migraine ideas

After a recent post on another thread where I mentioned that I'd done things to diminish symtoms of 'classical migraine' (a form of migraine preceeded by visual disturbances) I recieved a pm from someone with similar symptoms asking what I'd done to reduce them.

I thought if I posted my reply as a new thread it may be useful to others who suffer from this.

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I still get migraines as much as I used to, but the headaches tend to be a lot less severe, often no worse than a normal headache whereas they used to be horrific, often with nausea.

I recommend getting hold of a book called 'Migraine' by Oliver Sacks, he's done some serious research into the subject and I remember that his was the first migraine book I'd seen that had pictures of the visual auras that preceed the attacks.

Over the years I read other books with theories about them being caused by diet etc, but I was unable to isolate the cause of my migraines.

Oliver Sacks reckoned there was no specific cause and that migraines were related to epilepsy and manic depression i.e. them being the same condition expressed as different frequencies with epilepsy being fast and intense, manic depression being mood disturbance over a long period, and migraine falling between the two.

He believed that all three were caused by a multitude of causal factors, some emotional and some physical.

In terms of how to deal with an attack, his advice was to drink a very strong cup of tea (caffiene dilates the arteries in the brain) then lie down in a quiet dark room).

Around this time I'd been analysing my habitual ways of trying to deal with attacks, and started, with the aid of some concepts in the book and some ideas from new age type philosophies, to develop better ways.

Prior to this, my reaction when the visual aura appeared would be one of anger, fear and helplessness.

I resented the fact that this thing sprung up from nowhere, seemingly at random, and signalled that the rest of the day was going to consist of extreme pain and waves of nausea.

I resented deeply the fact that a day was being stolen from me.

I also refrained from eating because I knew that in a few hours I would be vomiting.

The main things I changed at this time was to eat something as soon as the aura commenced, to drink a strong cup of black tea, and to refrain from feeling strong negative emotions like resentment/anger.

One thing I used to be more positive about the aura was a reference in Sacks book to Saint Hildegard, a medieval saint.

She was famous for her visions of God which inspired her to produce religious paintings and music.

Sack, and other researchers, were of the opinion that she was a migraine sufferer and that her visions of God were in fact migraine auras (they concluded this partly by her surviving paintings of what she saw).

I tried to get into that mindset of seeing the aura as a positive/divine visual 'show', rather than a harbinger of pain. Sometimes this was easy and I could lay back and watch the zagged moving patterns of light with a sense of peace, other times I couldn't deny the fact that I hated them.

I found that when the aura passed, the ensuing headache was much less severe (sometimes almost non existent) and there would be no nausea.

Later on there were occasions when I couldn't have the tea or eat (for example I might be in town) and the headache was still less severe.

Ocassionally the headache would be severe, but on the whole, most weren't, and it's been many, many years since I've vomited during an attack, whereas, as a child, this would always happen.

Of course, it's possible that the migraines improvement was nothing to do with the changes I made, some people find the symtoms diminish as they get older.

It's difficult to say which of the three things (food, tea, mental approach) was the crucial factor, or if it was a combination, or something else entirely.

In the event of an aura I still endeavour to do all three, I have no inclination to experiment by doing none to see if I get the same migraines I had as a child.

My feeling is that there is a scientific basis for the tea/caffiene. The food possibly works because I am sensitive to going without eating for a few hours, so as a child, refraining from eating during an attack could well have made the headache worse.

Diffusing fear/anxiety/negative emotions is something I've found to be useful in many circumstances, so it's feasible that it can help with migraines.

"You can't outrun Death forever.
But you can make the Bastard work for it."

--MAJOR KORGO KORGAR,
"Last of The Lancers"
AFC 32

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