How do you know when a headache is a migraine?

[Dontknowwhattodo223]

I've had the worst headache I've ever had today. It's lasted hours, paracetamol and ibuprofen have done nothing. It's like a really intense painful throbbing all over my head but mainly on the right side into my neck. I felt nauseous and sweaty and went pale.

A neurology specialist told me that if it is debilitating to the point that you can’t function, it’s a migraine.
i get migraines and headaches. Headaches start as a niggle, usually right across my forehead. They tend to ease with paracetamol. Migraines I usually get an aura. Sense of foreboding, pain in one spot. Sometimes I get visual disturbance like flashing rainbows 🌈 then I get nausea and vomiting. I take a triptan (I have sumatriptan nasal spray) that usually stops them in their tracks. Otherwise it becomes severe, before Sumatriptan they would put me in bed for up to 3 days.
Your description sounds like it could be an ice pick headache? If it continues you should seek medical attention.

Migraine tip I got from my neurologist - take 3/4 aspirin at first sign of migraine (for me it's pain behind my eye and black spots sometimes). Called it "mega dosing". Really works for me and nothing else ever did!

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I get bad headaches.
I get migraines too. The migraine is a far more painful
headache than a headache on its own. The pain pulses. It’s often behind my eyes, moving to the top of my head.
I often crave sugar as it starts (coke especially.)
Nausea and vomiting.
A very dry mouth.
Yawning every few seconds.
I don’t get aura but my vision does funny things - flat surfaces like pavement or grass move towards me in little waves, like being on the edge of the sea with little waves coming at me. I can trip because I can’t stop myself trying to step over them.
Things like door handles aren’t where they should be - I reach out and they move backwards and I grab thin air. It takes a lot of effort to do things.
Sensitive to sounds and smells.

Lying in a dark room with a cold
pack on my eyes listening to an audiobook turned quite low helps
me to relax enough to fall
asleep. Really lethargic when I wake up but at least the headache is gone.

I think you’re my migraine twin!

Dominoes Hawaiian once stopped a migraine in its tracks. But in all seriousness the gut thing is the worst. Everything falls a million times better as soon as that gets going again.

For me it's when vertigo hits at the same time. My migraines are head injury related stemmed from when I was attacked years ago and had the back of my head kicked repeatedly. At first the pain would always be left sided with flashing lights in my left eye. Some days I couldn't lift my head of the pillow. My migraines did eventually ease off and for a good few years instead of having them constantly I was only getting them maybe every 6 months or so. Then 9 years ago I fell badly, cracking my head onto the floor. Didn't think nothing to it aside having concussion. Then I ended up in hospital for a week after losing all sensation in the left side of my body. CT and lumbar puncture came back clear and I was eventually diagnosed with hemiplegic migraines and again I was back to daily migraines. What I didn't realise at the time and it wasn't until my marriage ended was that my migraines also started to ramp up around the same time my exh started abusing me. Within a few months of me moving back home the migraines had stopped and I was off the medication. Now I only really get them when I'm stressed or occasionally around my period, and now it's more just flashing lights and a crushing head pain than the sheer pain I used to get. Oh another tell tale sign for me is my blood pressure drops and I crave really salty foods.

I get flashing lights in my eyes, followed by extreme fatigue, followed by an intense headache above my right eye, I am sensitive to light and sound and I definitely know it's a migraine because sleeping doesn't make it go away

Oh crap. Reading this thread has made me feel a bit woozy and heavy headed and now I want a Dominoes Hawaiian 🤣

It’s that fat-carbs-salt-sweet combo isn’t it? Brings us up like raising the dead in an oldie times horror film.

Yeah that's what the Dr gave me when I ended up in hospital for a second time after another bad migraine attack. I'd had it for 10 days straight and nothing was shifting it. 4 aspirins later, IV paracetamol an anti sickness, saline and prochlorperazine it finally eased from a 9 out of 10 down to a 5 out of 10 The Dr didn't want to discharge me until it had gone down to zero but my exh was getting pissy with me so I told them I'd be fine after a few hours sleep in a proper bed just so I didn't have to face the wrath of my ex

Exactly that. Super noodles in the plastic pot are one of my secret weapons 😂

Cold and flu pills

I actually suffer from mild migraines. For me, if my nose hurts too, it’s a migraine. I’m also super tired and nauseous the day before, which I never seem to link until the migraine comes on. It can last for days but usually 1-2. I sometimes get an aura before it too. I then get a post drome of being tired and a bit spaced out.

pain killers don’t really touch it but I’m one of the lucky ones who can watch tv and still get it and about, unlike friends who are stuck in bed vomiting.

For me headaches are painful but bearable. A migraine I'm in so much pain that I need a silent dark place to lie down, any noise, any light is absolutely agony, like my head is being cleaved in two.
Pain killers relieve a normal headache, but just don't touch a migraine at all. Migraine are absolutely horrendous it gets to the point I feel death would be a better option, as the pain gets to an unbearable level.

I wouldn't have been able to type your post with a migraine.
I think anyone who thinks a migraine is a headache probably hasn't had one

Absolutely, I’d be nowhere near a phone or laptop screen with a migraine.

Nausea at the slightest movement. Standard painkillers make absolutely no difference. I have to lie down on bed very very still and try and sleep. Also, can last for days. My record is 72 hours....😕

lol at some of these replies. Some Mumsnetters are so snide.

I have headaches and migraines. Headaches are headachy but migraines make me feel nauseous and very light sensitive. I quite often vomit with migraines.

My migraines react really well to drugs so as long as I take them quickly my migraines dissipate. I feel delicate for the day but ok. I just take paracetamol but it works like magic as long as I get up and move around as well.

My headaches are gentler but they are more persistent. They can be really bad and I can't get rid of them when they are so in that respect they are worse than my migraines.

The pain of light. The nausea.

Also you can get a migraine hangover - 24 hours or so afterwards where you feel exhausted and get pain if you move your head suddenly....

That sounds like cluster headaches.

Does anyone on here get silent migraines? Where there's no pain but it feels like someone is pressing a finger into your eye, then you faint?

Migraines aren't always characterised by a severe headache. My migraines (under treatment from the headache clinic at the hospital) often do have a bad headache, but it is the other symptoms that I find more debilitating. The nausea, sound sensitivity, fumbling, word loss, inability to think logically, etc.

The nausea! Headaches don't normally come with that. For me also blurred vision, like the world goes really fuzzy round the edges and everything slows down where you can't even form a thought. Feels like you forgot how to human whilst a metal press is squeezing the sides of your head and sinuses. Nasty nasty business

Eye sight is affected. I have no central vision in both eyes.
Nausea.
Pain so severe in my head I believe I am dying.
Cannot function.
Even Closing my eyes, lying down in a dark room does not ease any of these symptoms.
Over the counter, simple pain relief does not touch the pain.

Post migraine for 24 hours I feel hung over, head hurts and eyes feel “weird”.

A headache is a walk in the park in comparison.

If you are asking, you probably have not experienced a migraine.

Once spoke to a friend claiming to have “had a migraine all day at work today”.
No love, no you did not have a migraine, you had a headache, I assure you.

I have had the wretched things for decades. They were worst in my late 20s/early 30s and were the classic definition: migraine comes from hemi-crania, or half-head. If you have pain in both halves of your brain, it's not a migraine.

I have noticed various 'tells' over the years.
I get freezing the night before.
They start with neck aches/stiffness
I will sometimes (ironically) start with a bilateral, mild headache and it 'transforms' gradually into the full bastard.
When the latter happens, I have to play 'guess the severity' game - do I want to take my horsepills (paracetamol/ibuprofen and codeine) or wait and see (because codeine is not something I want to take if I can help it!) and risk not hitting it in time.
When it's hit, then I suffer from the IQ drop and lack of coordination others have mentioned, I want a dark room, I want to sleep but I can't because pain.
If I take aspirin then that gives me horrendous nausea/vomiting.
I used to get them monthly! Hormone triggered.

I dont' often get auras - usually a little flicker of what I'm focussing on, which then gets bigger and bigger and turns into a ring of flickering zigzags. If I can get to painkillers before the ring gets too big, then the pain doesn't happen (though I do often feel rubbish for a few hours)

Nowadays the mild precursor headache is invariably about 4am so I have to hope I wake in time to get to painkillers so they've worked by the time I need to go to work.

Sumatriptan really works. Unfortunately you can't take it with antidepressants and so I have to decide if I want terrible headaches or crippling anxiety!

Afterwards (postdrome) is a day where I feel like my head's stuffed with cotton wool and everything seems muted. The worst thing is when I get one at work and everyone says to go home. They never get that I can't go home until it eases as I'd probably drive into a tree or worse.

For me it feels like my eye is about to explode. I know I have one on the way when my eyesight starts being weird , either halos or everything is wobbly. I now take painkillers as soon as my eyes play up and can usually head it off to a bad headache.