There is No Magic Cure for Migraines

When I was 13 years old, I began to experience frequent headaches. I tried normal over the counter headache medications, but the pain was usually so severe that I had to go and lie down in a darkened room for the pills to have any effect at all. Standing up too fast during this time would create a throbbing that literally felt like my brain was pounding against my skull, trying to get out. The doctor dismissed my adolescent complaints, telling me to return only if the headaches became a regular occurrence.

I finally started taking over the counter pain relievers that were advertised as being for migraines, even though I didn't know that was what my headaches were. These actually worked, but they were not a long-term solution for me because their aspirin content caused a recurrence of my ulcers. It was not until my mid-twenties that I was diagnosed as having migraines, while seeing a doctor for an unrelated condition. By this time, I had learned, for the most part, how to anticipate the arrival of the headaches and how best to cope with them, but it was nice to finally have some confirmation that what I was feeling wasn't "just a headache".

In addition to the headaches, I would occasionally have insomnia and sometimes the insomnia was accompanied by a feeling of electric energy between my shoulder blades, almost a buzzing. After a few times of developing a horrible headache a few hours after waking from one of those "twitchy" nights, I learned to recognize those electric sensations as early warning signs of an oncoming attack of, what I later learned to be, migraine. I also began to notice a certain tension in my eyes before the headaches came on. Not quite pain, just a sort of fatigued discomfort, with a sensitivity to bright light. I found that if I took the pain relievers as soon as I began to feel these sensations, the fatigued feeling would go away and the headache would never fully develop.

It wasn't until the last few years that I developed the intense nausea so often associated with migraine attacks. While the pain relievers still mostly do the trick for most of the pain if I take them early enough, I still have to avoid changing positions too quickly until the migraine fully passes. Otherwise, that throbbing, brain-busting feeling returns, only now with the added feeling that I am extremely close to vomiting. The best remedy is still to combine the pain relievers with lying in a darkened room, sleeping if possible, until the attack passes.