Joined: Jan 04, 2009 Age: 20 Posts: 9775 Location: Stoke, England (sometimes :P)
Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 2:08 pm Post subject:
What's the difference between a migraine and a headache?
I get headaches quite often, usually in the morning or when I'm tired, sometimes I have them just because. I have bad headaches sometimes that last for 2 sometimes 3 days that just never end and it puts me off eating most of the time and I feel like sh**. _________________ The butterfly, the tiger, just another shadow in the stone
Flamingo future dinosaur underneath the urban sun
Joined: Sep 03, 2009 Posts: 1777 Location: Southeast US
Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 1:57 am Post subject:
MONKEY wrote:
What's the difference between a migraine and a headache?
I get headaches quite often, usually in the morning or when I'm tired, sometimes I have them just because. I have bad headaches sometimes that last for 2 sometimes 3 days that just never end and it puts me off eating most of the time and I feel like sh**.
Migraines are typically on one side of the head with a throbbing sensation, accompanied by auras (visual disturbances) and nausea and/or vomiting, and usually light/sound sensitivities. Headaches can have these qualities but not necessarily. It's kind of a fine line between the two.
Joined: May 23, 2010 Age: 21 Posts: 398 Location: Syracuse, NY
Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2011 6:38 pm Post subject:
I've had migraines for about five years. I'm not completely sure if it's with aura or not. Usually before a migraine everything I see blurs together or changes colors. Here's the advice that I have:
1) Cut out MSG and food dyes from your diet.
2) Don't take too many medications to dull a headache/migraine because that will lead to a rebound headache/migraine.
3) Relax your jaw muscles. This mostly helps get rid of tension headaches, but I've found migraines aren't as bad if the muscles in your jaw aren't in knots.
4) Stay away from bright or loud places. Those are my worst migraine triggers. If you have to go to go to a sensory-nightmare event, wear sunglasses; if it's loud, find a quiet place or bring earplugs.
5) If you can, take a food allergy test. Eliminate any foods from your diet that you're allergic to. You should feel better overall after doing this, and your migraines may be less severe.
6) Don't take estrogenic birth control. Take a BC like Nora-B or a copper IUD; they're less likely to incite migraines.
If you get a migraine, get to a quiet, dark place as soon as possible. If you feel a migraine coming on, take a Maxalt or Treximet quickly. Make sure to stay hydrated, becaue dehydration worsens migraines (at least for me).
Joined: Sep 09, 2008 Age: 47 Posts: 113 Location: CA
Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2011 5:38 pm Post subject:
TallyMan wrote:
@Plywood. They are nothing to do with schizophrenia. They are simply part of a migraine headache. Some people get the headache and visual aura, some people just get the headache and some just get the visual aura. I think it is due to some sort of temporary chemical imbalance / disruption in the visual cortex of the brain and the disturbance grows outwards over around 20 minutes and into other parts of the brain.
This is similar to the visual aura I see. Mine grows and fills the whole field of view though, not just a small bit to one side as shown in this YouTube. The flickering I see is identical to this, but lasts twenty minutes not a few seconds:
Thank you Tally Man. I've had migraines for 25+ years I didn't realize that I had aura's with my migraines because I always thought that they would be like an aura from science fiction/fantasy. _________________ "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." ~ Albert Einstein
Joined: Oct 23, 2010 Age: 40 Posts: 2160 Location: in an open field west of a white house
Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2011 7:41 pm Post subject:
sometimes my doctor will give me an occipital nerve block bilaterally. Fun stuff.
watch:
Mine's not nearly this involved and my doc leaves out the steroid so there's not any syringe changing. He just shoots a few CCs of lidocane in there. _________________ That is my spot, in an ever changing world, it is a single point of consistency. If my life were expressed as a function on a four dimensional Cartesian coordinate system, that spot, from the moment I first sat on it, would be 0-0-0-0.
Joined: Oct 23, 2010 Age: 40 Posts: 2160 Location: in an open field west of a white house
Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2011 8:00 pm Post subject:
it actually doesn't. Even if it did, it would be nothing compared to still suffering migraines. _________________ That is my spot, in an ever changing world, it is a single point of consistency. If my life were expressed as a function on a four dimensional Cartesian coordinate system, that spot, from the moment I first sat on it, would be 0-0-0-0.
Auras mostly but at times I have more generalized symptoms. Migraines are very cruel. _________________ Since the birth of civilization, masters have controlled the masses.Our Masters rule over every nation and no one can defy them.They will attain Absolute Power as we reach the Singularity. Any who resist will be destroyed.I will not resist.
Joined: Feb 15, 2011 Posts: 923 Location: mostly, in my head.
Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2012 2:26 pm Post subject:
I have migraines which start with a classic visual aura for somewhere between 20 and 40 minutes, then headache and nausea/vomiting for usually about 4 hours. I also experiences weakness in my limbs from the start of the visual aura, and exhaustion for a couple of days following the migraine. Fortunately I don't have them too often ... once every couple of months. Usually caused by stress or anxiety, or sometimes just as I start to relax after something that has caused stress/anxiety has passed. Cruel indeed. _________________ Female. Dx ASD in 2011 @ Age 38. Also Dx EDD/BPD
Joined: Jan 23, 2008 Posts: 218 Location: SoCal US
Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 9:36 am Post subject:
My classic migraines went very odd after a head/neck injury. After years of weird aura and lots of those occipital blocks and meds not controlling them very well we finally figured out they were in some middle ground between migraine and mild seizure called migralepsy. It is a controversial diagnosis but if the proof is in the treatment working, well, I hated that particular doc and his ego but he was right.
Something that should be noted is that normal migraine aura is usually black and white, Not colorful. Color denotes aura from a different area of the brain than normal migraine aura. It is more complex aura.
Now they have me on topamax and a recent addition of strattera really helps my brain deal with the speed of the world. I was surprised it helped the migraines. I was getting overwhelmed by sensory info coming in too fast so it makes some sense.
