free of 'em.

And I feel for those who still suffer from them.


edited because "one" has an "o" in it.

[SarahB]

22. Diet can have an effect

age cheese and red wine are particular triggers for me (and I love red wine, but it has to be in moderation)
same with MSG

[SmokingJacket]

27. That's funny -- I had my last one in grad school too.

They started when I was about 14 -- I figure it was hormonal.

Now all I get are sinus headaches, which I read somewhere are a version of migraines. (WAAAAAY less painful!)

[KitchenWitch]

21. I get both migraines and cluster headaches

They can be rather debilitating.

[Orrex]

24. Good grief!

From what I've heard, cluster headaches alone are proof that there's no beauty in the universe, and migraines are no picnic, either.

Best of luck to you!

[KitchenWitch]

26. That is a good way of describing the hell of the Cluster headache.

[underseasurveyor]

30. I get both of those also

With migraines I get nauseated and a pin hitting the floor echos like a bomb going off. And there is no such thing as 'dark enough'. Sometimes I get what I call a 'head banger' because I'll bang my head on a wall because for that one split second when my head connects, I get a split second of relief from the crushing agony of the migraine.

Clusters simply drop me to my knees, literally.

I fuggin hate these headaches.

Sorry that you suffer with these nasties too :hug:

[DeepBlueC]

25. Lots of research shows

that migraines are frequently misdiagnosed as sinus headaches or tension headaches. There is a lot of overlap in symptoms. Dilated blood vesses of a migraine headache can affect nerves that trigger pain in sinuses, or teeth. Migraine pain can itself trigger muscle pain. They used to think that migraines only occurred on half of the head. Not so. I had headaches that lasted more than a week at a time beginning at age 12. The first one was so bad I thought I was going to die. Especially when aspirin had no effect at all. When that became clear I figured there was no point in upsetting my parents by telling them. And after that first headache I knew that I could survive such a headache so I never saw a doctor. I would have if the pain had occurred only on ONE side of my head, as I knew that described migraines, and for which I knew there was some treatment. I also thought that you didn't see a doctor for a headache. Only after about 25 years did I finally tell a doctor and get a referral to a neurologist and it took about 5 minutes for him to make a diagnosis. Maybe more people are getting a diagnosis these days.

[wildhorses]

29. i have only had two in my entire life and they were mothers

the light...that is how i know they were migraine. it felt like any light whatsoever was a knife stabbing me in the eye. also my whole fricking head and neck hurt like i just wanted to go ahead and decapitate my ownself and put my self out of my own misery.

[flamingyouth]

31. I have migraines.

I've had them since about age 15. I've just finally gotten them under control in the past year or so, but they are really debilitating for me, though they have only occasionally kept me from school and/or work. I have a freakishly high pain tolerance at times.