Please talk to me about your migraine triggers

[Caramel81]

I’ve started suffering with migraines regularly over the past couple of years. They are definitely migraines and not just bad headaches as I get the visual disturbances, pain on one side and just feel very weird and unwell while it’s happening. The following day I feel spaced out like I have a hangover and could sleep for 100 years.
I don’t drink alcohol or coffee. I do have chocolate every day though which I know is a bad trigger. I love the stuff and will really struggle to give it up but I know I need to try.

What are your main triggers and do you have any tips on dealing with them? Also what sort of contraception are you on and do you find it helps/hinders things?
Thanks x

I have so many triggers it's miserable. I think it's a combination of allergies, hormones and bad luck :(

Perfumes, bright lights, certain foods, alcohol (esp white wine), carrying heavy bags causing neck strain, loud noises, too much sleep/too little sleep, stress at work. Cold wind around my head and very hot sun beating down on me are also triggers! I'm just very, very sensitive idiot.

Condensed milk.

4head is helpful.

My head getting too cold for too long and smells, particularly perfume. Which is a total pain in the arse. The number of offices I have worked in where women spray themselves at their desk is unbelievable.

Mine have improved since I have made the effort to reduce my pain killer use down as well.

Mine were hormonal until I had my menopause. But other triggers have remained: blocked sinuses, being very tired, strong smelling perfume and the smell of fresh oranges being peeled.

Sorry to hear you're a fellow sufferer.
My triggers are stress, thundery weather/atmospheric changes, occasionally cheese and some cut flowers.
My neurologist told me to avoid C's , so claret, cheese, caffeine, cigarettes (haven't managed that one yet) chocolate (nor that one but these aren't triggers for me) .
I used to wake with them but they have evolved over time.
I now get warnings (mostly) so weird burning rubber smell, repeated hiccups and visual auras.
I have been taking the preventative meds for almost 2 years now. They were awful to start with, its a labour of love! But worth it.

The other thing to avoid is any opiate based pain meds. Although they may work initially they can prolong the migraine.

Sun Moon & Stars perfume by Karl Lagerfeld (thankfully now discontinued)

A few other perfumes that I'm not sure of but I recognise the smell - probably a common ingredient

Flickering flourescent lights

Used to be most commonly hormonal, at certain points in my cycle, but weirdly the hormonal ones stopped the instant I got pregnant and never returned.

Extreme stress - the run up to exams was always problematic

I don't have any food triggers but low blood sugar can do it and during the migraine hangover I find that traditional orange Lucozade (not the sport variety) is a huge help and gets me feeling functional again much quicker. When I had more frequent hormonal migraines I used to keep cans of it in the house. Can't stand the stuff at any other time!

Oh and very occasionally I wake up with one brewing and I'm not sure of the cause.

Hormonal for me. Got worse after dc. Pill doesn’t stop them annoyingly. Also artificial lights. Sumatriptan doesn’t seem to work always but 3 aspirin with a coke does (Apparently it is a proper thing!). Hate them. In bed with the end of one now...

Stress, lack of sleep, arthritis in my neck, certain smells (some perfumes and paints, petrol, paraffin), going too long without eating could all trigger them for me, but the worst was fluorescent lighting.

Mine diminished in frequency after my menopause, and 15 years later, I rarely get one.

Hormones, stress, lack of sleep, dehydration and weirdly bending over (blood rushing to head)
I take propranolol daily and it’s really cut down on the number of migraines I get a month.
They are without doubt horribly debilitating and I feel for anyone who suffers with them as its generally 3/4 days before I feel vaguely normal again when one strikes

generally my risky time for getting them is the week leading upto my period.
its usually a bad combination of things but if I do two of the following in the same day they seem to happen;
Coffee
chocolate
Bad needs sleep
skipping meals
getting sunlight in eyes too much or accidentally looking at bright lamp.

oh and my warnings before the aura starts are more yawning, agitation/moodiness and burping

Haven’t had them for years but used to be that if there was a storm coming, I’d be debilitated by migraine.

Also whatever weird additive they put in yogurt coatings (like on cereal bars or on raisins)- anything with that sort of yoghurt coating triggered me. Similarly Kit Kat chunkies but not actual Kit Kat’s. Imagine they have the same additive as the yogurt.

Used to feel so ill I’d vomit. Then I’d sleep for four hours or so. Then I’d wake up right as rain, if a bit shaky.

Mines usually a mixture of stress and tiredness... sometimes flashing lights can trigger them too

The rapid change of light e.g. walking past railings with the sun shining through, reading in sunlight, being a car passenger in low bright winter sun or suddenly looking from dark to light or vice versa. I dread driving when the bright light is stuttering to the side of your vision because I'd hate to get an aura and migraine on the motorway but luckily that has never happened.

Over indulgence bin nuts can also bring on crazy aura and then pain.

Sleep - can be if I sleep too much or too little.

Been a revelation for me when i figured out the shower offers instant relief. Id stand in there all day if I could because the min the water stops its back.

Instant migraine if I consume
Oats including small amounts of oat flour as an ingredient
Grape juice
Aspartame

More general triggers
Stress, lack of sleep, light while sleeping

Hormonal (I’m not on any chemical contraception), lack of sleep, stress.

Food ones are blue veined cheeses and aspartame, which is an absolute killer and clobbers me really quickly.

Hormones. Used to get them in the week running up to my period.
Dehydration.
Not eating enough.
Certain lighting.

Hormones, lack of sleep, too much sleep, flashing lights. But the most prominent, is storms. I can tell you about half an hour before thunder and lightening hits. My partner jokes i should work for the MET office.

I saw a migraine specialist once and she said there's not really a food or drink trigger, but often the body will crave things prior to a migraine...coffee, coke, banana's, eggs etc and then they get the blame as a trigger.

Hormones for me. Used to get them horrendously when I was on the pill.

For those who have been on the pill - did you find your migraines were better or worse on it?

You shouldn't be on the pill if you take migraines, it can cause strokes, so i'm led to believe?