How I Stop My Migraine Attacks
I learned these tricks to keep my migraines at bay and I hope they help you as well!
I was able to get my previously nightmarish migraine attacks from 3 in a week to 1 in one or two months, but even that one doesn’t really hurt anymore. The symptoms are reduced to being tired, slow, and irritable. (And, of course, being super exposed to the possibility that I do get a full-blown migraine attack accompanied with great pain and vomiting.)
Following are rules I uncovered by years of trial and error to keep my migraine on a leash and be able to live an almost normal day.
Disclaimer: These are the rules I derived from my experiences of being a long-time migraine sufferer. Everyone’s body is different though, make sure to consider your personal experience.
Recognizing The Symptoms Early, Asking Others To Help Catch Them
This is the most crucial part; all of my other protocols can only work if I can tell very early that a migraine is coming. And be honest with myself about it. It is all too tempting to disregard the subtle symptoms in wishful thinking that I just didn’t sleep well. Admitting that migraine is here and could easily burn my day to the ground, again, is not easy. Nor is it easy to accept the fact that this day is going to suck, and the best I can achieve by a lot of sacrifices is not to be crippled with pain.
But looking the truth in the eyes very early makes all the difference and sometimes even makes the attack go away altogether.
Recognizing the symptoms very early takes a lot of practice. Even after years of suffering this ordeal, I wasn’t very good at spotting the signs; rather I was a master at ignoring them. My boyfriend can even to this day sometimes catch my migraine before I can.
The clues are printed all over us hours before any pain comes. And it is possible to ask your loved ones to learn to see them in you so that they can alert you in time. (Amazingly, it also helps improve your relationship because they will see it is not you, it is the migraine).
My symptoms that others can easily spot include:
- Slouching and touching my forehead, massaging my temples.
- Being tired and disinterested.
- Being unable to focus, at times ignoring when people try to talk to me or losing attention halfway through the conversation.
- Being very irritable and, quite frankly, a little too mean and bitchy.
- Being more thirsty and craving carbs more than usual.
Other fellow migraine sufferers also told me that their cats could catch the migraine before they can and be super cuddly in that case.
Become a true detective and make a list of your symptoms, ask other people to see them in you, and train to be super honest to yourself when you feel a couple of these symptoms in one day.
Then there are, of course, symptoms that only you can catch. Mine include:
- Tension and mild pain in my shoulders.
- Watery stomach.
- Urge to burp.
- Irregular breathing, random breath holds.
- Random aches and pains and feelings of discomfort all over the body.
- Procrastinating and avoiding hard thinking problems are maxed out.
And as mentioned above, also:
- Annoyance at otherwise insignificant things and behaviors.
- Finding it very hard to focus on any task at hand, looking for simple, quick pleasure activities instead.
- Parched mouth and huge thirst.
- Great hunger and carb cravings.
I’m sure everyone is different, and you need to work on finding your subtle clues to uncover this very early on. Then you avoid all your triggers and risky behaviors, to which I dedicate the rest of this article.
Absolutely No Sugar And Limited Carbs
Sugar proved to be a powerful migraine potentiator for me — especially quick sugar like soda, juices, or very sweet candy.
Carbs are tricky in this regard — I know I feel short-term relief by eating them, but this solution seems to be increasing the probability of getting repeated attacks in the coming days. So
Cakes, donuts, and so on are an absolute no-go for me (too much sugar), but I also avoid bread, pizza, and other such hard-core carbs.
No Chocolate And No Alcohol
Chocolate and cocoa powder are migraine triggers for me, so I need to avoid them when exposed to an ongoing attack.
I know avoiding alcohol is eye-roll obvious but incredibly important. Especially wine or champagne.
Drinking Insane Amounts Of Water
When I start to feel sensations of a coming migraine, I drink large amounts of water. It works reliably. I get incredibly thirsty during and after the attack as well.
I drink about 4–6 liters on a migraine day (gallon to gallon and a half); it is excessive, but you know, anything to keep the beast at bay. (I’m not trying to get to that amount of water, that is just usually what my body asks for, and I feel relief after.)
Being Extra Careful With Coffee
Coffee is dependent on whatever is your typical intake and relationship to caffeine. Consuming less caffeine than usual is a definite trigger for most people.
For me, this is a gray area. I usually go with my gut and cravings, because willpower is usually unavailable to me during a migraine attack, whatever the size.
However, I feel even more thirsty after coffee, which gets super uncomfortable with the extra-large amounts of water I already need to drink, so I’ll often choose not to have coffee for this reason.
Using a Blue Blocker
Migraines are not preventing me from living my life anymore, so I don’t always take it easy and work on my computer.
I can do it thanks to the “Night Light” filter on my laptop (Windows) set to almost maximum so that screen turns all orange. (If you are a designer and work with colors, that might be a complication.) When the screen goes orange, I can feel instant relief, and my head gets lighter.
Being Careful With Bright Light Exposure
Beware of any super bright bulbs or someone pointing a flashlight against you. Once I got a migraine out of the blue because my brother accidentally pointed a laser pointer in my face.
Minimizing Stressful Environment
The brain and body are in distress, the migraine is gaining control, and the body needs its resources to deal with this. So it’s best not to force it to squander those resources on unnecessary things.
Try to be in a place that doesn’t require your body and mind to be alert. Especially try to limit your exposure to:
- Loud and surprising sounds like crashing and banging, ringing of bells, etc.
- People constantly requiring your attention.
- Bright light, colorful lights, flashes, or flickering lights.
- Intense smells — incense, candles, perfumes, deodorants.
Getting Fresh Air
My migraines are very smell-sensitive. I can get a migraine over walking through the supermarket washing powder section or even close to a perfume store at the mall.
Also, an environment with stale air for an extended period can kick it off for me.
When I feel the migraine coming, I try and force myself to go out and get fresh air. Or at least open all possible windows.
Walking Outside, Ideally In Nature
Walking outside has not only the fresh air benefit mentioned above but also a lot of other calming properties. Especially in nature with large open spaces, lots of green and trees. The body loves that it has so much space around it and relaxes almost immediately.
Meditating (But Only If I Really Want To)
This one was a double-edged sword for me for many years. Back when I didn’t know how to meditate, I used to feel a lot of unhelpful emotions about it. Mainly guilt and shame that I don’t know how to do it right and never take the time. And worry that without meditation, I can’t be healthy and rid of my migraines.
Now I feel like meditations are truly a godsend; I look forward to making the time for them. But getting here took connecting some dots and going through a lot of trial and error.
And even now, when the migraine comes, I don’t always want to meditate. Migraine is an ugly state of being; it doesn’t let you see the joy in otherwise joyful activities. Anything that is not a quick-pleasure activity seems like a terrible burden.
At the core, the body during a migraine appreciates the meditation because you virtually leave it alone, and it can focus on the attack at hand. You don’t force the brain to use whatever power it has left on unnecessary thoughts, conversations, or movies.
If you don’t usually meditate, just sit, lie, do whatever feels good or bearable, and give the body whatever amount of time you want to have the migraine and deal with it.
Forgiving Myself For Having The Migraine And All The Consequences It Will Have Today
I want to expand on the previous point about feeling a lot of unhelpful emotions for not wanting to meditate when I know it would help. That is only a drop in the ocean. There was so much shame, guilt, regret, and self-pitying involved in my migraine attacks in the past.
All those people I have disappointed again by not coming, not helping, or simply not being the best version of myself. All the work that’s waiting to be done, all the fun missed, all the life slipped through my fingers, all the things I should or shouldn’t have done to prevent the attack, but couldn’t help it.
All these thoughts work together to make me feel like I am to blame for this and even deserve this. In some attacks, I would even say that this was the worst part of it (when the migraine didn’t end up in me vomiting in great pain feeling like I’m tortured by professionals from hell).
Migraines are not our fault, and they are not what ANYONE deserves. Yes, I might have gone against my better judgment and eaten chocolate, thinking I would get away with it, or I didn’t get enough water for my hike. But is this a fair punishment? Of course not. Life is hard, and we are not always a little miss perfect. And that’s OK.
Migraine is here now, and the only way out of it is to attend to it. Be nice and kind to yourself and try to have any positive thoughts and emotions you can. That’s the only thing that will work anyway. And it works well, too.
Making Myself Feel Love, Joy, Or Any Positive Emotion I Can Get My Hands On
In the spirit of the previous paragraph, I also noticed the great benefits of learning to manage my emotions during the attack. My migraines are oftentimes joined by their buddy from hell, depression. I will be very lethargic, sad, irritable, and simply unable to see any joy in life.
From personal experience, I started to believe that attacking the depression by the unsophisticated way of doing the exact opposite of what it wants me to do (nothing but wallowing in the suckiness of life) has some merit.
A fantastic emergency tool is to make a list of things, thoughts, memories, art pieces, and so on that you know will make you feel strong, or at least mild, positive emotions. This can be:
- memories that make you feel love towards your family members or cats
- the joy of doing something you adore
- admiring your favorite works of art
- talking about a topic you’re passionate about (also writing or just thinking about it)
- going for a walk to your happy place
- going to your happy place in your head
- getting excited about something you are working on in the long term
- reading motivational quotes that always make you feel hopeful and motivated
- reading your favorite chapter in a book, like the one they finally get together :)
- watching your favorite movie, or podcast — something that gives you strong emotions (not background noise, and only, of course, if you feel like you are up to it with the current state of your migraine)
Laughing Hard
In the spirit of the previous one, make yourself laugh honestly. If your current state allows it, watch content you know makes you crack up. Or read it. Or listen to it. Or fish your memory for it and replay it.
A good idea is to keep a list of these emergency items that you can rely on, making you laugh and feel joy.
However, it needs to be serious laughter. If you are going to put on some show that, at the very best, will make you release a bit of air from your nose, it could be making the situation worse. You are now basically making your brain listen to background noise that it needs to focus on without getting the magic of lightening up your body with that whole-hearted laughter.
Aim for really lightening up your existence. It is almost immediate relief.
Thank you for reading ❤
Well, that’s it. Thank you for reading, and I wish you the very best of luck on the journey to slay the beast. I know you will win.
