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

Hormones
Some red wine
Smell of dill
Freshly squeezed orange juice
Dark dark chocolate
Raw onion
Dehydration
Rapid changes in atmospheric pressure

Sorry to hear you’re suffering too :(

Flashy lights. Bright lights especially low winter sun. Tiredness. Strong artificial smells like candles or plug in air freshener. Hormones. No foods trigger me that I know of.

@ScribblingPixie

Oh yes, and bright lights or confusing visuals & patterns, like Bridget Riley paintings.

Years ago, I had a striped shirt that triggered a migraine whenever I ironed it. Before I'd got it finished, the stripes would appear to break up and make a sort of shimmery pattern, then the banging pain would start.

Had to give it away, which was a bummer because I really liked it.

Dehydration, low blood sugar (not directly related to hunger) and bright sunshine.

I wear sunglasses a lot, even on cloudy days. My main sunglasses are glacier-strength (grade 4) which are not legal for driving, and then I have slightly less strong ones (grade 3) for when I need to drive.

@PatsyStone39

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

Depends on the pill, you can’t take the combined pill because it increases your stroke risk, but you can take progesterone-only pills (mini pill).

Hormones, stress and squinting in the sun so I have to make sure I always have my sunglasses in all seasons .

Bright lights or flashing bright lights

Chocolate.

Cheese
All alcohol
Coke
Orange juice
Low sunlight
Flashing lights
Strong smells like cleaning products, paint etc
Being tired
Dehydration
Used to be hormones
All opiates

I was getting 15 a month and take 3 preventative medicines a day. I have Botox and acupuncture too. I had a consultation with the National Migraine Centre recently which has changed my life. I now take Magnesium, Riboflavin and Co-Enzyme Q10. I feel better than I have in years. My head feels so much clearer on a daily basis, my migraines have reduced and if I get one it’s shorter lasting and less severe.

My main triggers are lights, hormones and stress, like many people. Food is not a trigger.
I have just discovered that lilies are a trigger. I was recently given lilies and had a ten day migraine until I realised that the flowers were the cause of the longest migraine I had every had!
With age, I no longer have hormonal migraines, neither do I have the severe pain I used to get but I do feel generally ill for 2 or 3 days.
Migraines now for me are caused by glare caused by cataracts.

Diet Coke gives me the worst migraines. Also alcohol, sleep deprivation and stress

Eggs and caffeine

Those Bridget Riley paintings can effff offff! It was those kind of stripes which triggered my very first migraine when in my twenties. I suffered them on and off for several years but it could happen at any time. Tiredness or bright sunlight could do it but I never pinpointed any food triggers. Sometimes an "eye pattern" would start just because it wanted to. Harsh headache on the opposite side would always follow and often nausea. Several hours later and after a long sleep if i was lucky I would emerge feeling shaky and weak but the worst thing was I immediately started to worry about when the next one would happen. Horrible memories. I then had a gap of many years with none at all which was great. I now get the occasional visual pattern over one eye but then nothing, no headache etc. so no idea why but at least now I no longer worry. According to my search the pattern itself is harmless. I once had it while driving and had to quickly park and sit until I could see properly again.

A female friend suffered for years with migraines and she was forever taking time off work and having to take to her bed. Then she stopped the contraceptive pill and has not had a migraine attack since. Strange how her GP did not suggest the pill could be causing the problem but not all GPs are as interested as we want them to be.

Migraleve tablets can prevent or help lessen a full blown headache if taken as soon as the eye pattern begins but I know there is not one drug or trigger which fits all.

Hormonal - peri-menopause, bright sun, stress, horizontal lines like window blinds and narrow stripes on clothing

Similarly Kit Kat chunkies but not actual Kit Kat’s.

Same here!

Mine are caused by strong smells - especially perfumes. And ironing. I think it’s something to do with the movement of the iron against patterns on the fabric. God knows

Hormonal contraception. All of it. Last time I tried I ended up with status migraines.

Flashing lights, especially flashing lights in the dark. One of the worst migraines I have ever had was from watching Titanic in the dark.

Strong perfumes..

3d cinemas. Every. Fucking. Time

Contrast stripes/patterns especially black and white, and black print on white.

Strong sunlight, and for some odd reason winter sun. Yeah, I'm that twat who wears sunglasses in the winter.

Thankfully, its reasonably easy to avoid my triggers so I havent had one for a while. However, I know when I begin to get the house of mirrors effect, I'm fucked.

I found this weird thing which is that when I get the 'shimmering lights', if I really tightened my eye muscles and stared intently into the point of pain, then the migraine didn't really come on. No idea what that's about!

Hormones, stress, low blood sugar, dehydration, low on sore. Cutting out coffee entirely has reduced the occurrence of mine. I get them more frequently in pregnancy, but each is less severe.

In spite of knowing my triggers, I never seem to know they’re coming - although I can identify in retrospect that I was a bit hyper beforehand.

Anyone else feeling a bit migraines reading this thread?!