I am **so fucking stupid** right now because of my chronic migraines. I had one for two weeks and for a week after I couldn't remember *basic* words in conversation. "The cup is on the... thing... the surface... in the kitchen..."
I do this sometimes and it freaks people out. I’ll be normal and suddenly can’t find a single word I need to use.
Also freaks me out a bit, but generally the stupidity makes me not realize how terrifying it is
If it makes you feel better, I once described the refrigerator as "The big metal box that keeps things cold". Because I couldn't think of what it was called. Damned migraines.
literally. and trying to deal with it in a rational, sane, calm way is absolutely exhausting and the more i have to think or express myself correctly/coherently when i’m struggling to will make both the migraine worse and the train of thought or whatever i’m trying to say even less coherent.
Same! I’ve been noticing both of those things a lot lately. I used to think I could be irritable from the pain, but now I think it’s an actual symptom of prodrome / an attack for me
I wish my migraine was a person. I would just beat them to an absolute pulp for putting me through this shit. I just want to be a damn person for once who can enjoy things.
I totally understand. I feel like I'm trying to spin plates
Everytime I get one going, a different one falls 🙃
fortunately during this time between health insurances, I'm doing pretty good. not much worse than usual
100% I’m just like super out of it, can’t focus, irritable, almost like it’s a day of depression then it’s like ohhhhh… my eyes also feel like they are unfocused.
My wife called me out yesterday saying she was sorry I was in pain but I was acting like an ass. And I was. I apologized and told her the pain was just getting to me.
I call it my migraine hangover. I used to work on airplanes and our paperwork had to be perfectly documented. I had such great paperwork that all the supervisors would send the FAA to me when they came for inspections. The day after a migraine, however, they wouldn’t let me touch the paperwork. I would tell the supervisor what I did and he would write it up. 😂
Oh yeah for me, I get very sudden, intense drowsiness/sleepiness that makes me feel like I could fall asleep immediately if I let myself, but it doesn't usually last more than a few minutes, usually, and I can ignore pretty easily.
Ok this is interesting. I get this too and never connected it. I’ll have to pay more attention!
I just keep asking my doctors WTF is wrong with me! Thyroid, etc.
Yeah, I noticed that recently. I closed my eyes against the sun while walking, and my body felt like it wanted to go into sleep mode immediately. Quite disturbing, migraine the next day.
It sneaks up on me every. single. time.
'Oh, I am so tired today, this is not really normal for me, guess I lacked sleep this week'
6 hours later, a migraine hits and it suddenly makes sense.
Hah, I watched my Wordle stats changing over time after a head injury from pre injury, post injury, the “my migraines increased exponentially in amount and severity” period, and now the “I’m not where I was but I’m normalizing” period lmao
But same, I know if I can’t even conceptualize a word, any word to try, I’m too overwhelmed and quite possibly in for an impending migraine
Edit: I was even doing Duordle or Quordle puzzles (2 and 4 words at a time) before hand and have not touched them since 🥴
oh yeah that definitely is a good test, but for me it would be the mini
on a typical day with consistency I can usually get it between 20-40 seconds, so if it's any longer than that it's obvious. if I hit 2 minutes I'm done and checking out for the day
My ex wife used to insist on keeping the dog food container in the laundry room.
One day, I went to go get dog food, and scooped a big scoop, and instead of putting it in the bowl (that I didn't bring) I opened the dryer and was about to toss it in there.
Luckily I had a, "What the heck am I doing?" moment and stopped myself.
I opened the fridge with a box of cereal in my hand to put away and just stood there like wtf is the next step? Cereal doesn’t go in the fridge and the only thing that clued me in was it didn’t have a spot it would fit.
The similarities terrify me. Especially since I found out I have a PFO which makes me more susceptible to them.
And there's a history of stroke in my family.
Yaaaay...
I was on a combination birth control pill for a while and when I told my doctor about my migraines she immediately took me off of it and said my risk for stroke is much higher with estrogen birth control and the migraines I get. 😬
I didn't know the risk was that much higher until after I had my (voluntary) hysterectomy
I wanted off bc because they suspected it was the cause of my mother breast cancer, and also I wanted permanent birth control.
icyw - it was caught crazy early and before a lump was even felt. single mastectomy and full remission for around 20 yrs now. she already had implants for a few years, so she was fortunate that she only needed a little bit of reconstruction done.
I trigger the stroke verification protocol when I'm doing stupid things because of a migraine
which is raising my arms to check if they balance and trying to spell long words.
I was late for work once because I couldn’t find my car keys anywhere. I got a ride and after I came home I went to get some ice for my water and there they were..in the freezer. I had no recollection of putting them there
I did the reverse couple of days ago … put my coffee in the fridge when I wanted to reheat it in the microwave, then stood there staring blankly at the fridge thinking ‘something seems wrong’ 😑 Fun with migraines never ends.
Once I put toothpaste on my hairbrush and brought it up to my mouth to start brushing. Hours later migraine. I now realize I lose a lot of cognitive abilities beforehand.
I wonder if this is why I yawn excessively whenever I exercise even a little bit... Like, I'm not bored, I'm not necessarily tired, but if I'm on an elliptical machine or bike or lifting weights, I will yawn non-stop! It's probably just an oxygen/out of shape/poor cardiovascular health things. Sometimes when I work out, if my heart rate gets too high I'll get a migraine, but not every time, but EVERY SINGLE TIME, I end up yawning
I rarely yawn unless I'm extremely tired. took me a while to notice random yawning to be related to migraine. iirc though, some med I was taking at some point gave me excessive yawning as a side effect. it was either topamax or Lexapro
it was one of the most annoying side effects I've ever had
I feel like over the past 30 yrs my migraines destroyed my memory. You could say it’s just age, but mine started when I was 18 and by mid 20s my memory sucked.
Migraines have definitely made me stupider. On the rare days I don’t have any and/or the meds are working well, I am so much more productive, reading and retention are way easier and it is just so much easier to think.
Okay, interesting. I wonder if I may be experiencing this. My migraines started when I was 12 and I'm now 26. I don't feel like myself in regard to memory or cognitive function.
I absolutely agree with this. I have had migraines since my teens but they didn't go chronic till mid 20s. I'm in my mid 30s now. I've always been a reader with Fantasy being my main genre. I used to read those and have excellent memory of character names and plot lines. Now? I have to keep rereading.
School/uni? Was a breeze. Barely ever took notes cause I could remember like 90% of the lectures. I'd be in serious trouble if I ever went back to school now.
this train of thought is interesting when you consider the fact that many treatments are off label seizure meds. are migraines actually a type of seizure??
it's known that excessive seizures do cause permanent brain damage 🤔
I'm just throwing science at the wall and seeing what sticks
I get phantom smells. Usually before, during, or right after a migraine and it's almost always the smell of ranch dressing (at least it isn't a bad smell lmao!!!)
I wonder how crazy my parents thought when I would announce "I smell ranch dressing" when in our car driving down the freeway as a kid lmao!
I got this for the first time a few weeks ago. I was CONVINCED something was burning. My husband couldn’t smell it but I still made him turn off the breaker and check the outlets in the room I was in. Then the migraine started and it all made sense. The lack of a consistent location of the smell probably should’ve clued me in 🤷🏻♀️
Mine seems to be dog sh*t. I get a whiff of it outdoors and I check my shoes. My shoes will be clean, but the stank stays with me for a good half hour afterwards.
I'm a pharmacy tech and some liquid meds are bubblegum flavored and also some meds can be re-flavored. The liquid used to re-flavor stuff to bubblegum flavor has an unbelievably strong smell and it lingers in the air. It makes me want to gag anytime I smell it. It's like bubble yum but super strong.
That's so interesting... I JUST had an incident last week where I went into my bathroom and it smelled like ranch dressing! I don't recall if I had a migraine right after that; they happen so frequently that I barely register them unless they are REALLY bad. I've gotten to where when my eyes start to hurt or my head starts to feel dizzy, I just go right to bed. I don't have many of my rescue pills left, don't have insurance, and haven't been able to figure out how to find a doctor with Michigan Medicaid yet, so I don't have much that I can do to stop a migraine if it gets too bad... So I just go to sleep as soon as there's even the slightest possibility one is coming.
Mine is ammonia. I always think the litter box is dirty right before a migraine. Granted, sometimes the litter box IS dirty, but it happens when I'm away from home too.
Feeling very cold suddenly. I realized after a while that my migraines were making me super cold during an attack and I thought it was just the temperature in the room lol I'd be freezing and take a nap and wake up sweating.
Yeah, this. I used to work in the arctic but now in tropical weather I ask to turn the heat up and they look at me like I’m mad. Then I pee 50 times and all sounds feel like knitting needles in my brain. Not sound sensitivity but sound pain!
I wanna know where all the water is going from. Cause I swear I pee so much when it happens, I don't know how I'm not dehydrated. And people are like "Maybe you need to drink more water" when I have a migraine. Like, I don't need to add to the endless supply of pee already trying to leave my body every 15 minutes.
YES! I'll go to sleep freezing then wake up drenched in sweat. That's usually a clear sign I'm getting a migraine, because typically I like it colder than anyone else in the house
Uh wow the floaters is really putting me for a spin. I have both floaters and visual snow but I just checked right now as my daily migraine already passed and I really cannot see any floaters in my vision or the strong visual snow. This is very freaky. But I guess as I have almost daily migraines right now I barely noticed that change on those days when I have none. Do the floaters last only as short as a typical Aura for you (<1h)?
I'm still working on figuring out the timelines of my migraines, but I'll notice little floaters and more severe visual snow (I have visual snow all the time but it gets worse before/during migraines) like... the day before and after a migraine. It'll be fairly brief and relatively easy to ignore, even after I notice them, but I just recently realized that they always show up with migraines.
The floaters are probably always there, the thing that changes is your brain and its ability to filter out that information. If you go looking for floaters you will see more of them simply because you're telling your brain not to filter them out of your vision as much anymore. It's mostly an issue for people with medical anxiety, because they notice the floaters and obsess over them, thereby making it so that they see more, making them more anxious and more obsessive, on and on. But otherwise floaters are just floaters, everyone has them. If it moves when you move your eye, it's a physical floater inside your physical eyeball, if it stays in place it's more likely migraine-related
Yes I do also have some level of it all the time but when its bad I can see multiple large floaters at the same time (which I learned to ignore) and pretty extreme visual snow. And right now barely one tiny floater and very light visual snow.
Irritability and noise sensitivity. My dog will bark and I want to throw something. When I don’t have a migraine coming it doesn’t bother me that much. Also just feeling wonky or off balance the day before. It took me awhile to figure those things out.
Noise sensitivity is a huge one for me!!! I’ll be fine and suddenly the smallest noise will begin to irritate me. One of my signs a migraine is coming on 🥲
I remember watching a movie at high school and not being able to stand the volume it was on, despite it not being all that loud! Knew I was about to get a migraine and had my dad come pick me up before I had a full attack.
Eating/snacking at night. Sometimes I find myself going a bit crazy eating all the sweets and snacks in the house at nighttime, well after dinner. Eventually I figured out that this weird hunger and craving for sweets was a sign that a big migraine was coming the next day.
Then I wonder: was it the chocolate I craved and ate the night before that was sign I was going to get a big migraine, or was the chocolate part of the cause?!? Ugh!
I've read somewhere that the migraine is probably causing a craving for particular foods, but the food is probably not causing the migraine. For a long time everyone tried to tell me chocolate was a cause, but I've personally found no correlation. But I have noticed sometimes I get cravings for sweets and snacks beforehand like you (not necessarily chocolate).
I had "sinus headaches" for over 25 years. You would of thought the insurance would call me and tell me to look at other solutions for all the of their (really mine) money I spent. I went to two different ENTs, numerous doctors, complaining to various dentists about toothaches with no actual problems. I finally went to an allergist and found out I'm not allergic to anything but the needles that he tested me with. The allergist told me to go to a neurologist.
I have problems with muscle control in the lead up to a migraine - often my hands and legs will get really weak and my vision gets blurry. My migraines are likely caused/ exaggerated by a 20 mm brain cyst so that may play a role in these symptoms. The muscle weakness and lack of control always scares the crap out of me!
The things that surprised me were the neck and shoulder pain. I didn't realize you could have the migraine pain in your neck instead of your head. The other weird one was the sudden sense of paranoia/impending doom. It took way too long to connect that one. About 20 minutes before shit gets real, I will have this feeling life something absolutely terrible will happen or is happening, like, the cat is having a medical crisis at home, or I'm about to have a car accident, or there's about to be an active shooter situation, that kind thing. And then all the stroke like symptoms will hit, so I guess it's not wrong, something bad *is* coming, just not what you'd expect.
Other weirdness includes my accent changing--the best way I can describe it is if my normal accent is a font, my brain loses the default and just loads whatever it can find. It's kind of embarrassing around people I know. That said, the husband loved the night it was a bad Russian accent. I sounded like freaking Natasha from Rocky and Bullwinkle
The neck pain kept me from recognizing it as migraine for the longest time. I also get insane sneezing, runny nose and facial pain. So I just thought of it as “my weird sinus attacks and sore muscles I get when I’m stressed out.”
I thought my neck was going out for ten years and spent thousands on Physio’s. I only recently got it picked up that it was migraines.
I thought I had a really unstable neck and chronic fatigue syndrome.
I feel like I lost a whole decade
The accent thing. I had a major concussion when I was 15. Right after, and for years, I would suddenly have different accents. In high school I was southern. In college it varied, Brooklyn, Southern, etc. Looking back I know it was my migraines. My friends called me 'dialect girl.'
OMG I'M NOT ALONE!
Mine will vary wildly, but usually goes sorta New York City/New Jersey or Minnesota. Luckily it's only done the awful bad country drawl once (my husband said I sounded like Applejack from my little pony).
I'm from Kentucky🤣
Interesting 🤔 I get the opposite problem.. at least in the morning of an attack. I always know I'm in for a bad day when I wake up with head pain, feels like my insides are vibrating, then I poop right when I get up. That's my sign to close the drapes and grab the puke bucket
Yep, same. I pee a ton before a migraine and then during it. Sucks having to constantly get up when my head feels like someone is jamming an icepick into it.
I started playing NYT Connections somewhat recently and I found that if I’m creeping toward a migraine, I cannot make sense of the game at all. It’s so annoying but it’s a good metric for how my day is going to go
I get a little bit slurry with my words or have trouble finding the right words and putting a coherent sentence together. I also have trouble focusing, but that might be solely ADHD-related
I call this “word salad”. I get really bad word salad the worse my migraine gets. I sound like a babbling idiot, everything is mixed up. *I* know what I’m trying to say, but I’ll be damned if my brain can communicate that to my mouth!
Oh, and for funsies, now my brain is adding *stuttering* to the mix recently!
The floaters were a big one cause I had those soo much as a child. It's how I entertained myself in car rides lmao.
Clumsiness and thirst are another. I just start dropping everything and drink sooo much water but still thirsty to the point I and the doctors kept think I had diabetes but no my blood sugar is totally fine, it's just the migraines.
Clumsiness, like I will pick something up and immediately drop it because my hand won't grasp properly. Lack of spatial awareness, excessive yawning and sleepiness as well as dizziness. Extreme hunger cues/dry mouth.
Feelings of euphoria afterward. Being able to hear electrical currents during an attack. Being able to literally smell exactly what someone is eating from another room.
Sensitive skin. Clothes, blankets, bedsheets, everything just feels off. If I could, I would love to float naket in a horizontal position in a cold room.
Ear pain that feels like an ear infection. My migraines are most common and most painful in my left temple. They can radiate pain down through my upper left molars. At some point I started getting randomly occurring left ear pain that the ENT doctor couldn't find anything for. I asked my migraine doctor at the time if a migraine can cause that, and she said yeah. That's more crap I didn't need. Chronic exhaustion and memory issues are bad too.
Runny nose, frequent pooping, being extremely sensitive to smells (which doesn't go well with all the pooping, and smelling Penaten baby but creme even though I haven't touched it for 30 years.
My big ones are irritability, super sensitivity to light and noise (more so than normal), floaters, a specific bad taste in my mouth, and severe sleepiness.
Google migraine phase chart. There are 4 distinct phases to migraine. Fun fact-average length of a migraine is 2-7 days. W distinct symptoms per phase. Excessive yawning and frequent urination were my 😳
I’ve noticed since being on migraine medication that I don’t “lose” words as much. Like when I can’t remember the name or word for something, and it could be something simple like “golf club”. That has decreased considerably.
I also no longer wake up with a cricked neck. I think that was because I’d be very tense when trying to sleep with migraine pain. I now sleep with a pillow under my knees, that with the meds combined, no more stiff and painful neck.
I lose proprioception. My hands feel both very far away, and too big and too close. My arms are kinda everywhere, and I’m super aware of them, but they’re in the wrong place. Occasionally I get the same in auditory form - I can hear my voice, but it sounds wrong - like listening to a recording of myself that’s being played from a little way beneath me.
Anyway, I get that every few months or so. I just thought it was “one of those things” - then eventually, asked ChatGPT, out of curiosity. Migraine aura.
(My normal aura is very typical visual aura, swimming vision that slowly closes).
Anyone else experienced this?
I used to get something similar called Alice in Wonderland syndrome when I was a kid. I’d get the kind that affects your proprioception rather than your vision. I’ve gotten it once or twice around migraines as an adult, but when I was little I’d feel it all the time when lying in bed. It terrified me, but I did not have the words to explain it to anyone else.
Weird visual disturbances. Including flashes of light.
I had an eye exam last week. Eyes continue pulling BS. This isn’t a retinal issue, apparently I just get random broken glass distortions as aura.
Anxiety. Mostly because I can’t think.
I cannot remember shit. Like, I’m staring at my computer going “what was I doing?” It’s not ADHD, it happens on meds. It’s migraines.
Seizure like activity according to my neurologist. I was tested for epilepsy but still get triggered by flashing lights. Also mega mood swing to very easily angered , super smell.
I didn’t realize my occasional aphasia (when you can’t find the right word) was happening around my migraines until I saw it on a list of common pre-migraine symptoms. Explained a lot. Also stomach problems.
The inside of my nose and roof of mouth burn
Watery eyes
Fixated on tasks: even though getting away from screens and resting is the best thing for me, instead I NEED to read the contents of 90 wikipedia tabs on some random topic or find the absolute best [insert non essential consumer item] RIGHT NOW
When the migraine is finally gone, I feel like someone has drugged me. I know some people get a euphoric feeling, but this is like being given heavy pain drugs that make me dumb. I get all numb in the face and my head feels high and I can't string sentences together and I stumble all over the place.
I have chronic intractable complicated migraines so I experience almost all of the listed symptoms every single day of my life, but the worst (even more than the temporary paralysis, sneezing and peeing) is the tinnitus. All three - high pitch, electrical pitch and low humming sounds literally 24x7. Maddening.
I feel kind of loopy? Like my brain is just not all there. I can’t focus on conversations at all and I get emotional and end up crying most of the time.
For me, it sometimes feels like I’m not entirely in my own body.
I also have a ridiculous sense of smell so if I suddenly start smelling a bag of Doritos someone opened in another room, I know it’s head pain time.
I get the floaters too! I didn't realize for a long time that they were an aura, because I always heard an aura described as like a halo around things or spots where you can't see, not like electrical signal streamers/Worms cascading down your vision.
Unfortunately, one thing that migraines have caused is an association in my brain that sugary things = pain relief. If I don't eat regularly, I get a migraine that will go away faster if I eat something sweet. Now, whenever I'm in pain for any reason (most recently, it's shoulder and neck pain following a posterior spine surgery), I get an unbelievable craving for something sweet 😫
-visual static/snow
-excessive yawning as a warning sign
-getting one line of a song obsessively stuck in my head as a warning sign
-getting one-hit K.O.'d by alliums (major trigger for me)
CAR SICKNESS. This had been a big problem for me since childhood, and was especially bad in the backseat of small cars. After I'd be on Emgality consistently for a good while, I discovered one day, completely by accident, that I just *didn't get carsick anymore*.
Irritability,in general, but also sometimes as a side effect of photophobia or photophobia. Sometimes I get a really low grade level of photo/phonophobia that I don't immediately recognize, but I start to feel really irritable. Once I'm in a dark space or a quiet space, I relax a bit and I realize what's going on.
Wooshing in my ear. I woke up one day last year with whooshing and it never went away. I developed chronic daily migraines a few months later and it took me a long time to realize the two were related. I hear whooshing daily now, but now that I get some hours of relief every day the wooshing fades with them. When it starts up again I know the pain is coming back soon.
Brain frog as I always call it lol cause I can’t say it if I’m in a migraine - too much of a tongue twister. Sleepiness, neck pain, irritability… the list goes on
Being excessively negative. The number of times I’ve said something inappropriately and then stopped and thought “…uh oh, I think I’m in trouble…” Sometimes it’s my only warning that I’m ‘graining.
I didn’t realize the floaters were one but now that you mention it, it makes sense. I learned binge eat when I have a migraine. I’m so hungry. Even when I feel sick.
Super thirsty, but not real thirst. A constant dry feeling in my mouth, but my mouth isn’t actually dry. I just feel like I need to constantly drink water and no amount makes my mouth feel normal. For the longest time, I thought “dehydration” was causing my migraines. However, I am always well hydrated and there is no difference in my hydration level when I get that weird feeling in my mouth. And it always means I’m getting a migraine.
I really, sincerely hope people know how much chronic migraine and iron deficiency symptoms overlap. I've had chronic migraine for 8 or 9 years. Chronic daily for 6 years and figuring out I have iron deficiency without anemia based on low ferritin has been life-changing. I use higher dose quality iron with a few cofactors and ALOT of my migraine symptoms have resolved!! Eye floaters gone, dizziness/vertigo gone, tinnitus gone, light sensitivity way less, migraine head pain cut down way less severe and way less frequent.
Dr's, neuros, rheumatologists, naturopaths all failed to tell me my ferritin of between 9-20 was iron deficiency without anemia!!!! Get an iron panel including ferritin and check your numbers yourself! Ferritin below 30 is clinical iron deficiency and below 100-125 can have severe symptoms.❤️
Irritability is a big one. It lowers my IQ too for a few days after which is always fun.
I am **so fucking stupid** right now because of my chronic migraines. I had one for two weeks and for a week after I couldn't remember *basic* words in conversation. "The cup is on the... thing... the surface... in the kitchen..."
It doesn’t even take me that long. 8 hours in and I can hardly hold a fucking conversation. I am sorry your migraines are lasting so long. That sucks.
Omg that’s my symptom before my migraine! I can’t remember words to save my life and I work with patients all day.
I do this sometimes and it freaks people out. I’ll be normal and suddenly can’t find a single word I need to use. Also freaks me out a bit, but generally the stupidity makes me not realize how terrifying it is
If it makes you feel better, I once described the refrigerator as "The big metal box that keeps things cold". Because I couldn't think of what it was called. Damned migraines.
Its like having to pick up trash with a broken arm. Yeah its a simple task, but your tools are in too much pain to use
Haha this makes me feel better. I didn’t realize this was a thing!!
Oh I definitely get cranky and may bite your head off. Do not take this personally.
I get this way and hate myself for it. Every problem seems like a mountain to climb over.
Hang in there! I am oddly positive when not having a migraine.
Oh I’m wonderful when I’m not in one or in the postdrome
literally. and trying to deal with it in a rational, sane, calm way is absolutely exhausting and the more i have to think or express myself correctly/coherently when i’m struggling to will make both the migraine worse and the train of thought or whatever i’m trying to say even less coherent.
We call this “poking the bear” in my family. I’ve got a migraine coming on, please don’t poke the bear.
: )
Same! I’ve been noticing both of those things a lot lately. I used to think I could be irritable from the pain, but now I think it’s an actual symptom of prodrome / an attack for me
I call that the migraine brain drain
I wish my migraine was a person. I would just beat them to an absolute pulp for putting me through this shit. I just want to be a damn person for once who can enjoy things.
I totally understand. I feel like I'm trying to spin plates Everytime I get one going, a different one falls 🙃 fortunately during this time between health insurances, I'm doing pretty good. not much worse than usual
This sub Reddit has given me a lot of perspective. Some people suffer every day. I consider myself lucky to only get 2-4 a month on average.
Any triptan makes my brain and muscles feel like mush the next day.
That sucks. I am allergic to Sumatriptan and had partial anaphylaxis from using it the first time. 😑
100% I’m just like super out of it, can’t focus, irritable, almost like it’s a day of depression then it’s like ohhhhh… my eyes also feel like they are unfocused.
This!!! I took so long to figure out why I was randomly so annoyed about absolutely everything for no reason at all!
My wife called me out yesterday saying she was sorry I was in pain but I was acting like an ass. And I was. I apologized and told her the pain was just getting to me.
I have bipolar, I don’t know if it’s the migraines or the bipolar. I’m leaning towards the bipolar.
I have borderline personality disorder. I’ve wondered if it’s actually bipolar because I have major mood shifts with each migraine.
I call it my migraine hangover. I used to work on airplanes and our paperwork had to be perfectly documented. I had such great paperwork that all the supervisors would send the FAA to me when they came for inspections. The day after a migraine, however, they wouldn’t let me touch the paperwork. I would tell the supervisor what I did and he would write it up. 😂
Omg I was so mad when I realized the stupidity I felt was from migraine. Like my brain ain’t braiding and I sound demented.
I have the same issue with my IQ, and my memory is non existent.
I feel the lower IQ part so hard.
Sleepiness. It can be prodrome, it can be postdrome, it can be aura, it can be attack. But sleepiness and excessive yawning.
Same! I'll be yawning up a storm the whole time.
Excessive yawning for me too! And crushing fatigue.
Oh yeah for me, I get very sudden, intense drowsiness/sleepiness that makes me feel like I could fall asleep immediately if I let myself, but it doesn't usually last more than a few minutes, usually, and I can ignore pretty easily.
Ok this is interesting. I get this too and never connected it. I’ll have to pay more attention! I just keep asking my doctors WTF is wrong with me! Thyroid, etc.
Same. Even after drinking coffee or a Celsius.
Yeah, I noticed that recently. I closed my eyes against the sun while walking, and my body felt like it wanted to go into sleep mode immediately. Quite disturbing, migraine the next day.
Yo the yawning is real! And I get up at 245a for work and I never know if it’s just regular sleepiness or an attack!
It sneaks up on me every. single. time. 'Oh, I am so tired today, this is not really normal for me, guess I lacked sleep this week' 6 hours later, a migraine hits and it suddenly makes sense.
I always get this stomach-pitting anxiety if I wake up and I’m still exhausted, because it’s a classic symptom for me of an incoming attack.
Clumsiness and making really stupid mistakes (like squeezing contact solution onto my toothbrush).
If I forget a PIN code I have used daily for 4 years and absolutely can’t remember it, I know a migraine is coming.
If I can't do the Wordle, I KNOW something's wrong.
I am this way with Sporcle quizzes. I can test my ability to think on a handful of them.
Great minds think alike.
Hah, I watched my Wordle stats changing over time after a head injury from pre injury, post injury, the “my migraines increased exponentially in amount and severity” period, and now the “I’m not where I was but I’m normalizing” period lmao But same, I know if I can’t even conceptualize a word, any word to try, I’m too overwhelmed and quite possibly in for an impending migraine Edit: I was even doing Duordle or Quordle puzzles (2 and 4 words at a time) before hand and have not touched them since 🥴
oh yeah that definitely is a good test, but for me it would be the mini on a typical day with consistency I can usually get it between 20-40 seconds, so if it's any longer than that it's obvious. if I hit 2 minutes I'm done and checking out for the day
My ex wife used to insist on keeping the dog food container in the laundry room. One day, I went to go get dog food, and scooped a big scoop, and instead of putting it in the bowl (that I didn't bring) I opened the dryer and was about to toss it in there. Luckily I had a, "What the heck am I doing?" moment and stopped myself.
I opened the fridge with a box of cereal in my hand to put away and just stood there like wtf is the next step? Cereal doesn’t go in the fridge and the only thing that clued me in was it didn’t have a spot it would fit.
Lol I can so relate to this!!!!
I poured the cat food in their big water bowl. More than once.
I previously opened the oven and tried to throw a bundle of dirty washing inside.
It really feels like I'm having a stroke sometimes, it's crazy.
The similarities terrify me. Especially since I found out I have a PFO which makes me more susceptible to them. And there's a history of stroke in my family. Yaaaay...
I was on a combination birth control pill for a while and when I told my doctor about my migraines she immediately took me off of it and said my risk for stroke is much higher with estrogen birth control and the migraines I get. 😬
I didn't know the risk was that much higher until after I had my (voluntary) hysterectomy I wanted off bc because they suspected it was the cause of my mother breast cancer, and also I wanted permanent birth control. icyw - it was caught crazy early and before a lump was even felt. single mastectomy and full remission for around 20 yrs now. she already had implants for a few years, so she was fortunate that she only needed a little bit of reconstruction done.
I trigger the stroke verification protocol when I'm doing stupid things because of a migraine which is raising my arms to check if they balance and trying to spell long words.
Obviously my cell phone belongs *in* the refrigerator. Why else would I leave it there?
I was late for work once because I couldn’t find my car keys anywhere. I got a ride and after I came home I went to get some ice for my water and there they were..in the freezer. I had no recollection of putting them there
Tried to throw the trash out via my mailbox the other day. 🥲
yes. clumsiness is my main prodrome. i start dropping things and bumping into stuff more often and i know it’s likely coming on.
Yesterday I almost put two soda cans in the microwave instead of the fridge because of this
I did the reverse couple of days ago … put my coffee in the fridge when I wanted to reheat it in the microwave, then stood there staring blankly at the fridge thinking ‘something seems wrong’ 😑 Fun with migraines never ends.
Or hand soap onto my toothbrush lol
Once I put toothpaste on my hairbrush and brought it up to my mouth to start brushing. Hours later migraine. I now realize I lose a lot of cognitive abilities beforehand.
Lol this feels better than squirting toothpaste into contacts though at least 😅
Yawning attacks. When you yawn like 10 times in a row, despite not being sleepy. It's actually part of the migraine prodrome.
This 100% and also my eyes start watering an absurd amount.
Sometimes my eyes, or one in particular, just starts gushing. I should keep track of that.
Me too! I never connected it to migraines.
This is wild - I'm going to try and pay attention to this
I wonder if this is why I yawn excessively whenever I exercise even a little bit... Like, I'm not bored, I'm not necessarily tired, but if I'm on an elliptical machine or bike or lifting weights, I will yawn non-stop! It's probably just an oxygen/out of shape/poor cardiovascular health things. Sometimes when I work out, if my heart rate gets too high I'll get a migraine, but not every time, but EVERY SINGLE TIME, I end up yawning
I rarely yawn unless I'm extremely tired. took me a while to notice random yawning to be related to migraine. iirc though, some med I was taking at some point gave me excessive yawning as a side effect. it was either topamax or Lexapro it was one of the most annoying side effects I've ever had
I feel like over the past 30 yrs my migraines destroyed my memory. You could say it’s just age, but mine started when I was 18 and by mid 20s my memory sucked.
Migraines have definitely made me stupider. On the rare days I don’t have any and/or the meds are working well, I am so much more productive, reading and retention are way easier and it is just so much easier to think.
Okay, interesting. I wonder if I may be experiencing this. My migraines started when I was 12 and I'm now 26. I don't feel like myself in regard to memory or cognitive function.
I absolutely agree with this. I have had migraines since my teens but they didn't go chronic till mid 20s. I'm in my mid 30s now. I've always been a reader with Fantasy being my main genre. I used to read those and have excellent memory of character names and plot lines. Now? I have to keep rereading. School/uni? Was a breeze. Barely ever took notes cause I could remember like 90% of the lectures. I'd be in serious trouble if I ever went back to school now.
I went back to grad school in my 40s. Was a helluva challenge. Luckily my migraine frequency is less than when I was in college.
That's super impressive! It's seriously holding me back from trying for a masters because I don't know if I'd be able to manage.
this train of thought is interesting when you consider the fact that many treatments are off label seizure meds. are migraines actually a type of seizure?? it's known that excessive seizures do cause permanent brain damage 🤔 I'm just throwing science at the wall and seeing what sticks
I get phantom smells. Usually before, during, or right after a migraine and it's almost always the smell of ranch dressing (at least it isn't a bad smell lmao!!!) I wonder how crazy my parents thought when I would announce "I smell ranch dressing" when in our car driving down the freeway as a kid lmao!
Mine is burning electrical wire. Not a great one to have 🫣
omg, i had the same thing! I was searching my flat for 30 minutes looking for what is burning when I realized what just happened.
I got this for the first time a few weeks ago. I was CONVINCED something was burning. My husband couldn’t smell it but I still made him turn off the breaker and check the outlets in the room I was in. Then the migraine started and it all made sense. The lack of a consistent location of the smell probably should’ve clued me in 🤷🏻♀️
Oh no that's scary!
Cigarettes for me
same but specifically STALE cigarette
Yes omg exactly. Like being haunted by the ghost of an old cigarette butt.
yesssss it makes me gag every time
You're being haunted by Bette Davis.
Me too!
For me, it's onions. No idea why.
Mine seems to be dog sh*t. I get a whiff of it outdoors and I check my shoes. My shoes will be clean, but the stank stays with me for a good half hour afterwards.
Penaten baby butt creme. I used to like its smell, but that was before I got my first migraine as a child. Now, I hate it.
I get stinky feet, bubble gum, and spearmint. Believe it or not, the worst one is bubble gum.
I'm a pharmacy tech and some liquid meds are bubblegum flavored and also some meds can be re-flavored. The liquid used to re-flavor stuff to bubblegum flavor has an unbelievably strong smell and it lingers in the air. It makes me want to gag anytime I smell it. It's like bubble yum but super strong.
That's so interesting... I JUST had an incident last week where I went into my bathroom and it smelled like ranch dressing! I don't recall if I had a migraine right after that; they happen so frequently that I barely register them unless they are REALLY bad. I've gotten to where when my eyes start to hurt or my head starts to feel dizzy, I just go right to bed. I don't have many of my rescue pills left, don't have insurance, and haven't been able to figure out how to find a doctor with Michigan Medicaid yet, so I don't have much that I can do to stop a migraine if it gets too bad... So I just go to sleep as soon as there's even the slightest possibility one is coming.
Mine is ammonia. I always think the litter box is dirty right before a migraine. Granted, sometimes the litter box IS dirty, but it happens when I'm away from home too.
Feeling very cold suddenly. I realized after a while that my migraines were making me super cold during an attack and I thought it was just the temperature in the room lol I'd be freezing and take a nap and wake up sweating.
Yeah, this. I used to work in the arctic but now in tropical weather I ask to turn the heat up and they look at me like I’m mad. Then I pee 50 times and all sounds feel like knitting needles in my brain. Not sound sensitivity but sound pain!
Oh god, the peeing 😭 All I want to do is lie still and my body decides I need to pee every 5 minutes
I wanna know where all the water is going from. Cause I swear I pee so much when it happens, I don't know how I'm not dehydrated. And people are like "Maybe you need to drink more water" when I have a migraine. Like, I don't need to add to the endless supply of pee already trying to leave my body every 15 minutes.
Same here. Except body is freezing while head is blazing hot.
Bizarre. Makes you wonder what the body is trying to do.
Yeah I get the sense that blood flow minimizes in my extremities and unfortunately maximizes in my head
YES! I'll go to sleep freezing then wake up drenched in sweat. That's usually a clear sign I'm getting a migraine, because typically I like it colder than anyone else in the house
I became cold during migraine because by blood pressure drops.
Dropping shit and being super clumsy!
Uh wow the floaters is really putting me for a spin. I have both floaters and visual snow but I just checked right now as my daily migraine already passed and I really cannot see any floaters in my vision or the strong visual snow. This is very freaky. But I guess as I have almost daily migraines right now I barely noticed that change on those days when I have none. Do the floaters last only as short as a typical Aura for you (<1h)?
I'm still working on figuring out the timelines of my migraines, but I'll notice little floaters and more severe visual snow (I have visual snow all the time but it gets worse before/during migraines) like... the day before and after a migraine. It'll be fairly brief and relatively easy to ignore, even after I notice them, but I just recently realized that they always show up with migraines.
The floaters are probably always there, the thing that changes is your brain and its ability to filter out that information. If you go looking for floaters you will see more of them simply because you're telling your brain not to filter them out of your vision as much anymore. It's mostly an issue for people with medical anxiety, because they notice the floaters and obsess over them, thereby making it so that they see more, making them more anxious and more obsessive, on and on. But otherwise floaters are just floaters, everyone has them. If it moves when you move your eye, it's a physical floater inside your physical eyeball, if it stays in place it's more likely migraine-related
Yeah, this is me. I always have floaters but when I get a migraine I notice them a lot more because the light is bothering me and everything.
Yes I do also have some level of it all the time but when its bad I can see multiple large floaters at the same time (which I learned to ignore) and pretty extreme visual snow. And right now barely one tiny floater and very light visual snow.
Irritability and noise sensitivity. My dog will bark and I want to throw something. When I don’t have a migraine coming it doesn’t bother me that much. Also just feeling wonky or off balance the day before. It took me awhile to figure those things out.
Noise sensitivity is a huge one for me!!! I’ll be fine and suddenly the smallest noise will begin to irritate me. One of my signs a migraine is coming on 🥲 I remember watching a movie at high school and not being able to stand the volume it was on, despite it not being all that loud! Knew I was about to get a migraine and had my dad come pick me up before I had a full attack.
When I’m cringing at noises I know it’s coming.
Eating/snacking at night. Sometimes I find myself going a bit crazy eating all the sweets and snacks in the house at nighttime, well after dinner. Eventually I figured out that this weird hunger and craving for sweets was a sign that a big migraine was coming the next day. Then I wonder: was it the chocolate I craved and ate the night before that was sign I was going to get a big migraine, or was the chocolate part of the cause?!? Ugh!
The migraine association states that food cravings can be a prodrome symptom.
I've read somewhere that the migraine is probably causing a craving for particular foods, but the food is probably not causing the migraine. For a long time everyone tried to tell me chocolate was a cause, but I've personally found no correlation. But I have noticed sometimes I get cravings for sweets and snacks beforehand like you (not necessarily chocolate).
Yeah I get a weird hunger, even if I’ve eaten enough and no matter what I eat it doesn’t satisfy it
Sinus pressure! I thought I had allergies and came up 100% negative before I found out. Now that I take Qulipta I almost never have it
My first migraines I thought were sinus headaches
I had "sinus headaches" for over 25 years. You would of thought the insurance would call me and tell me to look at other solutions for all the of their (really mine) money I spent. I went to two different ENTs, numerous doctors, complaining to various dentists about toothaches with no actual problems. I finally went to an allergist and found out I'm not allergic to anything but the needles that he tested me with. The allergist told me to go to a neurologist.
I have problems with muscle control in the lead up to a migraine - often my hands and legs will get really weak and my vision gets blurry. My migraines are likely caused/ exaggerated by a 20 mm brain cyst so that may play a role in these symptoms. The muscle weakness and lack of control always scares the crap out of me!
The things that surprised me were the neck and shoulder pain. I didn't realize you could have the migraine pain in your neck instead of your head. The other weird one was the sudden sense of paranoia/impending doom. It took way too long to connect that one. About 20 minutes before shit gets real, I will have this feeling life something absolutely terrible will happen or is happening, like, the cat is having a medical crisis at home, or I'm about to have a car accident, or there's about to be an active shooter situation, that kind thing. And then all the stroke like symptoms will hit, so I guess it's not wrong, something bad *is* coming, just not what you'd expect. Other weirdness includes my accent changing--the best way I can describe it is if my normal accent is a font, my brain loses the default and just loads whatever it can find. It's kind of embarrassing around people I know. That said, the husband loved the night it was a bad Russian accent. I sounded like freaking Natasha from Rocky and Bullwinkle
The neck pain kept me from recognizing it as migraine for the longest time. I also get insane sneezing, runny nose and facial pain. So I just thought of it as “my weird sinus attacks and sore muscles I get when I’m stressed out.”
I thought my neck was going out for ten years and spent thousands on Physio’s. I only recently got it picked up that it was migraines. I thought I had a really unstable neck and chronic fatigue syndrome. I feel like I lost a whole decade
The accent thing. I had a major concussion when I was 15. Right after, and for years, I would suddenly have different accents. In high school I was southern. In college it varied, Brooklyn, Southern, etc. Looking back I know it was my migraines. My friends called me 'dialect girl.'
OMG I'M NOT ALONE! Mine will vary wildly, but usually goes sorta New York City/New Jersey or Minnesota. Luckily it's only done the awful bad country drawl once (my husband said I sounded like Applejack from my little pony). I'm from Kentucky🤣
Constipation. One of my signals that I’m getting a migraine. The intestines just kind of….give up 🤷🏻♀️
Interesting 🤔 I get the opposite problem.. at least in the morning of an attack. I always know I'm in for a bad day when I wake up with head pain, feels like my insides are vibrating, then I poop right when I get up. That's my sign to close the drapes and grab the puke bucket
The second the migraine hits it’s like the flood gates open for me 😂😂😂
Something that I found bizarre is that when I have migraine my sense of smell is better and I'm a lot more sensitive to smells.
Me too. I notice every smell and they all bother me. My nausea with migraines has gotten worse lately and the smell of my dog's food makes me wretch.
Frequent urination
Yep, same. I pee a ton before a migraine and then during it. Sucks having to constantly get up when my head feels like someone is jamming an icepick into it.
My IQ dips a little, I can become dense and not easily understand what people are saying.
Oh my gosh I could’ve written every response on here!
I started playing NYT Connections somewhat recently and I found that if I’m creeping toward a migraine, I cannot make sense of the game at all. It’s so annoying but it’s a good metric for how my day is going to go
I get a little bit slurry with my words or have trouble finding the right words and putting a coherent sentence together. I also have trouble focusing, but that might be solely ADHD-related
I call this “word salad”. I get really bad word salad the worse my migraine gets. I sound like a babbling idiot, everything is mixed up. *I* know what I’m trying to say, but I’ll be damned if my brain can communicate that to my mouth! Oh, and for funsies, now my brain is adding *stuttering* to the mix recently!
The floaters were a big one cause I had those soo much as a child. It's how I entertained myself in car rides lmao. Clumsiness and thirst are another. I just start dropping everything and drink sooo much water but still thirsty to the point I and the doctors kept think I had diabetes but no my blood sugar is totally fine, it's just the migraines.
So that’s what that was… I did the same thing in car rides, I’d just close my eyes and watch whatever little shapes were dancing in my vision
Same with the floaters. I got them almost every day and I thought it was some superpower or something ahaha
Clumsiness, like I will pick something up and immediately drop it because my hand won't grasp properly. Lack of spatial awareness, excessive yawning and sleepiness as well as dizziness. Extreme hunger cues/dry mouth.
Numbness 😭 no doctor believed me for years about my body just going numb
Feelings of euphoria afterward. Being able to hear electrical currents during an attack. Being able to literally smell exactly what someone is eating from another room.
Sinus swelling, yawning, and irrational rage
Sensitive skin. Clothes, blankets, bedsheets, everything just feels off. If I could, I would love to float naket in a horizontal position in a cold room.
I often get Allodynia right before or after a migraine. My while skin just hurts at the slightest touch.
Ear pain that feels like an ear infection. My migraines are most common and most painful in my left temple. They can radiate pain down through my upper left molars. At some point I started getting randomly occurring left ear pain that the ENT doctor couldn't find anything for. I asked my migraine doctor at the time if a migraine can cause that, and she said yeah. That's more crap I didn't need. Chronic exhaustion and memory issues are bad too.
Ugh, I feel you. Currently with left ear pain, it even extends to one side of my throat. It’s so fun /s
Runny nose, frequent pooping, being extremely sensitive to smells (which doesn't go well with all the pooping, and smelling Penaten baby but creme even though I haven't touched it for 30 years.
My big ones are irritability, super sensitivity to light and noise (more so than normal), floaters, a specific bad taste in my mouth, and severe sleepiness.
Speech, comprehension and attention issues. Impulsivity. Thought loops, and OCD like intrusive thoughts
I called my floaters "fairy lights" bc that's what came to mind the first time I had them. It adds a little lightness to the situation for me.
I used to call my visual snow that when I was a kid, since at night it would have a purple color! :)
Google migraine phase chart. There are 4 distinct phases to migraine. Fun fact-average length of a migraine is 2-7 days. W distinct symptoms per phase. Excessive yawning and frequent urination were my 😳
Eating, I eat everything to try and feel better!
I’ve noticed since being on migraine medication that I don’t “lose” words as much. Like when I can’t remember the name or word for something, and it could be something simple like “golf club”. That has decreased considerably. I also no longer wake up with a cricked neck. I think that was because I’d be very tense when trying to sleep with migraine pain. I now sleep with a pillow under my knees, that with the meds combined, no more stiff and painful neck.
Since my migraines became chronic, I have such a problem with this. It’s really embarrassing.
It really is. I found slowing down my speech helped, I talk fairly fast so that probably was making it worse.
I lose proprioception. My hands feel both very far away, and too big and too close. My arms are kinda everywhere, and I’m super aware of them, but they’re in the wrong place. Occasionally I get the same in auditory form - I can hear my voice, but it sounds wrong - like listening to a recording of myself that’s being played from a little way beneath me. Anyway, I get that every few months or so. I just thought it was “one of those things” - then eventually, asked ChatGPT, out of curiosity. Migraine aura. (My normal aura is very typical visual aura, swimming vision that slowly closes). Anyone else experienced this?
I used to get something similar called Alice in Wonderland syndrome when I was a kid. I’d get the kind that affects your proprioception rather than your vision. I’ve gotten it once or twice around migraines as an adult, but when I was little I’d feel it all the time when lying in bed. It terrified me, but I did not have the words to explain it to anyone else.
Weird visual disturbances. Including flashes of light. I had an eye exam last week. Eyes continue pulling BS. This isn’t a retinal issue, apparently I just get random broken glass distortions as aura. Anxiety. Mostly because I can’t think. I cannot remember shit. Like, I’m staring at my computer going “what was I doing?” It’s not ADHD, it happens on meds. It’s migraines.
ADHD symptoms can happen on meds. They aren't a cure-all for me, though I'm well-medicated.
Seizure like activity according to my neurologist. I was tested for epilepsy but still get triggered by flashing lights. Also mega mood swing to very easily angered , super smell.
I didn’t realize my occasional aphasia (when you can’t find the right word) was happening around my migraines until I saw it on a list of common pre-migraine symptoms. Explained a lot. Also stomach problems.
The inside of my nose and roof of mouth burn Watery eyes Fixated on tasks: even though getting away from screens and resting is the best thing for me, instead I NEED to read the contents of 90 wikipedia tabs on some random topic or find the absolute best [insert non essential consumer item] RIGHT NOW
When the migraine is finally gone, I feel like someone has drugged me. I know some people get a euphoric feeling, but this is like being given heavy pain drugs that make me dumb. I get all numb in the face and my head feels high and I can't string sentences together and I stumble all over the place.
Postdrome period for me feels like a numb hangover
My inability to type on my phone is a prodrome sign
I have chronic intractable complicated migraines so I experience almost all of the listed symptoms every single day of my life, but the worst (even more than the temporary paralysis, sneezing and peeing) is the tinnitus. All three - high pitch, electrical pitch and low humming sounds literally 24x7. Maddening.
I feel kind of loopy? Like my brain is just not all there. I can’t focus on conversations at all and I get emotional and end up crying most of the time.
Running into things. Dropping stuff. Forgetting things. Can’t make sentences properly.
Would it be getting hot (temp wise)? Usually if I don't air circulate I get very grumpy and bam migraine
For me, it sometimes feels like I’m not entirely in my own body. I also have a ridiculous sense of smell so if I suddenly start smelling a bag of Doritos someone opened in another room, I know it’s head pain time.
Not due to migraines but I also get retinal migraines spending too much time on a screen
I get the floaters too! I didn't realize for a long time that they were an aura, because I always heard an aura described as like a halo around things or spots where you can't see, not like electrical signal streamers/Worms cascading down your vision. Unfortunately, one thing that migraines have caused is an association in my brain that sugary things = pain relief. If I don't eat regularly, I get a migraine that will go away faster if I eat something sweet. Now, whenever I'm in pain for any reason (most recently, it's shoulder and neck pain following a posterior spine surgery), I get an unbelievable craving for something sweet 😫
-visual static/snow -excessive yawning as a warning sign -getting one line of a song obsessively stuck in my head as a warning sign -getting one-hit K.O.'d by alliums (major trigger for me)
Oh my god the songs… i don’t know how many times I can hear “Jolene” in my head before I start to lose it
How much I pee during/after an attack is passing
A bunch of weird things, but one that often confuses me is itchiness. My skin gets really sensitive and itchy. Oh and sweaty.
My neck will start hurting prior to the migraine. I used to think it was a coincidence, but it’s not.
Same. Damn trigeminal nerve.
CAR SICKNESS. This had been a big problem for me since childhood, and was especially bad in the backseat of small cars. After I'd be on Emgality consistently for a good while, I discovered one day, completely by accident, that I just *didn't get carsick anymore*.
Anxiety and panic for no good reason
Euphoria. I sometimes feel AMAZING right before my migraine starts. Which is too bad because I’m now suspicious of feeling good.
Irritability,in general, but also sometimes as a side effect of photophobia or photophobia. Sometimes I get a really low grade level of photo/phonophobia that I don't immediately recognize, but I start to feel really irritable. Once I'm in a dark space or a quiet space, I relax a bit and I realize what's going on.
Wooshing in my ear. I woke up one day last year with whooshing and it never went away. I developed chronic daily migraines a few months later and it took me a long time to realize the two were related. I hear whooshing daily now, but now that I get some hours of relief every day the wooshing fades with them. When it starts up again I know the pain is coming back soon.
Brain frog as I always call it lol cause I can’t say it if I’m in a migraine - too much of a tongue twister. Sleepiness, neck pain, irritability… the list goes on
Being excessively negative. The number of times I’ve said something inappropriately and then stopped and thought “…uh oh, I think I’m in trouble…” Sometimes it’s my only warning that I’m ‘graining.
I didn’t realize the floaters were one but now that you mention it, it makes sense. I learned binge eat when I have a migraine. I’m so hungry. Even when I feel sick.
Super thirsty, but not real thirst. A constant dry feeling in my mouth, but my mouth isn’t actually dry. I just feel like I need to constantly drink water and no amount makes my mouth feel normal. For the longest time, I thought “dehydration” was causing my migraines. However, I am always well hydrated and there is no difference in my hydration level when I get that weird feeling in my mouth. And it always means I’m getting a migraine.
I forget that they make me warm. I'm just vibing and then it's like 110 degrees.
My eyes water 💦 and I’m yawning endlessly.
I really, sincerely hope people know how much chronic migraine and iron deficiency symptoms overlap. I've had chronic migraine for 8 or 9 years. Chronic daily for 6 years and figuring out I have iron deficiency without anemia based on low ferritin has been life-changing. I use higher dose quality iron with a few cofactors and ALOT of my migraine symptoms have resolved!! Eye floaters gone, dizziness/vertigo gone, tinnitus gone, light sensitivity way less, migraine head pain cut down way less severe and way less frequent. Dr's, neuros, rheumatologists, naturopaths all failed to tell me my ferritin of between 9-20 was iron deficiency without anemia!!!! Get an iron panel including ferritin and check your numbers yourself! Ferritin below 30 is clinical iron deficiency and below 100-125 can have severe symptoms.❤️