Migraines & Stress - breaking the cycle

I don’t get a headache but I do get visual migraines/aura when very stressed. Never really clear on the cause or how to prevent them other than to avoid the thing that causes the stress which isn’t very feasible depending on what it is. To limit the intensity of them I have to catch the signs of one starting VERY early on so I can hydrate, take some electrolytes on and take some paracetamol and that helps reduce it but won’t prevent it.

The problem with migraine is that they are anything but  straightforward. Yes the underlying cause of migraine is primarily stress but it is not during periods of stress that you are susceptible to migraine.attscks, it is after the stress has passed that you are susceptible.

In fact stress can be useful in blocking or overcoming migraine attacks. Rather than lying down in a dark room at the first sign of a migraine I would try to maintain a level of stress by carrying on doing whatever you are doing and fighting it psychologically. Go for a jog or do some gardening whatever, it should help the migraine to pass quicker.

Likewise caffeine can be both a trigger and provide relief for migraine, it seems to depend on the individual. And obviously caffeine maintains your stress levels which helps to fight a migraine attack. I can assure you that if whilst experiencing a migraine you were walking along a subway and someone armed with a knife mugged you that your migraine would very quickly dissipate.

Another thing to consider is that there is a theory that all migraines originate from tension in the neck, something which is far more common than most people realise. Much of this tension occurs at night through jaw clenching and people have actually been cured of migraines by simply wearing night guards or through the consequence of having teeth extracted.

The stay hydrated advice by airvent is a good one imo, I think it is very likely to help. Chronic dehydration is far more common and causes far more problems than many people realise, which includes making your blood thicker btw, an important factor when you consider that migraines are caused by blood flow issues.

But the long term solution is to counter the stresses in your life through relaxation...... meditation, yoga, breathing, exercise, hobbies, etc, take your pick. You will obviously never remove all the stresses in your life even if you tackle quite a few of them so counter them with de-stressing.

As Ernie says, it is complicated. I have bruxism and a mouth guard at night does help. I get serious headache with them, the kind you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy. I have to get in a dark room or vomiting kicks in, which intensifies the headache and general pain. I also get slurred speech and messed up vision.

Just cracking on definitely isn't an option and even when the migraine has gone I'm usually wrecked for a day or so afterwards. Stress can kick mine off as can serious lack of sleep and some foods or drinks. Might be worth chatting with your GP.

vomiting kicks in, which intensifies the headache and general pain. I also get slurred speech and messed up vision.

I used to be plagued with those in my teenage years and at its peak could occur once or twice a week, which when you consider that the effects of a migraine could last at least two days it was sometime the greater part of a week.

On top of the above symptoms I would also have one arm, half my face, tongue etc, go numb, similar presumably to a stroke.

I completely grew out of them during my twenties bar the very occasional aura visual migraines which I still occasionally get, although they are over in about 20 minutes. So it suggests that teenage hormonal issues probably play an important role.

I certainly found that fighting them psychologically helped, a brisk.walk in fresh air certainly helped to clear them quicker than lying down in a dark room. But everyone is different and you need to try alternative solutions until you find one that works for you.

There is no, one fits all solution. For example for some people food intolerance is the trigger but the overwhelming majority it has no bearing.

Thanks for the inputs all, do appreciate how unique it can be at an individual level. In my experience food has no influence at all!

Some very helpful takeaways here., cheers again

Op, you have my sympathy. Migraines are shit.

All of the advice above is great. It's about identifying triggers by a slow process of elimination.
However, like @ernielynch says, it's often a release of stress that can trigger an attack. Years of counselling have helped my wife with this, but it's still an issue time to time.

Have you seen your GP? Propanolol is often prescribed as a preventative which works by lowering your heart rate and reducing the stress response. If you haven't tried any Triptans yet they can be an absolute life changer. I'd certainly be in a very different place without them. Sumatriptan is available OTC at pharmacies but is expensive. If that doesn't help with an attack there are multiple other options in the same group.

Another thing to consider is that there is a theory that all migraines originate from tension in the neck, something which is far more common than most people realise. Much of this tension occurs at night through jaw clenching and people have actually been cured of migraines by simply wearing night guards or through the consequence of having teeth extracted.

We've discussed this on here before. There is a lot of evidence that the neck discomfort is actually part of the prodromal phase of the migraine. Eg it's not a cause, it's part of the attack itself.

I think if someone came at me with a knife during a bad attack, the best I'd be able to do to protect myself would be projectile vomiting all over them.

There is a lot of evidence that the neck discomfort is actually part of the prodromal phase of the migraine. Eg it’s not a cause, it’s part of the attack itself.

Which presumably helps to explain why wearing a night guard might help, ie it nips it in the bud before the attack progresses?

My dentist tells me that night guards don't simply provide physical protection for the teeth but they also reduce your jaw clenching and the exertion applied. He claims that with time they can help you get out of the habit of nighttime jaw clenching.

I have also heard it suggested by some that migraines originate from some sort of gastric issues. I can't remember the precise details but I think that digesting proteins might be an issue, also I think sugar levels comes into it too.

It would help to explain why vomitting is common in severe cases and why certain foods might be a trigger.

At their peak in my teens all my migraines were very severe and I would usually end up vomiting. The thing was that almost immediately after vomiting my thumping headache, which I might have had for hours, would suddenly start to subside.

As a consequence I would try to make myself vomit long before it became inevitable, unfortunately I wasn't very good at it! I can probably make myself vomit much more easily now!

Migraine management is based around minimising the triggers and optimising the medication. I would start with identifying the triggers (looks like you’ve already begun doing this) and finding ways to reduce these. I wouldn’t be looking at pharmaceutical solutions after only 12 migraines, but if they do become more frequent then I’d be asking my GP about that

Thread resurrection...

sortof second major migraine on Thursday afternoon and the second one in the last 4 years puts me now in the occasional migraine sufferer camp. 

I recall probably about 20 years ago I had an episode of single eye tunnel vision for about half an hour, followed by a very mild headache, and thought it was odd, could have been migraine, let see if it happens again and it didn't. 

roll on to 2021 and I have my first proper one. weird vision, tingling in my left hand, no headache to speak of, but a call to my GP had me booked in for a MRI. got the all clear and told not a TIA, but more likely a migraine. 

I've had the start of a couple, just the blurry part of the eye, but not amounted to much. no headache and just seemed to fade, so didn't think anything of it. 

Thursday was a different experience. 

started with a white fuzz in my left eye, like if you have sleep caught across your eye. That lasted about an hour, the fuzz went a little stripey, I couldn't read words on the screen, they were chopped up, then I couldn't read. Like I could read three letter words, but anything more than that and I had no clue what the word was or how to pronounce it. One of my colleagues came into my office to talk about something and I couldn't produce a sentence. I'd lost the words and when I thought I had it, it wasn't the right word.  

I now know that's Aphasia, never heard of it really but Christ it's weird. like you’ve just let go of the controls to comprehension and are frantically trying to grab them back. 

then a numb finger on my right hand, the numbness spread in a thin band across the rest of my hand and disappeared, living a slight pins and needles. 

this lasted way longer than the last one and was more pronounced, so a call to 111 and off I trotted to A&E for an hour wait for triage, a further 5 hours until I was seen and then out after over 10 hours there, reassured that it was a fairly severe aura. 

I did get a headache, pressure behind the eyes, not to severe, lasted about 2-3 hours and then OK. 

postdrome has been interesting, maybe the fact I was up for 24 hours and I've not done that for 30 years, but biking plans out the window, did do some tinkering but I felt very cognitively slow, stayed out of the car for a day. today I'm still feeling something, though it's not too bad. 

Thing is, the telltale signs were there. upper back stiffness, weeing lots more than normal (though that does happen to me for other reasons too) poor ish sleep, dehydration..but I wasn't really looking out for anything. 

went for a bike ride Thursday morning for an hour and felt pretty decent too, but again, that probably didn't help the events of thursday afternoon. 

Guess I'll know what to watch out for from now on, but it was a little unnerving. if they are infrequent, I may not get the chance to look at possible specific triggers, so will just need to watch of the usual suspects. 

I get migraines, the visual aura type, and I’ve never been able to pin down a cause. I used to think it might be during periods of stress, but I’ve woken up in the morning with the first sign, a blurry, fuzzy area in my vision that gradually develops into the expanding sparkly zigzag ‘C’ shape, but I’ve had them come on when I’m just relaxing doing nothing in particular, or reading, which happened the other day, when I had a second one a bit later. That’s not through lack of sleep, I’m getting around ten hours of sleep, now I’m not working, and they’re still happening; I can go for several weeks or more, then get a little cluster over several days.

Once the visual disturbance has gone, I don’t even get much of a headache any more, I used to take Ibuprofen because I’d have a nagging headache afterwards, but no longer, as far as I’ve noticed. 
I occasionally had them come on while driving, but as it was my job, and I was often on a motorway, or the A30/303, or coming back from somewhere in the Midlands and taking a car to particular destination, again I just had to suck it up and ignore it, so perhaps my brain/body has learned to just deal with it. 🤷🏼‍♂️