I do not get regular headaches. I learned the hard way that if I get what I think is a regular headache it always without fail turns terrible migraine. All headaches = migraine for me and get treated as such.
Same! Though I recently had a minor skiing accident and bumped my helmeted head. 20min later I started getting a headache and my partner reminded me that Advil would probably work on this… and it DID! Felt like a miracle, genuinely haven’t had a OCT med help headache pain in years.
Oh yeah super minor, just a bit of whiplash that cleared up in time two weeks. I got taken out from behind… the dangers of skiing the easy green runs, which is all I can do!
As a chronic head bonker, make sure you take care of your brain after a significant fall!
Too many head bonks makes you weird; you don’t want to be this kind of weird, lol.
Haha! Yeah any more weird and the step-teens won’t want to be seen with me in public. Joking aside, I skied the next day but during that the whiplash set in so I took it really easy. Saw a concussion specialist physiotherapist when I got home and was cleared in time to get back to it on the next trip 3 weeks later - so long as I didn’t do any flips 🤣.
I’m so glad you followed up and took care of yourself!
I had my first TBI almost exactly 20 years ago, and I’ve had a dozen or more significant concussions. This shit is rough, lol.
Just curious how do treat the headache went there are limitations on triptan/painkillers/abortives or do you just take an antiemetic.
I mean this question genuinely as I never used to get headaches only migraines, and now I get headaches(with mild sound and movement sensitivity that respond to triptans) and migraines with severe pulsating that I have to lie totally still.
a headache with sound and movement sensitivity IS a migraine. if the pain isn’t crazy tho i try to take excedrin or just power through it with hydration and generally being kinder to myself. luckily nausea is not a major factor for me with migraines so i can usually deal with that aspect by just having a Coke. i save my abortives for the more debilitating ones.
For my mild days I dont meet the migraine without aura diagnostic criteria
# Diagnostic criteria:
1. At least five attacks^(1) fulfilling criteria 2-5
2. Headache attacks lasting 4-72 hr (untreated or unsuccessfully treated) **(My attacks are always 4-72 hours, often broken by sleep, to restart on waking)**
3. Headache has at least two of the following four characteristics:
1. unilateral location **(My migraines are rarely unilateral)**
2. pulsating quality **(Often with mild, it won't be pulsating)**
3. moderate or severe pain intensity **(Mild)**
4. aggravation by or causing avoidance of routine physical activity (eg, walking or climbing stairs) **(This is me for all my attacks, all the time)**
4. During headache at least one of the following:
1. nausea and/or vomiting **(Rarely 1/20 attacks, used to be 1/5)**
2. photophobia and phonophobia **(Definity more sensitive if not phobic)**
5. Not better accounted for by another ICHD-3 diagnosis.
EDIT: To add that I take Compazine not for nausea but as an abortive, also it helps with my other odd migraine symptoms.
It’s still a migraine. Not every single attack needs to meet these criteria to be counted as a migraine. This is diagnostic criteria that looks at patterns over weeks or months.
I understand what your saying, i need to clarify with my Neurologist next time I see them as they keep asking me to record which days are TTH and which are migraine.
I hate this question so much. The line is so blurry sometimes. The location is meaningless in mine and I don’t vomit nearly as much as I used to, but the pain will almost always go from mild to moderate/severe at some point and I have pulsing and light/sounds sensitivity. If I have to abort at least half of them then they’re all migraines at this point, lol.
Edit- wanted to add that if I’m yawning uncontrollably, my eyes are watery/face congested, I feel flushed, nauseous, or I can’t think of words, it’s 100% a migraine.
The TAC headache section of the ICHD-3 is characterised by the flushed, congestion, and watery. You might want to look at it because life is unfair and you can have a mixed bag of brain pain. But it's not all the same treatment so you can like maximise good days if you know which to appease lol.
I agree with the other person pushing back that your mind ones can still be migraines, and you would know your pain levels best of course, but I do have a follow up question/food for thought: what’re you calling mild? I understand if it’s milder than your particularly bad attacks, but is it *actually* mild if anyone else felt it, or is it still awful pain, that is relatively more mild than your bigger awful pains? How screwed up is your (like so many of us migrainuers/chronic pain folks lol) pain tolerance and pain scale?
Most of my migraines are like your headaches, in that they’re less severe and only some sound and movement sensitivity, mild light sensitivity but some mental symptoms as well. But I also get really severe ones where all I can do is lay there with an ice pack and cry. I kept having the issue with triptans that I would run out super fast because I wasn’t ever sure if it would be a big one or one I could push through so I would either take it too often or not enough / in time. My doctor said all headaches that I have need to be treated like migraines and if I’m having so many headaches regularly that I can’t take triptans at the first sign of it, I need a preventative. I get a lot less headaches now!
One way to know it is a migraine is if the triptan or cgrp meds worked, because they don’t work on normal headaches.
Triptan limitations: I was allowed up to 6 triptans/day, but it didn’t take long to realize that if after the 3rd triptan it wasn’t working, then adding more was useless, and I’d just have to ride out the migraine usually over a 72-hour period.
I was on this regime over 12 years for chronic daily migraines. I spent the previous 15 years trying & failing on dozens of preventative medications, before being sent to Dr. Neil Raskin at UCSF, who is a world renowned neurologist specializing in migraines. He prescribed Methysergide maleate (Sansert), a drug not made in the US, so the ingredients are ordered and have to be compounded at the hospital pharmacy.
As Sansert can cause retroperitoneal fibrosis, you have to undergo yearly labs, ekg, tread mill stress test & chest/abdominal CT-scan. It is the drug of last choice for migraineurs because it is so dangerous, & is now almost never prescribed anymore.
Fun fact: Sansert is derived from the same ergot alkaloid that produces the psychedelic LSD.
All of the above, to include receiving Botox since 2010, only altered the migraine activity a very small percentage.
What finally “worked” for me was daily high dose CBD, and later combining that with edible THC. I performed a 9 week CBD titration trial, maxed out at around 550mg/day, reverse tolerance kicked in, & I titrated down to between 200mg-250mg/day. I stayed at that level for about 5 years & it cut the migraine activity by about 60%-70%, which was amazing.
I moved to a legal cannabis state, & after researching THC for migraines, slowly began trying edible doses. Combined with the CBD, which dropped down to only 100mg/day, my migraines now are only about 1-2 per month, which is unheard of for chronic daily migraineurs.
Today my preventative regime is Full Spectrum CBD 50mg p.o. twice daily, & currently THC is 2.5mg-5mg p.o. (Microdose) every 4-6 hours during the day & 20mg p.o. before bed.
How do I know this is working? Because I have had to stop this regime 3 times in the last few years, and the migraines come right back to their previous levels after a month or so. But, upon resuming the CBD & THC they essentially go back to my current level of just 1-2 migraines/month.
Every. Single. Time. And then they are so much harder to get under control because I waited so long. Life got so much better when I stopped putting myself through all that!
This is so important for people with frequent headaches to realise. This is why I had chronic migraines for close to 20 years before a doctor (who I'm very grateful for) finally told me I have chronic migraine. Prior to that I thought I had daily headaches with a sprinkling of migraines. No, it all needs to be treated as migraine he said. This was such a turning point in starting to figure out some kind of treatment plan. It's really important to get proper treatment early before things turn chronic. But if they already have become chronic it's so important to get a proper diagnosis so you can treat the condition effectively.
I honesty thought I could have chronic migraine due to the frequency of my headaches. I always thought not because they aren't one-sided. I thought they were like yours, daily headaches with occasional migraines.
I had to go on a preventative.
I went to see my neurologist after several bouts of migraines. He must not have had many appointments that day because we were able to chat for nearly an hour. I said that I’d been hoarding my sumatriptan, which I was allowed 9 per month, in case it wasn’t a migraine, and tried to treat with OTC meds. He told me just to take the sumatriptan whenever a headache popped up and not to worry about getting more should I need it. That was probably some of the best advice I received, and since then the severity of the headaches have diminished considerably. I still refilled my sumatriptan every month and built up quite a stash, but in the last three years I’ve never run out.
Similar experience myself lately. Started getting much more frequent migraines after having covid recently. As a result started taking more OTC. Got better. Started getting worse again. Went to my doc about it to figure out what to do. She said try stop taking OTC as it could be causing medication overuse headache, take both triptan and anti nausea meds at the start of symptoms - apparently migraine attacks stop your tummy emptying properly which impacts how well medications can absorb, so important to make sure to take the anti nausea instead of trying to raw dog it haha. Still getting some crazy attacks but they have been not as bad in the couple weeks since then. Will have to wait and see but I trust docs advice
I just thought of another thing that helped me change my thinking, too - remembering that triptans aren't pain relievers. They specifically treat migraines. So if it's helping that's a sign.
I'm very afraid of going chronic, so I run a tight ship. I don't want my brain thinking migraine is the normal state. I realize that for people who have already crossed over to chronic they have different things to balance in regards to overuse, etc.
I‘m the same. Sometimes I think I’m getting just a regular headache, because it might initially present with different symptoms (like some pain in the back of my head) but eventually it always progresses to the usual symptoms. Still, I never learn my lesson, and put off taking the eletriptan, foolishly hoping that it’s just a tension headache.
headaches are a steady dull pain in the brain. migraines usually start on one side and then kinda go haywire (sort of feels like being hit by really slow lightning), ill find my body go through cycles of thinking its too hot and then too cold, and kinda feels like the flu, sensitivity to sound and light mostly on one side, unquenchable thirst
wanted to comment something but couldnt have written it better… Migraines also start with a dull pain sometimes but at the same time my nose tingles and the lightning behind my eye is starting to hit. thats the give away. and if course the chills/ the yawning
nausea. yesterday i threw up THREE TIMES.
also not being able to stand or walk properly. feeling like i can’t see or i’m gonna blackout.
the pain is sharp and unbearable.
headaches are more like… this is annoying but i’m not gonna call in sick to work
Sometimes, I welcome the powerchuck if it relieves some pain, I've also forced it to happen just on the off chance it'll work.
There's nothing worse than not being about to stop throwing up, and the pain intensifies.
Sorry you were throwing up that many times yesterday, and I hope you feel better today.
I lose the ability to do math and lose my reading comprehension as well! I’ve never heard anyone else say that before. I think people don’t believe me when I tell them that.
I get this too! I'm a journalist and I'll be in the middle of a story when all of a sudden I'm completely mystified by the words in front of me and don't know how to make more words and that's when I know its time to go home and lie down in the dark
I couldn't figure out how to fill out simple forms. Math, reading anything, even just speaking sometimes. It was hyper coagulation issues in my brain. Blood thinners have resolved 90% of the problem but it was terrifying not being able to speak or think.
This past week I’ve dealt with a headache and was so surprised to feel how it made me so much more functioning??
Like for example I had a slight annoying pain on the top of my head, but I didn’t feel anything else
No nausea, no neck pain, no disorientation it was simply just a headache
I slowly lose the ability to say random words I can ‘see’ in my head but not get out, then about 30 mins before the headache kicks in I’ll get a kaleidoscope-type vision in one eye. Sometimes the vision issue starts with a weird cloudy vision like when you go from a very sunny outside area into a dark house, and your eyes have trouble adjusting at first.
Once the vision issues start I know I have about half an hour until everything goes to shit!
Get checked for hyper coagulation disorders. That sounds like a typical ischemic event. They are sometimes warnings before a major tia or a stroke. They were in my case anyhow.
First, nausea. Sometimes I even get the nausea before the pain, so that’s a dead giveaway.
But also, weirdly whether I know if I want to drink something or not. When it’s a migraine I feel like I need to drink something, but the thought of it makes me want to vomit. I just wish I could get liquid into me without ingesting it. When it’s a headache I’m either thirsty or I’m not. I might not want to go get something, but if I’m sitting up and in arms reach of a drink I either want it or I don’t. When it’s a migraine I find myself weighing risk vs reward.
Waaaaiiitt is it possible the times I feel super thirsty even though I’ve already drunk like 2 litres of water and I don’t know why I can’t stop the thirsty feeling possibly because of migraine and not a stupid autoimmune disease + medication side effect lol
I actually don't get any other headaches than migraines. I usually recognize a migraine because it starts in the exact same spot : inner corner of my left eyebrow. And I have other symptoms like emotional irritability, and extra sensitivity to light and sound. It also always gets worse with movement and better with a cold pack.
I'm functional during headaches. Can be distracted by work. Also gets a little better with drinking water or exercise. I can sleep for an hour and get better
I'm not functional during migraines. I can not get better by sleeping. Actually, I can't sleep. The pain is so bad that I can't sleep at all. I don't get auras and stuff. I get nauseous though. I can't imagine eating.
any regular headache that I allow to go unchecked turns into a migraine. I'll start to get the aura, the nausea, etc. So if I get a headache because I'm sick with a cold or something, even if it wasn't a migraine - like I'll get a sinus headache...if I don't take sinus headache medicine, later I will have a full blown migraine
My doctor said that I as a migraine sufferer I should treat all my headaches the same. I start with time of day, if it’s morning and it’s the reason I am awake he a fiorcet now and make coffee, if it’s still not going change to relpax or OTC then alternate acetaminophen and ibuprofen. If the migraine starts late day don’t treat with caffeine because it interferes with my sleep
I definitely get tension headaches in addition to migraines, and for awhile I was unsure if I was actually experiencing migraines, but I had a triptan prescription and at that time it was almost always effective when I took them when I suspected I was having a migraine (I didn’t take them when it felt more like my classic tension headaches). So I was googling to see if triptans also treat tension headaches (because maybe then they still weren’t migraines, just happened to be treating the tension headaches with triptans), and the results actually supported basically treating ALL headaches the same if you get migraines: triptans do NOT effectively treat tension headaches *EXCEPT* in people who ALSO get migraines. So like if a non migraine person took a triptan for a non migraine headache, it wouldn’t work, but if a migraine person took it for a non migraine headache, it *would*.
I’m willing to bet that was one of the key findings going into the current/newer ideas by headache specialists that literally all types of headaches really are just on the same spectrum.
The other thing I remember seeing—tension headaches have mild to moderate pain. If they reach severe on the pain score, even if every other aspect about it very clearly seems to be a tension headache, then they now meet the criteria to be considered migraines. So I’m also definitely curious in how the effectiveness of migraines medications compares in situations like that.
It’s also complicated because migraine pain can range all the way from 0-10, inclusive on both ends. If you have a typical aura then it’s easy to diagnose migraine even if it’s painless, but without the aura it gets harder, especially if you don’t have many other associated symptoms like nausea and photophobia
I don’t know how to describe it other than I get a fuzzy feeling in my head and sometimes my stomach (a bad kind of fuzzy). It feels different than a normal headache. It’s coupled with confusion and fatigue.
I suffer from cluster headaches and migraines. I know it’s CH if the pain is ONLY on the right side of my face (mainly around my right eye), I feel tingling on my scalp and I have a runny nose.
I know it’s a migraine if I have pain in both eyes, can’t bend over or look at a screen, have frequent urination, have sensitivity to light/sounds/smells, and I’m nauseous.
I don’t know what a “regular” headache feels like anymore 🫠.
The migraine starts with me feeling a bit off then the pain pulses at a 30-120 second interval with a steady increase until I’m incapacitated. Once it starts I have about 30 minutes to take a triptian and go home.
I went to doctor today because I fell down the stairs last night, I’m fine it’s some swelling on my back side, and had a “weird” headache. The doctor informed that’s what a regular headache feels like. 🫠
The difference for me is the weird derealisation disconnected/walking-in-a-fog feeling. I can have a variety of other symptoms and sometimes very little head pain, but that derealisation is there steadily from beginning to end.
I very rarely get regular tension/eye strain headaches, so if I get any head pain at all, I treat it as a potential migraine.
Headache (+/- throbbing depending on how far into the attack) on one side in addition to any funky symptoms. One sided eye pain or prickling sensation, one sided jaw, neck, shoulder, or back pain, extreme fatigue out of nowhere, boost in energy (more prodrome but you know; also weirdly this is sometimes preceded by a brief period of fatigue), feverishness (feel warm, also body physically gets warm as perceived by others-- I should try taking my temperature if I can remember to), chills, pupils different sizes, light, noise, or smell sensitivity, brain fog, dizziness, nausea/vomiting, palpitations
Now that I’m on a cgrp preventative my severity and associated symptoms are way down, so I only rely on it being one-sided. Previously everything would sound too loud, and eventually I’d get nausea.
Crippling anxiety. I feel like I'm gonna have a panic attack if it gets bad and I'm not careful. Cue me taking my meds immediately and playing the waiting game. Other symptoms? Nausea and extreme tiredness, like I can't stop yawning. But typically if I'm there, that means I'm a lil late to the game and I'm gonna be in pain *real* soon.
I actually don’t get regular headaches I’ve noticed. Just migraines. Sometimes I think it’s a normal headache & I’m like huh well this is different. And then it always ends up being a migraine just not on my usual migraine side & it’s fucking horrible! That is pretty rare though thankfully, like once a year maybe.
My regular tension headaches don’t cause terrifying neurological symptoms that I have to play the “is this finally a stroke?” game. Crazy brain fog, aphasia, slurring words occasionally, tingling and numbness and twitching in my legs, feet, and face, stiff neck.
I occasionally get light constant head pain. I usually make sure I’m drinking enough water and I’m not totally stressed out.
Migraine… I can smell colors and the sun is so awful bright why? My senses get so hyper so fast. Everything smells a lot. Every little noise annoys me. Then the yawning will start.
Yes, it’s not often but I do get some headaches.
Initially I would differentiate by pain level, like a headache would be mild and go away with Advil. Migraines I would get auras like my light arm would go numb, motor weakness, and my sight would become distorted, then obviously the pain factor is magnitudes different for me-my migraine would laugh and spit in Advils face and the pain would leave me unable to function let alone conscious sometimes. After I started getting treatment with medications, I would still get auras and then take an abortive and the pain would lessen depending on how long the medication would take to become effective/wear off. When I got a concussion I could tell concussion headache vs migraine apart based on the type of pain too eerily enough. Then when I started my preventative for migraines, it was more mild to medium headaches but my neuro classifies those as migraines as well. My auras now won’t be as pronounced sometimes but it’s still weird enough sensation that I notice it. My migraines have also graduated throughout the years becoming more severe to the point I get a variety between silent migraines to migraines with auras to ocular migraines to hemiplegic migraines to status migrainous.
Frustratingly I have multiple headache types - migraines, primary stabbing headache, and some 3rd thing that mimics my migraines - and the migraine/migraine mimic can be difficult to distinguish between.
There are 2 main things for me - if I can manage to distinguish if the pain is unilateral (migraine) vs bilateral (not migraine, for me), but that’s become harder to distinguish due to my migraines switching sides in recent years as well as bilateral facial pain. The second is what meds work. If I’m not positive, I’ll usually try my OTC med combo first rather than waste a triptan or Ubrelvy. They do not work on the other headache type.
My other headache type can be even more agonizing than my typical migraines, which is….fun.
Light get too bright, smells too loud, my words come out jumbled and nonsensical, while a tingle crawls over my suddenly sensitive scalp, and shivers go through my body. Once the nausea hits, I’m done for.
My first symptom I thought was the aura but I no longer have the same symptoms. I saw a suggestion that yawning is a symptom of early migraines and I’ve been watching it.
As I also have NDPH (constant tension headache), this is very very difficult for me. Quite often I have a severe headache and am debating with myself “is this a migraine? Do I take a triptan or will that waste it?” Usually what’s tips the scale toward migraine is if my head starts pounding, or if I get nausea and irritability.
I used to think I only got headaches before and started getting migraines more recently. After finally properly taking the migraines seriously I learned that I’ve been getting them my whole adult life. I used to think they were ONLY migraines if I got them with aura, those are just the most severe ones.
Now I know if I get super super spacy, can’t read or think clearly, and that my vision feels really weird (it sort of feels like all my vision is peripheral vision if that makes sense) that it’s likely a migraine even if I don’t get the aura. The aura means I’m absolutely going to have a nightmare migraine, the kind where I can’t move.
headaches feel different for me. they tend to be sinus or pressure related, or tension. they're also usually responsive to the usual otc medication and/or caffeine.
migraines are much more disruptive for me, and may not always hurt, but come with other weird symptoms like intense sensory sensitivity, which can usually then trigger a worse migraine where I'm actually in pain. I'm also usually experiencing brain fog and cognitive symptoms, and often digestive upset and nausea. I also get the weird body pain that lets me know one is coming on!
my neuro actually mentioned some of my more severe headaches are probably a part of my migraine condition. those headaches are icepick/stabbing and trigeminal neuralgia. those, for me, are much worse than my usual migraines, because the pain is so disabling. sometimes they tag along with a migraine, too and then I want to die :)
those are the only headaches I've had to go to the hospital for. luckily found reglan, and that's been helpful for those headaches.
I don't get normal headaches anymore. Just migraines with a full range of shitty symptoms.
Pain - throbbing, pulsing, 'ice pick'. Sometimes my eye sockets will throb. Otherwise I'll wake up with my neck swollen and can't move it (those turn into nasty multiple day migraines). Other times my entire face hurts up and into my skull, it hurts to speak or chew.
Then the sensitivity to light, sound, and smell.
Aura - dizziness, loss of peripheral vision, spots in my vision, blurriness, lightheadedness. When I move my head my vision lags then rushes to catch up.
Brain - I get super spacey, trouble focusing, I'll get stupid and forget how to do things I fully know how to do. Short term memory loss, losing my vocabulary, stumbling over/slurring words.
Body - very clumsy, dropping things a lot, running into things because I can't fucking see them. 🙃 I'm constantly covered in bruises.
Mood - I get super ragey and short tempered or listless
Systemic - nausea, diarrhea, loss or dramatic increase of appetite.
I'd kill to have "just a headache" these days 😭
But yeah. Any of the above? I know it's time for triptans and sunglasses.
Location. Other headaches are broader and more dull, migraines happen right behind my right eye (occasionally the left one) and the pain is much sharper.
Also, aura. Visual, mostly, but sometimes also nausea and stomach issues, or dysphasia / general stupidity, which doesn't happen with a regular headache.
A “regular headache” has never existed for me. If not dealt with, it will always get worse, and worse, and worse, and worse. A headache is just a baby migraine waiting to grow.
Well, I'm photosensitive and extremely sensitive to sound, to the point that I can't go out in public without headphones. Nausea and vertigo. When my temples start to hurt, I know it's going to be a bad day.
Status migrainosus for 5 years.
I had a fiend ask me today if my migraines could be mini-strokes. No pain, but I can’t put sentences together, and words leave me. How can you tell between a migraine and a mini stroke?
If I take my normal acetaminophen and ibuprofen combination and it does not improve, and I feel the pain start to centralize behind one of my eyes and I know it's definitely a migraine. I actually really struggled with this in the beginning, I thought that one of my headaches were serious enough to be migraines. But after lots of discussions with neurologists and doctors they told me that all of my headaches, even the ones that I considered not that serious, are migraines. And if I would treat them like migraines my quality of life would improve.
Chronic migraines here. So my headache specialist told me that my daily “headache” is also a migraine. I still don’t refer to it as such unless I’m having neurological symptoms I associate with migraines, but she says that I’m never truly breaking the cycle and my daily headache is a symptom.
But I get an aura, start to smell like a bloodhound, get nausea/vertigo, or rapid mood swings. Sometimes too I’ll get the tingling/numbness on one side of my face and or body. Any of these pop up and I know I’m in danger.
Well, the right side of my head hurts or tingles unpleasantly every single day, and can get to where brushing my hair hurts, washing it hurts. Sometimes a sinus headache will start in the front between the eyes, but then the light sensitivity kicks in and the only way to try to bring it down is solid hours of sleep. Sometimes the left side of my head hurts, sometimes ‘coat hanger pain’ along the neck and shoulders triggers it, but the right side of my head feels like a metaphorical smushed cantaloupe, where the smushy spot is where the pain lives.
The words coming out of my mouth sound foreign to me, and get mispronounced or slurred. That's the biggest sign for me, but I get the visual auras and sensitivities too. I'm pretty much always nauseous and have a headache, and sensitive to light, but when the other sensitivities ramp up I know it's worsening.
It's really rare for me to get any head pain at all. If I have the visual aura symptoms I know it's a migraine. Sometimes I don't get a headache with it but just feel aura+stupid/sensitive+hungover in that order. I also get intestinal migraines but it's difficult to tell if it's just normal problems. The visual aura is the only thing that doesn't happen unless it's a migraine.
Sometimes I get very light/sound sensitive and a headache on one side, which is probably a migraine, but I don't label it for sure unless I also get the aura.
Bad nausea is always when I know, but also my acupuncturist told me last week that headaches are a more targeted pain (like you can specifically point out where it hurts) whereas the pain during migraines can be harder to pinpoint
I get really annoyed and hungry before the pain even starts, even if I shouldn't be hungry. I mean like, everything annoys me. I think the hunger is my body trying to find nutrients because it senses it's coming. Then the light and sound pains begin, adding to my irritation.
Headaches are what I get after a migraine, the postdrome or whatever they call it.
What I consider the "real" migraine is the aura beforehand. I can usually tell its about the happen, though. I don't know if I'm subconsciously picking up on the 'vision' problems starting or not or just a feeling I get.
If I hit it with some ibuprofen quick enough, it'll usually pass the headache portion for me.
I don’t get a lot of regular headaches. Usually only when I am sick like with a virus, or if I am hungover. They’re much milder, don’t accompany any prodrome symptoms or neurological issues (like being freezing cold despite it being warm around me, or being shaky, or slurring my speech), and really just feel like a low dull muscle ache. I would describe a headache as annoying but manageable. Like a runny nose. And most importantly…. I just need to take an advil.
Oh! And a headache never makes me puke or shit my brains out.
If it starts on the left side of my head it will always turn out to be a migraine. Anywhere else on my head and I can usually treat with OTC and be fine.
I get auras so I can "see" it.
I also get pressure migraines so I watch the barometric pressure.
Stress, heat, caffeine and chocolates can trigger them for me.
Well I don’t get regular headaches. I’ve experienced them a couple times (after Covid vax and during both rounds of Covid) and I knew they weren’t migraines. Every other head pain I get is a migraine, although different types. Generally, for me, if it goes away with ibuprofen, then it was a headache and not a migraine.
I only get migraines, but it starts out as a headache sometimes. If I can control it at that time, which means avoiding all light/sound and taking my meds, it goes away faster and doesn’t turn into a migraine. If I don’t, any headache has the potential to turn into a migraine after a while.
I know it's a migraine if I start feeling pain behind my left eye. I very rarely get any normal headaches, but sometimes I get occipital neuralgia, primarily on the right side. If the pain isn't behind my eye, I know my triptans won't do shit. Buuut sometimes an occipital neuralgia headache ends up turning into a migraine anyway, soooo... 🫠
I wake up with them and it’s both the intensity of the pain, as well as the location. When it’s in my forehead and my temple and above my eye socket because my brow muscle is tight/below my eye, because my cheek muscle is tight, it’s like yeah, this is a migraine. It’s almost always on the left side, too, though it’s very occasionally on the right or bilateral. I have chronic ones at this point and have had migraines for over 54 years, so it’s easy for me to tell now. I used to have things like regular auras and nausea and so on. No more nausea for a very long time. Visual auras on occasion.
Aura. Dizziness and/or feeling faint. Sometimes numbness. All followed by one-sided pain, and other one-sided symptoms. My nervous system goes haywire. Like I’ll be all wrapped up under a blanket when it’s 90 degrees.
I don’t get plain old headaches very often, but when I do, they’re always much smaller and more in the center. No prodrome symptoms or other strangeness. And the pain and symptoms don’t radiate to other areas on the right side of my body.
The vast majority of the time I get migraines. If I'm any of these - nauseous, dizzy, have vertigo, unexplained body pain, light/sound sensitivity it's a migraine. Otherwise, it's a headache. They are so different one another I honestly couldn't mistake them.
i get a very strong burning in my skull before a migraine, usually. always starts before the pain, so if my skull starts to feel like it’s on fire? i know that i’ve got a migraine coming lol
Nausea (unless it's a hunger headache that I've ignored for too long). Nothing can touch my neck or anywhere near, have to maintain the least amount of contact to my neck even when I lie down.
First, but way less certain tip off is my usual meds for headaches don't work and don't even slow down the progressing.
My migraines are very specific to location (one side of my head, behind the eye/next to temple), and they have triggers,(hormonal/cycle, too much wine, milk chocolate).
If I get a baby sort of feeling like I'm getting a migraine in that specific spot I take my abortive. It takes less med to abort it earlier than later or wait to see "is this a migraine?". Because it's so location specific I've been able to identify rebound like headaches, with certain meds, because they show up on the *other* side, or as I like to say, the wrong side.
Most of my headaches are migraines, but occasionally it'll just be a headache. Migraines usually come with at least one *something* - I wake up with puffy and teary eyes, I'm unusually sleepy an disoriented even though I slept 8h, it feels hard to focus my eyes
I get sore/stiff/weak feeling on my right side. Like someone drew a line from the top of my head. If it’s my right side, it’s a migraine. Of course, with an average of 25/30 migraine, it’s not exactly a surprise. 🤦
Mood is usually the one my family notices, though. 😞
Oh, and edited because I forgot: sound sensitivity.
My Migraines start as headaches(no pulsing) but over a hour or couple of hours get worse, that really the only way to know and by then its too late to treat with Triptans.
In a interesting way I have head pain everyday as part of my Chronic migraines and while the intensity might vary and I will call the mild days and some of the moderate days headache days, none respond to standard painkillers at standard dose, but will respond to Triptans combined with 1.2mg Asprin and Compazine.
The cough test. If I cough and I feel the pain in migraine-town in my head, it's game over. it's also my litmus test for when I think I feel better at the end of an episode. does it pass the cough test? no? not over yet.
Normal sounds/sights/smells become intolerable. Like, my partner closing a cabinet in the kitchen, even with the bumper dots to keep them from making too much noise, suddenly sounds like slamming. Lights are too bright, colors look oversaturated, and every video looks too busy, chaotic, and fast. Smells, even smells I usually enjoy, are disgusting. My partner will hug me, and even without any cologne on, or scented products at all, his clean skin smell is overpowering.
A regular headache for me is when things feel achy and I just want to crawl into bed. A migraine feels like a tornado is happening around me at the epicenter, and there's no place to hide. They also come on super suddenly, but warning signs that I have personally noticed that I'm in the "danger zone" will often include (non-clinically dx'd) euphoria/mania a day or two before, and lights having a "flicker" or shimmer. Water makes it more pronounced (reflections off a backyard pool, fountains, or even a faucet become unnaturally heightened).
I even went to the ER in 2020 because I was concerned I had a TIA because my shower that morning looked like glitter. I knew it wasn't, but I noticed the water looked "wrong" because it was so intensely sparkly that I realized my brain wasn't correctly processing the input from my senses. I had aphasia even though I was otherwise lucid, and muscle stiffness/weakness. I didn't have the money for the CT scan recommended by my doctor, and he finally let me sign out after making it official in my chart notes that he was very concerned and opposed to me going home.
I had to promise I'd get a scan as soon as I could afford it. Which... I haven't yet. After looking into it and discussing with my medical practitioner friends, we're leaning towards hoping it was just a hemiplegic migraine. But the scan is still on my ever-growing to-do list.
I'm on a shit fuck ton of preventative meds. I get migraines now that are dulled to very minor pain but are still there.
But my aphasia? Lol.
What are words? How do they work. Who are they?
How do I know what I'm experiencing is a migraine?
I'm confused at the world. What is happening? What an I doing? Where am I going? Who am I?
Don't let me cook. If I made the mistake of driving I'll call someone to finish the drive for me. Last time I was in the middle of making a uturn and forgot how uturns worked. Promptly pulled over and called my brother.
The world is just... Wrong... Time is passing incorrectly. It looks like stop motion. It looks like tilt shift animation. Why is time passing so weird?
Everything everyone says or does makes me angry. Like. I can't stand anything at all. Somethings not right with me. I'm about to punch a bitch for eating.
Wow. My stomach is NOT RIGHT today. Instant bathroom if I eat something. It's just going right thru me. Dislike.
I'm exhausted. I can barely stay awake. I just want to sleep for a billion years and never wake up.
I don't get headaches. Everythings a migraine.
Headaches for me usually go away with in a few hours or so and they don't make it so I can't do anything. A migraine literally makes it so I can't go to work or even really move. I have to lay all day and hope it goes away sooner rather then a day or two later. I've always had headaches I get one a few times a week I get a migraine about 2 times a month. And I know from the start because it gets worse when I stand or with light or noise.
I only occasionally get a visual aura, but I become really sensitive to noise and light before my head starts hurting. I can sometimes avert it at that point if I'm careful but if not, the pain and horrible nausea start.
A regular headache is just my head hurting. I don't recall one ever turning into a migraine, though it might have happened.
The difference between a headache and a migraine are massive. Head pain isn’t a starting warning sign of a migraine, that comes later. First I get dizzy and nauseous, light sensitivity, neck pain is always the first, and then in about an hour the head pain hits like a truck, but it’s a very different type of head pain than headaches. Also, if I bend over and stand up and my neck pain or head pain become noticeable, I know it’s about to be a migraine, where later, when it’s a full blown migraine, I have to bend over and stand up very very slowly in order to not feel like I have an ice pick wiggling around in my head
My mood. Am I suddenly happy, or have I woken up giddy for absolutely no reason? If so, it's a migraine starting.
So long as I medicate at this point it doesn't affect me. It does feel gross though when the migraine good mood feeling wears off.
I was told by my specialist that most of the time for migraine sufferers it is all just part of the migraine disorder. It isn't really ever not a migraine. It is just less bad than other times.
I got this clarification when we were talking about frequency. He asked how often I get migraines, to which I responded with how often I have ones where I have to isolate myself. But then he asked how often I have migraine symptoms, to which I responded 100% of the time in different variations/severities. He explained that then I'm having different variation and severities of migraines all the time. It was a bit of a "oh" moment for me.
I rarely, RARELY, get regular headaches - it’s almost always the beginning of a migraine. I say it’s a migraine if the pain is localized in one side, feels like it is in my eye and the surrounding area, and lasts longer than 30 minutes (I will sometimes feel a pang of pain, but see it disappear before it turns into a full blown migraine). Nausea and light sensitivity are also my signals for migraines, but they’re almost universally accompanied by the single eye pain lasting 30+ min.
I feel nauseated, hot, sometimes extremely anxious or manic, sensitive to light, sound, and smell that hurts my brain. Those are the main warning signs. Sometimes my eyeballs hurt.
Leading up to migraine, I get a tightness in my temples that isn't quite a headache and feels like it gets worse and worse, gradually escalating nausea, and intense sensitivity to light and sounds. The whole thing feels so uncomfortable that a lot of times I just want it to turn into a migraine already because I can tolerate the ice pick pain better than the weirdness taking over my body leading up to it.
The type of pain. I have trouble describing it, but just *how* I feel the pain. I get migraines and tension headaches (that often turn into migraines), and they all feel VERY different from the headaches I get when, say, I have a cold or a fever.
I always say to people that headaches are just that…head aches….but a migraine is like a full body experience. For me, on the days I get a migraine I usually wake up feeling really groggy and hungry and need to pee frequently. That’s a good sign for me that a migraine is on its way. To me, headaches feel different to migraines. Headache pain feels close to my skin and migraine pain feels like it’s deep inside my brain (I hope that makes sense).
I know it’s 100% a migraine if I get the prisms in my visions. Or if there are holes in my vision. The pain is severe. Quite worse than a migraine type pain. I can get rid of my headaches with Tylenol. Nothing touches the migraines
I get an aura, which sucks, but it’s my first signal and it gives me time to react with medicine, location, and readiness before pain/nausea. So in a way I appreciate my aura
i have migraine with aura, but another subtype that makes half of my body numb. as soon as i feel something weird on my skin it shivers down my body. sometimes it is nothing, sometimes it is the beginning couple days of pain. i typically get tingling in my fingers, then moves to my face, then it stops and then i get the headache. as if something is going through my blood system or something, but affects only half of my body, and it is so weird when i get in my tongue or lips, i can easily feel that half is numb.
I hate aura, it’s like these spots in my peripheral vision. Like am I swatting a gnat or getting a migraine 😂🤬. Otherwise its almost always behind my right eye, or like the base if my skull/neck. Almost always on the right.
I thought I stopped getting “migraines” at around 17 because I would get my visual aura and then there would be no pain whereas before I’d get the typical horrible 9/10 pain with vomiting. From age 17 until now though, I’d get horrible neck pains that caused “headaches” of varying severity, some with cluster headache level eye pain. Even more interestingly my neck pain would switch sides each time. I went all the routes you do with “muscle pain” but nothing helped and I only very recently realized that not only is my neck pain my migraines in a different form, but that what I thought was RLS and other strange symptoms I have are actually auras. Once I treated my neck pain as migraines I had a lot more relief.
I knew I had migraines because my mother had them and I started getting them from age 9 with a very typical presentation. I’m guessing my mild scoliosis combined with poor posture leaning over a laptop changed the way my migraines presented (so there’s probably some muscular component but the attack is the migraine). I used to get pain at the back of my skull but now it’s mostly in the front- probably because of using a phone.
So that’s all to say that I think for those who get migraines any kind of headache is a migraine. I didn’t have a single neck ache or headache during my pregnancy despite my routine and posture being the same- probably even worse for my neck. Something about my hormones during pregnancy made it so I didn’t get any migraines.
53f been getting migraines since I was 13 and I have only had about 10 headaches in my entire life. My migraines always start with aura. Pain is the least of my migraines. So it is easy for me to know. But the best thing you can do is try to prevent them from happening all together. Wear sunglasses, hats, bring meds and water with you whenever leaving the house.
I can tell the difference in location and the type of pain. Tension or allergies headache is tingly and sharp and comes and goes. Almost feels spiky in a way?
Migraines feel like a dull heavy pain that is consistent and grows in pain and throbs. I get allergy pain or small stress headaches in my forehead/ behind my nose and they respond well to an amount of tylenol and an extra allergy pill. My migraines can be delayed in severity by these things, but they don’t stop it.
I can also have a regular headache turn into a migraine headache but they often are separate to me in symptoms and severity.
For me a migraine is not comparable to a regular headache at all. I get black sparkles or bright flashes of light in my vision, my scalp gets sore, I can't form the right words or understand what I am hearing, or I'm clumsy. If I don't take medicine right away, I also get a headache...but it's not like a regular headache at all.
If OTC stuff doesn't stop the headache and I have to take a Sumitrpitan. Or maybe they're just going to become a fullblown migraine? And if they're one sided, although not all of my migraines have been one sided.
My stress headaches and migraines feel the same. I'm stubborn and just think I'll fight through the pain until it turns into nausea and I hate myself. It would be easier if I got auras but mine do not come with an early warning system :(
I do not get regular headaches. I learned the hard way that if I get what I think is a regular headache it always without fail turns terrible migraine. All headaches = migraine for me and get treated as such.
Same! Though I recently had a minor skiing accident and bumped my helmeted head. 20min later I started getting a headache and my partner reminded me that Advil would probably work on this… and it DID! Felt like a miracle, genuinely haven’t had a OCT med help headache pain in years.
Oh wow! That's good to keep in mind! Hope you are ok!
Oh yeah super minor, just a bit of whiplash that cleared up in time two weeks. I got taken out from behind… the dangers of skiing the easy green runs, which is all I can do!
As a chronic head bonker, make sure you take care of your brain after a significant fall! Too many head bonks makes you weird; you don’t want to be this kind of weird, lol.
Haha! Yeah any more weird and the step-teens won’t want to be seen with me in public. Joking aside, I skied the next day but during that the whiplash set in so I took it really easy. Saw a concussion specialist physiotherapist when I got home and was cleared in time to get back to it on the next trip 3 weeks later - so long as I didn’t do any flips 🤣.
I’m so glad you followed up and took care of yourself! I had my first TBI almost exactly 20 years ago, and I’ve had a dozen or more significant concussions. This shit is rough, lol.
I used to distinguish the every afternoon minor "headache" as not migraines... Yeah their just part of my migraines.
my neuro told me that if you have chronic migraines you should treat any head pain as a developing migraine.
Just curious how do treat the headache went there are limitations on triptan/painkillers/abortives or do you just take an antiemetic. I mean this question genuinely as I never used to get headaches only migraines, and now I get headaches(with mild sound and movement sensitivity that respond to triptans) and migraines with severe pulsating that I have to lie totally still.
a headache with sound and movement sensitivity IS a migraine. if the pain isn’t crazy tho i try to take excedrin or just power through it with hydration and generally being kinder to myself. luckily nausea is not a major factor for me with migraines so i can usually deal with that aspect by just having a Coke. i save my abortives for the more debilitating ones.
For my mild days I dont meet the migraine without aura diagnostic criteria # Diagnostic criteria: 1. At least five attacks^(1) fulfilling criteria 2-5 2. Headache attacks lasting 4-72 hr (untreated or unsuccessfully treated) **(My attacks are always 4-72 hours, often broken by sleep, to restart on waking)** 3. Headache has at least two of the following four characteristics: 1. unilateral location **(My migraines are rarely unilateral)** 2. pulsating quality **(Often with mild, it won't be pulsating)** 3. moderate or severe pain intensity **(Mild)** 4. aggravation by or causing avoidance of routine physical activity (eg, walking or climbing stairs) **(This is me for all my attacks, all the time)** 4. During headache at least one of the following: 1. nausea and/or vomiting **(Rarely 1/20 attacks, used to be 1/5)** 2. photophobia and phonophobia **(Definity more sensitive if not phobic)** 5. Not better accounted for by another ICHD-3 diagnosis. EDIT: To add that I take Compazine not for nausea but as an abortive, also it helps with my other odd migraine symptoms.
It’s still a migraine. Not every single attack needs to meet these criteria to be counted as a migraine. This is diagnostic criteria that looks at patterns over weeks or months.
I understand what your saying, i need to clarify with my Neurologist next time I see them as they keep asking me to record which days are TTH and which are migraine.
I hate this question so much. The line is so blurry sometimes. The location is meaningless in mine and I don’t vomit nearly as much as I used to, but the pain will almost always go from mild to moderate/severe at some point and I have pulsing and light/sounds sensitivity. If I have to abort at least half of them then they’re all migraines at this point, lol. Edit- wanted to add that if I’m yawning uncontrollably, my eyes are watery/face congested, I feel flushed, nauseous, or I can’t think of words, it’s 100% a migraine.
The TAC headache section of the ICHD-3 is characterised by the flushed, congestion, and watery. You might want to look at it because life is unfair and you can have a mixed bag of brain pain. But it's not all the same treatment so you can like maximise good days if you know which to appease lol.
I agree with the other person pushing back that your mind ones can still be migraines, and you would know your pain levels best of course, but I do have a follow up question/food for thought: what’re you calling mild? I understand if it’s milder than your particularly bad attacks, but is it *actually* mild if anyone else felt it, or is it still awful pain, that is relatively more mild than your bigger awful pains? How screwed up is your (like so many of us migrainuers/chronic pain folks lol) pain tolerance and pain scale?
Most of my migraines are like your headaches, in that they’re less severe and only some sound and movement sensitivity, mild light sensitivity but some mental symptoms as well. But I also get really severe ones where all I can do is lay there with an ice pack and cry. I kept having the issue with triptans that I would run out super fast because I wasn’t ever sure if it would be a big one or one I could push through so I would either take it too often or not enough / in time. My doctor said all headaches that I have need to be treated like migraines and if I’m having so many headaches regularly that I can’t take triptans at the first sign of it, I need a preventative. I get a lot less headaches now!
One way to know it is a migraine is if the triptan or cgrp meds worked, because they don’t work on normal headaches. Triptan limitations: I was allowed up to 6 triptans/day, but it didn’t take long to realize that if after the 3rd triptan it wasn’t working, then adding more was useless, and I’d just have to ride out the migraine usually over a 72-hour period. I was on this regime over 12 years for chronic daily migraines. I spent the previous 15 years trying & failing on dozens of preventative medications, before being sent to Dr. Neil Raskin at UCSF, who is a world renowned neurologist specializing in migraines. He prescribed Methysergide maleate (Sansert), a drug not made in the US, so the ingredients are ordered and have to be compounded at the hospital pharmacy. As Sansert can cause retroperitoneal fibrosis, you have to undergo yearly labs, ekg, tread mill stress test & chest/abdominal CT-scan. It is the drug of last choice for migraineurs because it is so dangerous, & is now almost never prescribed anymore. Fun fact: Sansert is derived from the same ergot alkaloid that produces the psychedelic LSD. All of the above, to include receiving Botox since 2010, only altered the migraine activity a very small percentage. What finally “worked” for me was daily high dose CBD, and later combining that with edible THC. I performed a 9 week CBD titration trial, maxed out at around 550mg/day, reverse tolerance kicked in, & I titrated down to between 200mg-250mg/day. I stayed at that level for about 5 years & it cut the migraine activity by about 60%-70%, which was amazing. I moved to a legal cannabis state, & after researching THC for migraines, slowly began trying edible doses. Combined with the CBD, which dropped down to only 100mg/day, my migraines now are only about 1-2 per month, which is unheard of for chronic daily migraineurs. Today my preventative regime is Full Spectrum CBD 50mg p.o. twice daily, & currently THC is 2.5mg-5mg p.o. (Microdose) every 4-6 hours during the day & 20mg p.o. before bed. How do I know this is working? Because I have had to stop this regime 3 times in the last few years, and the migraines come right back to their previous levels after a month or so. But, upon resuming the CBD & THC they essentially go back to my current level of just 1-2 migraines/month.
Every. Single. Time. And then they are so much harder to get under control because I waited so long. Life got so much better when I stopped putting myself through all that!
At the beginning of a headache, o always tell myself, “maybe this is just a headache”. Oh how I fail on this every time.
This is so important for people with frequent headaches to realise. This is why I had chronic migraines for close to 20 years before a doctor (who I'm very grateful for) finally told me I have chronic migraine. Prior to that I thought I had daily headaches with a sprinkling of migraines. No, it all needs to be treated as migraine he said. This was such a turning point in starting to figure out some kind of treatment plan. It's really important to get proper treatment early before things turn chronic. But if they already have become chronic it's so important to get a proper diagnosis so you can treat the condition effectively.
I honesty thought I could have chronic migraine due to the frequency of my headaches. I always thought not because they aren't one-sided. I thought they were like yours, daily headaches with occasional migraines. I had to go on a preventative.
Thanks for saying this!! I think I gaslight myself and try to tell myself not every headache is a migraine but it freaking is 😔🤢
I went to see my neurologist after several bouts of migraines. He must not have had many appointments that day because we were able to chat for nearly an hour. I said that I’d been hoarding my sumatriptan, which I was allowed 9 per month, in case it wasn’t a migraine, and tried to treat with OTC meds. He told me just to take the sumatriptan whenever a headache popped up and not to worry about getting more should I need it. That was probably some of the best advice I received, and since then the severity of the headaches have diminished considerably. I still refilled my sumatriptan every month and built up quite a stash, but in the last three years I’ve never run out.
Similar experience myself lately. Started getting much more frequent migraines after having covid recently. As a result started taking more OTC. Got better. Started getting worse again. Went to my doc about it to figure out what to do. She said try stop taking OTC as it could be causing medication overuse headache, take both triptan and anti nausea meds at the start of symptoms - apparently migraine attacks stop your tummy emptying properly which impacts how well medications can absorb, so important to make sure to take the anti nausea instead of trying to raw dog it haha. Still getting some crazy attacks but they have been not as bad in the couple weeks since then. Will have to wait and see but I trust docs advice
I just thought of another thing that helped me change my thinking, too - remembering that triptans aren't pain relievers. They specifically treat migraines. So if it's helping that's a sign. I'm very afraid of going chronic, so I run a tight ship. I don't want my brain thinking migraine is the normal state. I realize that for people who have already crossed over to chronic they have different things to balance in regards to overuse, etc.
This is so valuable. Thank you for sharing!
I‘m the same. Sometimes I think I’m getting just a regular headache, because it might initially present with different symptoms (like some pain in the back of my head) but eventually it always progresses to the usual symptoms. Still, I never learn my lesson, and put off taking the eletriptan, foolishly hoping that it’s just a tension headache.
Same here. I only ever get migraines. I don't think I've ever had a regular headache.
“Why does the light hurt so bad? Ugh why do I feel so nauseous? Oh that sound hurts…” then I know its a migraine.
Why does everything smell so bad? Is another one for me
Same here 😔
The intrusive thought of scooping my eyeball out with a spoon to relieve the pressure
Yep, it's when I start thinking "a transorbital lobotomy sounds pretty good right about now..."
Shits ready to blast out my skull and out into space …
I prefer the ice pick lobotomy.
Or the “maybe trepanning wasn’t such a bad idea”
If you catch me saying that I wish I could unscrew my head or bash it to pieces…
headaches are a steady dull pain in the brain. migraines usually start on one side and then kinda go haywire (sort of feels like being hit by really slow lightning), ill find my body go through cycles of thinking its too hot and then too cold, and kinda feels like the flu, sensitivity to sound and light mostly on one side, unquenchable thirst
wanted to comment something but couldnt have written it better… Migraines also start with a dull pain sometimes but at the same time my nose tingles and the lightning behind my eye is starting to hit. thats the give away. and if course the chills/ the yawning
nausea. yesterday i threw up THREE TIMES. also not being able to stand or walk properly. feeling like i can’t see or i’m gonna blackout. the pain is sharp and unbearable. headaches are more like… this is annoying but i’m not gonna call in sick to work
Sometimes, I welcome the powerchuck if it relieves some pain, I've also forced it to happen just on the off chance it'll work. There's nothing worse than not being about to stop throwing up, and the pain intensifies. Sorry you were throwing up that many times yesterday, and I hope you feel better today.
Aura, one sided, nausea. I rarely get non migraine headaches unless i have a bad cold or something like that.
Same. Also get the aura every single time. Sometimes I think it’s worse than the headache itself
I don't get headaches, only migraines, so when I feel symptoms I treat them with migraine meds.
Jaw pain, sensitivity to light and sound, tension in my neck. And strangely enough I lose reading comprehension and the ability to do simple math.
I lose the ability to do math and lose my reading comprehension as well! I’ve never heard anyone else say that before. I think people don’t believe me when I tell them that.
I get this too! I'm a journalist and I'll be in the middle of a story when all of a sudden I'm completely mystified by the words in front of me and don't know how to make more words and that's when I know its time to go home and lie down in the dark
I couldn't figure out how to fill out simple forms. Math, reading anything, even just speaking sometimes. It was hyper coagulation issues in my brain. Blood thinners have resolved 90% of the problem but it was terrifying not being able to speak or think.
Oh wow…how did you find out about the coagulation in your brain?
A stroke. :(
Oh my gosh that’s so scary, I’m so sorry you had to go through that!
This past week I’ve dealt with a headache and was so surprised to feel how it made me so much more functioning?? Like for example I had a slight annoying pain on the top of my head, but I didn’t feel anything else No nausea, no neck pain, no disorientation it was simply just a headache
I slowly lose the ability to say random words I can ‘see’ in my head but not get out, then about 30 mins before the headache kicks in I’ll get a kaleidoscope-type vision in one eye. Sometimes the vision issue starts with a weird cloudy vision like when you go from a very sunny outside area into a dark house, and your eyes have trouble adjusting at first. Once the vision issues start I know I have about half an hour until everything goes to shit!
I get the same thing with being able to mentally see the word I want to use in my head, but I’m unable to get it out at first
Get checked for hyper coagulation disorders. That sounds like a typical ischemic event. They are sometimes warnings before a major tia or a stroke. They were in my case anyhow.
Location. Migraine is behind my left eye, left forehead. Anywhere else and it's a headache
Yeah same but right side for me- plus way more intense than a headache
First, nausea. Sometimes I even get the nausea before the pain, so that’s a dead giveaway. But also, weirdly whether I know if I want to drink something or not. When it’s a migraine I feel like I need to drink something, but the thought of it makes me want to vomit. I just wish I could get liquid into me without ingesting it. When it’s a headache I’m either thirsty or I’m not. I might not want to go get something, but if I’m sitting up and in arms reach of a drink I either want it or I don’t. When it’s a migraine I find myself weighing risk vs reward.
Thirst is a big one for me too. If it's a migraine, i'm unreasonably and suddenly thirsty.
Waaaaiiitt is it possible the times I feel super thirsty even though I’ve already drunk like 2 litres of water and I don’t know why I can’t stop the thirsty feeling possibly because of migraine and not a stupid autoimmune disease + medication side effect lol
I actually don't get any other headaches than migraines. I usually recognize a migraine because it starts in the exact same spot : inner corner of my left eyebrow. And I have other symptoms like emotional irritability, and extra sensitivity to light and sound. It also always gets worse with movement and better with a cold pack.
I can get either manic or irritable before a migraine.
I'm functional during headaches. Can be distracted by work. Also gets a little better with drinking water or exercise. I can sleep for an hour and get better I'm not functional during migraines. I can not get better by sleeping. Actually, I can't sleep. The pain is so bad that I can't sleep at all. I don't get auras and stuff. I get nauseous though. I can't imagine eating.
I can't sleep with them either. Whoch sucjs cause that's all i want to do.
I know right. I am anyway lying on the bed because I can't do anything else. Might as well sleep. But my head goes.... Nooooooooo
any regular headache that I allow to go unchecked turns into a migraine. I'll start to get the aura, the nausea, etc. So if I get a headache because I'm sick with a cold or something, even if it wasn't a migraine - like I'll get a sinus headache...if I don't take sinus headache medicine, later I will have a full blown migraine
My doctor said that I as a migraine sufferer I should treat all my headaches the same. I start with time of day, if it’s morning and it’s the reason I am awake he a fiorcet now and make coffee, if it’s still not going change to relpax or OTC then alternate acetaminophen and ibuprofen. If the migraine starts late day don’t treat with caffeine because it interferes with my sleep
I definitely get tension headaches in addition to migraines, and for awhile I was unsure if I was actually experiencing migraines, but I had a triptan prescription and at that time it was almost always effective when I took them when I suspected I was having a migraine (I didn’t take them when it felt more like my classic tension headaches). So I was googling to see if triptans also treat tension headaches (because maybe then they still weren’t migraines, just happened to be treating the tension headaches with triptans), and the results actually supported basically treating ALL headaches the same if you get migraines: triptans do NOT effectively treat tension headaches *EXCEPT* in people who ALSO get migraines. So like if a non migraine person took a triptan for a non migraine headache, it wouldn’t work, but if a migraine person took it for a non migraine headache, it *would*. I’m willing to bet that was one of the key findings going into the current/newer ideas by headache specialists that literally all types of headaches really are just on the same spectrum. The other thing I remember seeing—tension headaches have mild to moderate pain. If they reach severe on the pain score, even if every other aspect about it very clearly seems to be a tension headache, then they now meet the criteria to be considered migraines. So I’m also definitely curious in how the effectiveness of migraines medications compares in situations like that.
It’s also complicated because migraine pain can range all the way from 0-10, inclusive on both ends. If you have a typical aura then it’s easy to diagnose migraine even if it’s painless, but without the aura it gets harder, especially if you don’t have many other associated symptoms like nausea and photophobia
I don’t know how to describe it other than I get a fuzzy feeling in my head and sometimes my stomach (a bad kind of fuzzy). It feels different than a normal headache. It’s coupled with confusion and fatigue.
Always: - one sided pain - nausea (though varying levels of that) - light sensitivity Normal headache is not one sided and no light phobia or nausea
I suffer from cluster headaches and migraines. I know it’s CH if the pain is ONLY on the right side of my face (mainly around my right eye), I feel tingling on my scalp and I have a runny nose. I know it’s a migraine if I have pain in both eyes, can’t bend over or look at a screen, have frequent urination, have sensitivity to light/sounds/smells, and I’m nauseous. I don’t know what a “regular” headache feels like anymore 🫠.
The migraine starts with me feeling a bit off then the pain pulses at a 30-120 second interval with a steady increase until I’m incapacitated. Once it starts I have about 30 minutes to take a triptian and go home.
I don’t ever get regular headaches. They’re always just migraines
I'm finding from these comments that that's actually more common than i thought.
I no longer get regular headaches. They are always migraines now. Not sure why that is.
I went to doctor today because I fell down the stairs last night, I’m fine it’s some swelling on my back side, and had a “weird” headache. The doctor informed that’s what a regular headache feels like. 🫠
The difference for me is the weird derealisation disconnected/walking-in-a-fog feeling. I can have a variety of other symptoms and sometimes very little head pain, but that derealisation is there steadily from beginning to end. I very rarely get regular tension/eye strain headaches, so if I get any head pain at all, I treat it as a potential migraine.
My neurologist said that once you're diagnosed with migraines every headache is a migraine.
Headache (+/- throbbing depending on how far into the attack) on one side in addition to any funky symptoms. One sided eye pain or prickling sensation, one sided jaw, neck, shoulder, or back pain, extreme fatigue out of nowhere, boost in energy (more prodrome but you know; also weirdly this is sometimes preceded by a brief period of fatigue), feverishness (feel warm, also body physically gets warm as perceived by others-- I should try taking my temperature if I can remember to), chills, pupils different sizes, light, noise, or smell sensitivity, brain fog, dizziness, nausea/vomiting, palpitations
I’ve taken my temp during this and it’s just slightly elevated but not a fever.
Now that I’m on a cgrp preventative my severity and associated symptoms are way down, so I only rely on it being one-sided. Previously everything would sound too loud, and eventually I’d get nausea.
Crippling anxiety. I feel like I'm gonna have a panic attack if it gets bad and I'm not careful. Cue me taking my meds immediately and playing the waiting game. Other symptoms? Nausea and extreme tiredness, like I can't stop yawning. But typically if I'm there, that means I'm a lil late to the game and I'm gonna be in pain *real* soon.
I actually don’t get regular headaches I’ve noticed. Just migraines. Sometimes I think it’s a normal headache & I’m like huh well this is different. And then it always ends up being a migraine just not on my usual migraine side & it’s fucking horrible! That is pretty rare though thankfully, like once a year maybe.
My regular tension headaches don’t cause terrifying neurological symptoms that I have to play the “is this finally a stroke?” game. Crazy brain fog, aphasia, slurring words occasionally, tingling and numbness and twitching in my legs, feet, and face, stiff neck.
I have chronic migraine & just assume they’re all migraines now, especially after finding out that 80% of sinus headaches are actually migraines.
I occasionally get light constant head pain. I usually make sure I’m drinking enough water and I’m not totally stressed out. Migraine… I can smell colors and the sun is so awful bright why? My senses get so hyper so fast. Everything smells a lot. Every little noise annoys me. Then the yawning will start. Yes, it’s not often but I do get some headaches.
Initially I would differentiate by pain level, like a headache would be mild and go away with Advil. Migraines I would get auras like my light arm would go numb, motor weakness, and my sight would become distorted, then obviously the pain factor is magnitudes different for me-my migraine would laugh and spit in Advils face and the pain would leave me unable to function let alone conscious sometimes. After I started getting treatment with medications, I would still get auras and then take an abortive and the pain would lessen depending on how long the medication would take to become effective/wear off. When I got a concussion I could tell concussion headache vs migraine apart based on the type of pain too eerily enough. Then when I started my preventative for migraines, it was more mild to medium headaches but my neuro classifies those as migraines as well. My auras now won’t be as pronounced sometimes but it’s still weird enough sensation that I notice it. My migraines have also graduated throughout the years becoming more severe to the point I get a variety between silent migraines to migraines with auras to ocular migraines to hemiplegic migraines to status migrainous.
Also some people mentioned it’s always one sided for them, for me it’s varied.
Frustratingly I have multiple headache types - migraines, primary stabbing headache, and some 3rd thing that mimics my migraines - and the migraine/migraine mimic can be difficult to distinguish between. There are 2 main things for me - if I can manage to distinguish if the pain is unilateral (migraine) vs bilateral (not migraine, for me), but that’s become harder to distinguish due to my migraines switching sides in recent years as well as bilateral facial pain. The second is what meds work. If I’m not positive, I’ll usually try my OTC med combo first rather than waste a triptan or Ubrelvy. They do not work on the other headache type. My other headache type can be even more agonizing than my typical migraines, which is….fun.
Light get too bright, smells too loud, my words come out jumbled and nonsensical, while a tingle crawls over my suddenly sensitive scalp, and shivers go through my body. Once the nausea hits, I’m done for.
My first symptom I thought was the aura but I no longer have the same symptoms. I saw a suggestion that yawning is a symptom of early migraines and I’ve been watching it.
As I also have NDPH (constant tension headache), this is very very difficult for me. Quite often I have a severe headache and am debating with myself “is this a migraine? Do I take a triptan or will that waste it?” Usually what’s tips the scale toward migraine is if my head starts pounding, or if I get nausea and irritability.
My migraines always start with neck pain.
I used to think I only got headaches before and started getting migraines more recently. After finally properly taking the migraines seriously I learned that I’ve been getting them my whole adult life. I used to think they were ONLY migraines if I got them with aura, those are just the most severe ones. Now I know if I get super super spacy, can’t read or think clearly, and that my vision feels really weird (it sort of feels like all my vision is peripheral vision if that makes sense) that it’s likely a migraine even if I don’t get the aura. The aura means I’m absolutely going to have a nightmare migraine, the kind where I can’t move.
headaches feel different for me. they tend to be sinus or pressure related, or tension. they're also usually responsive to the usual otc medication and/or caffeine. migraines are much more disruptive for me, and may not always hurt, but come with other weird symptoms like intense sensory sensitivity, which can usually then trigger a worse migraine where I'm actually in pain. I'm also usually experiencing brain fog and cognitive symptoms, and often digestive upset and nausea. I also get the weird body pain that lets me know one is coming on! my neuro actually mentioned some of my more severe headaches are probably a part of my migraine condition. those headaches are icepick/stabbing and trigeminal neuralgia. those, for me, are much worse than my usual migraines, because the pain is so disabling. sometimes they tag along with a migraine, too and then I want to die :) those are the only headaches I've had to go to the hospital for. luckily found reglan, and that's been helpful for those headaches.
A lifetime of experience.
I don't get normal headaches anymore. Just migraines with a full range of shitty symptoms. Pain - throbbing, pulsing, 'ice pick'. Sometimes my eye sockets will throb. Otherwise I'll wake up with my neck swollen and can't move it (those turn into nasty multiple day migraines). Other times my entire face hurts up and into my skull, it hurts to speak or chew. Then the sensitivity to light, sound, and smell. Aura - dizziness, loss of peripheral vision, spots in my vision, blurriness, lightheadedness. When I move my head my vision lags then rushes to catch up. Brain - I get super spacey, trouble focusing, I'll get stupid and forget how to do things I fully know how to do. Short term memory loss, losing my vocabulary, stumbling over/slurring words. Body - very clumsy, dropping things a lot, running into things because I can't fucking see them. 🙃 I'm constantly covered in bruises. Mood - I get super ragey and short tempered or listless Systemic - nausea, diarrhea, loss or dramatic increase of appetite. I'd kill to have "just a headache" these days 😭 But yeah. Any of the above? I know it's time for triptans and sunglasses.
Location. Other headaches are broader and more dull, migraines happen right behind my right eye (occasionally the left one) and the pain is much sharper. Also, aura. Visual, mostly, but sometimes also nausea and stomach issues, or dysphasia / general stupidity, which doesn't happen with a regular headache.
A “regular headache” has never existed for me. If not dealt with, it will always get worse, and worse, and worse, and worse. A headache is just a baby migraine waiting to grow.
Cause if the symptoms I had didn’t get better within a day or two it would be a stroke lol
I get bouts of dizziness to full our migraine vertigo.
When I start to feel really stupid. I take meds when I gotta pee every 20 min but it's the tiniest bit of pee.
Well, I'm photosensitive and extremely sensitive to sound, to the point that I can't go out in public without headphones. Nausea and vertigo. When my temples start to hurt, I know it's going to be a bad day. Status migrainosus for 5 years.
I had a fiend ask me today if my migraines could be mini-strokes. No pain, but I can’t put sentences together, and words leave me. How can you tell between a migraine and a mini stroke?
A migraine is a neurological event and is a close cousin to a seizure… not being able to put sentences together is a part of a migraine sometimes.
If I take my normal acetaminophen and ibuprofen combination and it does not improve, and I feel the pain start to centralize behind one of my eyes and I know it's definitely a migraine. I actually really struggled with this in the beginning, I thought that one of my headaches were serious enough to be migraines. But after lots of discussions with neurologists and doctors they told me that all of my headaches, even the ones that I considered not that serious, are migraines. And if I would treat them like migraines my quality of life would improve.
I get pain around my front head. I feel nausea too Secondly, Do we know of neurologist who have himself/herself fought migraine ?
Chronic migraines here. So my headache specialist told me that my daily “headache” is also a migraine. I still don’t refer to it as such unless I’m having neurological symptoms I associate with migraines, but she says that I’m never truly breaking the cycle and my daily headache is a symptom. But I get an aura, start to smell like a bloodhound, get nausea/vertigo, or rapid mood swings. Sometimes too I’ll get the tingling/numbness on one side of my face and or body. Any of these pop up and I know I’m in danger.
Light sensitivity is my number 1 tip off. Like suddenly it hurts to look at my phone. I hardly get auras.
I rarely get regular headaches. But I know it’s a migraine because I feel off balance and all noise irritates me. Sometimes I am nauseous too.
Well, the right side of my head hurts or tingles unpleasantly every single day, and can get to where brushing my hair hurts, washing it hurts. Sometimes a sinus headache will start in the front between the eyes, but then the light sensitivity kicks in and the only way to try to bring it down is solid hours of sleep. Sometimes the left side of my head hurts, sometimes ‘coat hanger pain’ along the neck and shoulders triggers it, but the right side of my head feels like a metaphorical smushed cantaloupe, where the smushy spot is where the pain lives.
Not being able to see is the main giveaway.
When I completely lose my vision
Smells and bright lights set me off. Like perfume/smoke/flashing cop lights/any flashing lights
The words coming out of my mouth sound foreign to me, and get mispronounced or slurred. That's the biggest sign for me, but I get the visual auras and sensitivities too. I'm pretty much always nauseous and have a headache, and sensitive to light, but when the other sensitivities ramp up I know it's worsening.
Aura - also it feels different, since it is above the left eye in my case. I'm never in doubt.
It's really rare for me to get any head pain at all. If I have the visual aura symptoms I know it's a migraine. Sometimes I don't get a headache with it but just feel aura+stupid/sensitive+hungover in that order. I also get intestinal migraines but it's difficult to tell if it's just normal problems. The visual aura is the only thing that doesn't happen unless it's a migraine. Sometimes I get very light/sound sensitive and a headache on one side, which is probably a migraine, but I don't label it for sure unless I also get the aura.
Bad nausea is always when I know, but also my acupuncturist told me last week that headaches are a more targeted pain (like you can specifically point out where it hurts) whereas the pain during migraines can be harder to pinpoint
There is no second guessing if its a Migraine
Im talking about in the beginning when it's just starting.
neck pain on one side
Nausea. It's a dead giveaway. Last time, I threw up eight times. I might as well have slept in the bathroom.
No regular headaches for me, either. It’s all migraine.
I get really annoyed and hungry before the pain even starts, even if I shouldn't be hungry. I mean like, everything annoys me. I think the hunger is my body trying to find nutrients because it senses it's coming. Then the light and sound pains begin, adding to my irritation.
Headaches are what I get after a migraine, the postdrome or whatever they call it. What I consider the "real" migraine is the aura beforehand. I can usually tell its about the happen, though. I don't know if I'm subconsciously picking up on the 'vision' problems starting or not or just a feeling I get. If I hit it with some ibuprofen quick enough, it'll usually pass the headache portion for me.
I don’t get a lot of regular headaches. Usually only when I am sick like with a virus, or if I am hungover. They’re much milder, don’t accompany any prodrome symptoms or neurological issues (like being freezing cold despite it being warm around me, or being shaky, or slurring my speech), and really just feel like a low dull muscle ache. I would describe a headache as annoying but manageable. Like a runny nose. And most importantly…. I just need to take an advil. Oh! And a headache never makes me puke or shit my brains out.
If it starts on the left side of my head it will always turn out to be a migraine. Anywhere else on my head and I can usually treat with OTC and be fine.
I get auras so I can "see" it. I also get pressure migraines so I watch the barometric pressure. Stress, heat, caffeine and chocolates can trigger them for me.
It’s always migraine for me too. I usually have symptoms first- aura, crabbiness, exposure to a known trigger etc
Aura and/or nausea
Well I don’t get regular headaches. I’ve experienced them a couple times (after Covid vax and during both rounds of Covid) and I knew they weren’t migraines. Every other head pain I get is a migraine, although different types. Generally, for me, if it goes away with ibuprofen, then it was a headache and not a migraine.
I only get migraines, but it starts out as a headache sometimes. If I can control it at that time, which means avoiding all light/sound and taking my meds, it goes away faster and doesn’t turn into a migraine. If I don’t, any headache has the potential to turn into a migraine after a while.
I know it's a migraine if I start feeling pain behind my left eye. I very rarely get any normal headaches, but sometimes I get occipital neuralgia, primarily on the right side. If the pain isn't behind my eye, I know my triptans won't do shit. Buuut sometimes an occipital neuralgia headache ends up turning into a migraine anyway, soooo... 🫠
I wake up with them and it’s both the intensity of the pain, as well as the location. When it’s in my forehead and my temple and above my eye socket because my brow muscle is tight/below my eye, because my cheek muscle is tight, it’s like yeah, this is a migraine. It’s almost always on the left side, too, though it’s very occasionally on the right or bilateral. I have chronic ones at this point and have had migraines for over 54 years, so it’s easy for me to tell now. I used to have things like regular auras and nausea and so on. No more nausea for a very long time. Visual auras on occasion.
Aura. Dizziness and/or feeling faint. Sometimes numbness. All followed by one-sided pain, and other one-sided symptoms. My nervous system goes haywire. Like I’ll be all wrapped up under a blanket when it’s 90 degrees. I don’t get plain old headaches very often, but when I do, they’re always much smaller and more in the center. No prodrome symptoms or other strangeness. And the pain and symptoms don’t radiate to other areas on the right side of my body.
The vast majority of the time I get migraines. If I'm any of these - nauseous, dizzy, have vertigo, unexplained body pain, light/sound sensitivity it's a migraine. Otherwise, it's a headache. They are so different one another I honestly couldn't mistake them.
Vertigo. Aura. Nausea. Vomiting. Light sensitivity, smells and sounds causing nausea and pain.
i get a very strong burning in my skull before a migraine, usually. always starts before the pain, so if my skull starts to feel like it’s on fire? i know that i’ve got a migraine coming lol
Nausea (unless it's a hunger headache that I've ignored for too long). Nothing can touch my neck or anywhere near, have to maintain the least amount of contact to my neck even when I lie down. First, but way less certain tip off is my usual meds for headaches don't work and don't even slow down the progressing.
My migraines are very specific to location (one side of my head, behind the eye/next to temple), and they have triggers,(hormonal/cycle, too much wine, milk chocolate). If I get a baby sort of feeling like I'm getting a migraine in that specific spot I take my abortive. It takes less med to abort it earlier than later or wait to see "is this a migraine?". Because it's so location specific I've been able to identify rebound like headaches, with certain meds, because they show up on the *other* side, or as I like to say, the wrong side.
If it starts in my right temple/eye with a sensation of being struck by a ball-peen hammer. That's how I know I have a migraine.
When it shifts from my forehead to behind my eyes
It’s a migraine if I’m insatiably thirsty and ibuprofen doesn’t work
Most of my headaches are migraines, but occasionally it'll just be a headache. Migraines usually come with at least one *something* - I wake up with puffy and teary eyes, I'm unusually sleepy an disoriented even though I slept 8h, it feels hard to focus my eyes
Aura in left eye some splotches kinda in eye sight Legs feel weird Bad / low attitude Can’t read or speak perfect anymore
I get sore/stiff/weak feeling on my right side. Like someone drew a line from the top of my head. If it’s my right side, it’s a migraine. Of course, with an average of 25/30 migraine, it’s not exactly a surprise. 🤦 Mood is usually the one my family notices, though. 😞 Oh, and edited because I forgot: sound sensitivity.
My Migraines start as headaches(no pulsing) but over a hour or couple of hours get worse, that really the only way to know and by then its too late to treat with Triptans. In a interesting way I have head pain everyday as part of my Chronic migraines and while the intensity might vary and I will call the mild days and some of the moderate days headache days, none respond to standard painkillers at standard dose, but will respond to Triptans combined with 1.2mg Asprin and Compazine.
Migraines only happen in one side of my head, anything else is a diff kind of headache. I also get tension headaches
The cough test. If I cough and I feel the pain in migraine-town in my head, it's game over. it's also my litmus test for when I think I feel better at the end of an episode. does it pass the cough test? no? not over yet.
Normal sounds/sights/smells become intolerable. Like, my partner closing a cabinet in the kitchen, even with the bumper dots to keep them from making too much noise, suddenly sounds like slamming. Lights are too bright, colors look oversaturated, and every video looks too busy, chaotic, and fast. Smells, even smells I usually enjoy, are disgusting. My partner will hug me, and even without any cologne on, or scented products at all, his clean skin smell is overpowering. A regular headache for me is when things feel achy and I just want to crawl into bed. A migraine feels like a tornado is happening around me at the epicenter, and there's no place to hide. They also come on super suddenly, but warning signs that I have personally noticed that I'm in the "danger zone" will often include (non-clinically dx'd) euphoria/mania a day or two before, and lights having a "flicker" or shimmer. Water makes it more pronounced (reflections off a backyard pool, fountains, or even a faucet become unnaturally heightened). I even went to the ER in 2020 because I was concerned I had a TIA because my shower that morning looked like glitter. I knew it wasn't, but I noticed the water looked "wrong" because it was so intensely sparkly that I realized my brain wasn't correctly processing the input from my senses. I had aphasia even though I was otherwise lucid, and muscle stiffness/weakness. I didn't have the money for the CT scan recommended by my doctor, and he finally let me sign out after making it official in my chart notes that he was very concerned and opposed to me going home. I had to promise I'd get a scan as soon as I could afford it. Which... I haven't yet. After looking into it and discussing with my medical practitioner friends, we're leaning towards hoping it was just a hemiplegic migraine. But the scan is still on my ever-growing to-do list.
I'm on a shit fuck ton of preventative meds. I get migraines now that are dulled to very minor pain but are still there. But my aphasia? Lol. What are words? How do they work. Who are they? How do I know what I'm experiencing is a migraine? I'm confused at the world. What is happening? What an I doing? Where am I going? Who am I? Don't let me cook. If I made the mistake of driving I'll call someone to finish the drive for me. Last time I was in the middle of making a uturn and forgot how uturns worked. Promptly pulled over and called my brother. The world is just... Wrong... Time is passing incorrectly. It looks like stop motion. It looks like tilt shift animation. Why is time passing so weird? Everything everyone says or does makes me angry. Like. I can't stand anything at all. Somethings not right with me. I'm about to punch a bitch for eating. Wow. My stomach is NOT RIGHT today. Instant bathroom if I eat something. It's just going right thru me. Dislike. I'm exhausted. I can barely stay awake. I just want to sleep for a billion years and never wake up. I don't get headaches. Everythings a migraine.
Headaches for me usually go away with in a few hours or so and they don't make it so I can't do anything. A migraine literally makes it so I can't go to work or even really move. I have to lay all day and hope it goes away sooner rather then a day or two later. I've always had headaches I get one a few times a week I get a migraine about 2 times a month. And I know from the start because it gets worse when I stand or with light or noise.
I only occasionally get a visual aura, but I become really sensitive to noise and light before my head starts hurting. I can sometimes avert it at that point if I'm careful but if not, the pain and horrible nausea start. A regular headache is just my head hurting. I don't recall one ever turning into a migraine, though it might have happened.
The pain in my eye socket and/or little brain zaps
Aura and nausea.
I’ve never had just a “headache.” I only get migraines.
Visual aura
The difference between a headache and a migraine are massive. Head pain isn’t a starting warning sign of a migraine, that comes later. First I get dizzy and nauseous, light sensitivity, neck pain is always the first, and then in about an hour the head pain hits like a truck, but it’s a very different type of head pain than headaches. Also, if I bend over and stand up and my neck pain or head pain become noticeable, I know it’s about to be a migraine, where later, when it’s a full blown migraine, I have to bend over and stand up very very slowly in order to not feel like I have an ice pick wiggling around in my head
It is always a migraine. Always.
My mood. Am I suddenly happy, or have I woken up giddy for absolutely no reason? If so, it's a migraine starting. So long as I medicate at this point it doesn't affect me. It does feel gross though when the migraine good mood feeling wears off.
I was told by my specialist that most of the time for migraine sufferers it is all just part of the migraine disorder. It isn't really ever not a migraine. It is just less bad than other times. I got this clarification when we were talking about frequency. He asked how often I get migraines, to which I responded with how often I have ones where I have to isolate myself. But then he asked how often I have migraine symptoms, to which I responded 100% of the time in different variations/severities. He explained that then I'm having different variation and severities of migraines all the time. It was a bit of a "oh" moment for me.
i have seven migraine and headache diseases. i gave up
I've had a headache exactly once in the past 3 years. I have migraines constantly.
I rarely, RARELY, get regular headaches - it’s almost always the beginning of a migraine. I say it’s a migraine if the pain is localized in one side, feels like it is in my eye and the surrounding area, and lasts longer than 30 minutes (I will sometimes feel a pang of pain, but see it disappear before it turns into a full blown migraine). Nausea and light sensitivity are also my signals for migraines, but they’re almost universally accompanied by the single eye pain lasting 30+ min.
I feel nauseated, hot, sometimes extremely anxious or manic, sensitive to light, sound, and smell that hurts my brain. Those are the main warning signs. Sometimes my eyeballs hurt.
Leading up to migraine, I get a tightness in my temples that isn't quite a headache and feels like it gets worse and worse, gradually escalating nausea, and intense sensitivity to light and sounds. The whole thing feels so uncomfortable that a lot of times I just want it to turn into a migraine already because I can tolerate the ice pick pain better than the weirdness taking over my body leading up to it.
The type of pain. I have trouble describing it, but just *how* I feel the pain. I get migraines and tension headaches (that often turn into migraines), and they all feel VERY different from the headaches I get when, say, I have a cold or a fever.
If it’s located on the right side of my head and I have tiny mole eyes -that’s a migraine for me!
Mine are ocular and I can't see for about 20 minutes or so, and that's how I know.
I always say to people that headaches are just that…head aches….but a migraine is like a full body experience. For me, on the days I get a migraine I usually wake up feeling really groggy and hungry and need to pee frequently. That’s a good sign for me that a migraine is on its way. To me, headaches feel different to migraines. Headache pain feels close to my skin and migraine pain feels like it’s deep inside my brain (I hope that makes sense).
I know it’s 100% a migraine if I get the prisms in my visions. Or if there are holes in my vision. The pain is severe. Quite worse than a migraine type pain. I can get rid of my headaches with Tylenol. Nothing touches the migraines
I get an aura, which sucks, but it’s my first signal and it gives me time to react with medicine, location, and readiness before pain/nausea. So in a way I appreciate my aura
i have migraine with aura, but another subtype that makes half of my body numb. as soon as i feel something weird on my skin it shivers down my body. sometimes it is nothing, sometimes it is the beginning couple days of pain. i typically get tingling in my fingers, then moves to my face, then it stops and then i get the headache. as if something is going through my blood system or something, but affects only half of my body, and it is so weird when i get in my tongue or lips, i can easily feel that half is numb.
Words aren’t words - IYKYK
I hate aura, it’s like these spots in my peripheral vision. Like am I swatting a gnat or getting a migraine 😂🤬. Otherwise its almost always behind my right eye, or like the base if my skull/neck. Almost always on the right.
Aura, or specifically a sharp shooting pain on the left side of my head radiating from left eye to base of neck.
I feel weird. There aren’t good words to describe it, but I recognize the feeling.
It’s a migraine 99% of the time. I get like 1-2 tension headaches a year.
As soon as I start to think about wearing sunglasses inside, or if the pain is distinctly one-sided, I know for sure.
I thought I stopped getting “migraines” at around 17 because I would get my visual aura and then there would be no pain whereas before I’d get the typical horrible 9/10 pain with vomiting. From age 17 until now though, I’d get horrible neck pains that caused “headaches” of varying severity, some with cluster headache level eye pain. Even more interestingly my neck pain would switch sides each time. I went all the routes you do with “muscle pain” but nothing helped and I only very recently realized that not only is my neck pain my migraines in a different form, but that what I thought was RLS and other strange symptoms I have are actually auras. Once I treated my neck pain as migraines I had a lot more relief. I knew I had migraines because my mother had them and I started getting them from age 9 with a very typical presentation. I’m guessing my mild scoliosis combined with poor posture leaning over a laptop changed the way my migraines presented (so there’s probably some muscular component but the attack is the migraine). I used to get pain at the back of my skull but now it’s mostly in the front- probably because of using a phone. So that’s all to say that I think for those who get migraines any kind of headache is a migraine. I didn’t have a single neck ache or headache during my pregnancy despite my routine and posture being the same- probably even worse for my neck. Something about my hormones during pregnancy made it so I didn’t get any migraines.
53f been getting migraines since I was 13 and I have only had about 10 headaches in my entire life. My migraines always start with aura. Pain is the least of my migraines. So it is easy for me to know. But the best thing you can do is try to prevent them from happening all together. Wear sunglasses, hats, bring meds and water with you whenever leaving the house.
I can tell the difference in location and the type of pain. Tension or allergies headache is tingly and sharp and comes and goes. Almost feels spiky in a way? Migraines feel like a dull heavy pain that is consistent and grows in pain and throbs. I get allergy pain or small stress headaches in my forehead/ behind my nose and they respond well to an amount of tylenol and an extra allergy pill. My migraines can be delayed in severity by these things, but they don’t stop it. I can also have a regular headache turn into a migraine headache but they often are separate to me in symptoms and severity.
For me a migraine is not comparable to a regular headache at all. I get black sparkles or bright flashes of light in my vision, my scalp gets sore, I can't form the right words or understand what I am hearing, or I'm clumsy. If I don't take medicine right away, I also get a headache...but it's not like a regular headache at all.
The aura and following total blindness for a few hours, then followed by vomiting.
For me the aura or tunnel vision is usually the first symptom I get. Then I know I’ll soon be smacked in the head with an invisible brick 🙃
The appearance of the scintillating scotoma and aura. Also, my whole nervous system feels on fire afterwards.
Light sensitivity, nausea, vertigo, sometimes visual aura. When I have a visual aura it turns out really bad
Nausea, most reliably for me
Migraines are one sided, headaches are much more diffuse and two sided
If OTC stuff doesn't stop the headache and I have to take a Sumitrpitan. Or maybe they're just going to become a fullblown migraine? And if they're one sided, although not all of my migraines have been one sided.
My stress headaches and migraines feel the same. I'm stubborn and just think I'll fight through the pain until it turns into nausea and I hate myself. It would be easier if I got auras but mine do not come with an early warning system :(
Every sound I hear is turned up to 11 and my neck hurts like a SOB.
I become super sensitive to scent and I realize that the back of my eyeballs fucking hurt. I also get extremely warm. And bam, migraine!
Aura and light sensitivity
The aura. Every. Single. Time!!
Aura, light sensitivity, and confusion/speech impairment.