Migraines: How to Get Through the Pain

For people who suffer from migraines, there is little they need to hear from others about the latest medications and medical therapies available for the relief of these ruthless cat 5 tornadoes of the inner skull. Migraine victims tend to keep their regular appointments with their primary care physicians and neurologists, keeping abreast of all the latest breakthroughs, trying all of them.

So, if you are a fellow sufferer, and you've maximized your current pain relief potential, making the most of the current advances in pharmacological assistance, and you still experience incomplete relief from the pain and pressure of bad to severe migraine pain, I have a few tips that might help you to endure the duration of your headache.

The first thing to do is to try to get some preemptive measures in place, if possible. For some, this is difficult, as they don't have any warning that a migraine is coming until the aura begins, but for many of us, there are danger signs that we can be cognizant of and try to use to our advantage. Some of the most common stressors experienced by people who suffer from migraine headaches include extremes in barometric pressure, their place in their menstrual cycle (both during menses and ovulation), personal, professional, and environmental stress, and drastic changes in diet or caffeine intake. Some people will also exhibit signs that a migraine may be coming. Often, for as many as 24 hours before the migraine's aura begins, a person with an impending migraine may experience symptoms like heightened irritability and emotionality, sensitivity to visual and auditory extremes, abdominal discomfort and/or nausea, confusion, and fatigue. Now, these symptoms are fairly general, and often are best noticed in hindsight, so it is helpful if your friends and family can be made aware of what your pre-migraine symptoms are like, and they can help you to identify if it seems like you may be sliding into your danger zone.

OK, so you've identified some environmental or physical signs, and you're concerned that you might be about to get a migraine. What can you do about it? Well, aside from prophylactic medications, and you already know whether or not those will help you, there are some measures that you might want to try as soon as you first become concerned. The first thing you should do is to stop what you're doing if you can and try to relax. If at all possible, find a quiet place with low light. If you can't leave where you are, try to sit quietly and close your eyes for a few minutes. The earlier you try to get ahead of a migraine the more successful you are likely to be.

Next, try to focus on your muscles, particularly those of the shoulders, neck, and jaw. Take inventory of the tension you are carrying in these areas, or in other muscles that you have identified as problem areas for you. Concentrate on releasing all tension from your muscles. If you have trouble with this, clench them as tightly as you can, and then release. Repeat this as many times as necessary until you feel your shoulders dropping and the tension in your neck and jaw begin to slacken.

So, once you've taken a few minutes to calm your system down and center your senses, go a get yourself a strong cup of coffee. Caffeine helps to open up the capillaries that become constricted when you suffer from a migraine (for this reason, excess caffeine on a regular basis can cause rebound migraines when stopped, so try to temper your caffeine as a general rule).

These steps may, in some cases help to ward off an impending migraine, and if not, they may help to decrease the severity should you still get hit with one. If you still get the headache, however, a few tricks may help you get through the roughest patch. Some are obvious, but others are a little more obscure.

OK, my first tip is the one that I consider to be the single most helpful thing you can do when caught in the throws of a migraine headache, so don't balk! Make friends with your bathroom. Grab a couple of pillows and a couple of blankets, your eye pillows, heating pads, a jug of water, fresh towels, and anything you typically find helpful during your time of incapacitation, and make yourself a little nest in the bathroom. Everything you need is in there, and there are structural components to the bathroom that no other room in your home will provide. The first and most obvious component is the lavatory. It is unnecessary to dwell on it, but I will make a few comments about the benefits of keeping the loo in close proximity. Migraine sufferers are already well acquainted with the nausea and vomiting that accompanies most severe migraines. Most people take to their beds for the duration, and find themselves having to jump up when a wave of nausea hit them. Each of these sudden bursts of activity can be very hard to recover from when the vomiting has stopped and you've dragged yourself back to the darkness of you bedroom. So, avoid the sudden rushes of adrenaline that can be so painful. Just make yourself nice and comfortable in the bathroom, and keep your heart rate from spiking unnecessarily.

There are other virtues of your makeshift crash pad. Most bathrooms have fairly limited window space. With the lights out and the shade drawn, you can generally achieve a more comfortable level of dimness for photophobic eyes. Then, of course, there's the tub. A hot bath is an excellent way to try to relax your muscles during the moments that you're feeling up to it, and once you're done, you can wrap your self up in warm towels and settle back down into your blankets (highly recommended). And your toothbrush is right at hand. Enough said.

Now, while you're doing your best to remain still and quiet, try massaging and applying firm but gentle pressure to the point on your hand in the web between your thumb and index finger, just below the arc where the two digits meet. This is an acupuncture point that corresponds with head pain. Rubbing it can help to take the edge off your pain.

There are some other points to rub that can be very helpful, as well. Massage and pull gently on the outer portion of your ears, from the upper ridges down to your ear lobes, and the skin behind your ears as well. Firmly rubbing the lower part of your cranium can also provide a modicum of relief.

Finally, try deep pressure. Fold a heavy blanket up into eighths. Lie comfortably on your stomach and arrange a couple of pillows on you back. Place the blanket on top of the pillows so that you feel a nice, heavy pressure on your back. Remain like this as long as you feel comfortable. It helps as much as anything can.

Now, if you have someone around who is available to help you, having someone else to rub your head, neck, shoulders, hands, back, et cetera, is a great help. If you live alone, however, or don't have someone available, hopefully some or all of these tricks will help you to lessen the severity or duration of your migraine. In the end, you already know that you're just going to have to wait it out. With a little luck and skill, hopefully the wait can be a little less painful, and a little less long. At the very least, you'll be keeping external stimulus as low as possible. For someone who suffers from migraines, that's half the battle.