Can anyone relate to being a headachey person and what do you do to deal with it ?

[gahperson]

Sorry, posting for traffic.

I just wondered if anyone can relate. Ever since my late teenage years, I’ve suffered from headaches and migraines.

some years it’s not so bad, other years it’s worse.

it’s come to a bit of a head recently, pun intended. I’ve realised that I have headaches quite frequently. I very often carry pain killers with me and I get through them. I tend to take 600 mg ibuprofen when a headache strikes, in a bid to stop it in its tracks..

sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t and I’ll need to take sumotriptan if the pain continues.

anyway, I find that I do pop quite a few painkillers regularly and always have them on me. I find my triggers are :

lying down for a long time in bed
not getting enough sleep
being on an airplane/ general travel
strong smells ( like my own perfume )
reading in the car
wearing tight clothes sometimes does it
wearing my hair up
being dehydrated
alcohol

I Can’t think of any other triggers right now, but I’m sure there are more.

can anyone relate ? How do you deal with your headaches ?

I think mine came on at peri menopause. Suddenly had a few auras when I'd never had before. Get them for about 3/4 days running. I think spring time can be a trigger but not so bad this year.

I already take beta blockers for high blood pressure and didn't notice a change when after I was prescribed sadly.

Painkillers don't really work for me. Look you might think I'm a troll but I can recommend having a wank to help. 👍

Yep chronic migraines i use triptans. Hormones make mine worse so around my period. Also lack of sleep and stress.

My trigger was red wine

I used to get them more frequently until I realised drinking orange squash used to trigger my headaches. Far fewer headaches now I used ForeHead stick and cool ice packs.

Despite so many excellent tips and things that are well worth trying, I’ve never managed to get rid of a migraine without Sumatriptan. Anadin Extra soluble can be effective if taken early enough but once that headache settles on one side nothing else will touch it in my experience.
Luckily a Triptan will abort a migraine in 30 minutes and I’m grateful for something that works after having many years of lost days due to migraine.

I strangely find that having full sunlight on me (with my eyes closed) helps, so I’m not light sensitive but I am noise sensitive and have to be in silence. I also can’t sleep them off, I have to wait for a tablet to work before I attempt to nod off otherwise I just wake up an hour later and it’s still there, which I find bizarre.
I think I have a condition called Cyclical migraine although not linked to hormones as I’m post menopause. I can have two or three days where I struggle to get and keep them under control, then two or three weeks with nothing, not a snip of a headache. Then they start up again out of the blue with no apparent trigger and certainly nothing that I’ve done differently.
Watching the thread with interest as I’m sure I speak for many sufferers when ai say we will try anything.

I started getting migraines in my early 30s (although I may have had them before and put it down to bad hangovers). I started tracking them and realised they were monthly either at the start or end of my period. Paracetamol and ibuprofen wouldn’t touch them so I was prescribed sumertriptan which felt like a magic cure (I could feel the migraine disappearing within 10 minutes). I’m 46 now and still get migraines monthly but try and take sumertriptan as soon as I feel one coming on. If I take it too late, or if I have a sip of coffee, then they often don’t work, or don’t work as well, and it’s hard to function. I do worry about taking too much sumertriptan but don’t know if I just need to accept that. I really do hope they go after menopause! I feel like if men suffered from migraines as much as women do then there would be more research into why and how to stop them!

No real advice other to say I sympathise. I get prescribed Sumatriptan but they knock me out and so i am unable to drive, so taking them during the day is a no. Im now resistant to paracetamol and ibuprofen but recently discovered Anadin Extra which is a god send for me so far. No doubt I'll get resistant to that soon.
I get botox in my temples and forehead which helps with the headaches, and I'm thinking of getting that ear piercing that helps headaches and migraines. I wish I could drink more water as I'm sure that would help, but I have a very weak bladder so I tend to steer clear of plain water.

Other triggers I’ve found are:

wearing tight clothes eg skinny jeans
lack of sleep
listening to people talk for a long time
any amount of alcohol

Cut out anything with (artificial) folic acid, started taking methylfolate instead (with co-factors) - after fertility clinic confirmed I had the MTHFR gene mutation (v.common). Meant to cause miscarriages but unexpected side effect was stopping headaches/migraines! I was just deficient.

Another headachey person here, I get less migraines now, am on medication for high blood pressure as a few others have mentioned. Ibuprofen and coke, rest in the dark are my remedies. Some of my headaches aren't terrible but do linger in various points in my head for a day or 2 after, threatening to return.

I am a headache person and in my 20s I really suffered. I would go to work, just about get through the day then go straight to bed when I got home.

It took me years to work out but I think they were hormonal as I always had a bad headache when I had a period. I had to make sure I ate and drank regularly. Yes it sounds obvious but as I was young I was out socialising a lot and drinking and maybe not looking after myself properly. If I skipped a meal when I was busy at work I would get an awful headache which might take days to get rid of.

Now I am post-menopause I don’t get headaches at all.

I was thinking the other day I wished I had tackled them head on (😬) when I was younger as I spent years suffering. I was prescribed cocodamol which I hated taking and didn’t really work anyway. In my 20s there was no internet so you couldn’t research like you can today. That’s why I missed the hormonal link for a long time.

I was like this for years, since I was a teenager, every illness included a headache. Not being dehydrated and keeping out of hot sun helped, stress and tiredness didn’t. What finished it was a surgical menopause around 20 years ago - haven’t had a migraine since, so I assume they were hormonal. Not much help to you, probably!

I posted early in the thread but just sat down to read all the responses and have found it strangely reassuring to hear so many similar experiences. It made me realise I don't really know any other headachey people in real life who really get it. Its such a curse, I feel for all of you.

I had a particularly awful period (second baby wasn't sleeping, new high stress job, long commute by car) where I would regularly have a migraine start at work. I would have to drive an hour and a quarter home and almost never made it home without stopping to vomit at least once and sometimes having to actually go to sleep for a while in a layby. It was so miserable, I would go to work with a pillow and sick bags in my car. I ended up on an anti-epileptic medication for years after that, which helped for a while but was so hard to come off again because of the withdrawal effects.

Having read some of these replies I now feel oddly cheered by the he prospect of menopause as it sounds like it may bring some relief! I'm 45 and on tamoxifen so I'm on my way! Silver linings.... 😂

That sounds awful ! I really feel for you.

i worked out a new trigger today ! Crying. I got emotional and cried quite a bit during a therapy session and my headache started and that’s when I realised that it’s definitely not the first time crying has triggered it.

can anyone also relate to being scared it’s going to be a full blown migraine, rather than just a headache and not knowing when the migraine will strike ? I struggle with that fear.

today I just took 600 mg ibuprofen after a few hours of it getting worse. I try to ignore it sometimes.

Lots of things can trigger me if I'm running on low battery.
Loud noises
Light (eg sunlight) in my eyes
Smells - coffee is a bitch, so are cigarettes

I've had "episodic vestibular migraines" for 25 years. For the first 17 years I coped on a cocktail of amitriptyline and beta blockers (I was not offered triptans, I'd never heard of them), but I still had at least 10 debilitating headache days a month. No specific triggers, it could be anything although stress and exercise were the worst.

Then I hit peri-menopause and the wheels came all the way off - I was getting 15 severe headache days a month and finally got some triptans, which did work if I could stand the side effects (facial numbness, throat pain and intense agitation) - but I still had to go to bed for hours. I kept a headache diary for six months and finally saw a neurologist privately - he ditched the beta blockers and switched me to topiramate, which worked well but also had terrible side effects (spontaneous diarrhoea anyone?).

Went back to my GP in desperation who switched me to Candesartan - GAME CHANGER. I had to creep up to the maximum dose but I can confidently say that I am virtually headache free. I wake up in the night very occasionally with a skull cracker - I crawl to my stash and take 3 paracetamol, 2 ibuprofen and a triptan and go back to bed. When I wake up it's as though it was never there.

Migraine survival tips - dose up on painkillers with your triptans, with metaclopramine to keep your meds down. Sip cold full sugar coke (although it's now mostly sweetener so may not be as effective), try to eat and keep down something salty. Cold flannel on forehead soothes the nausea sweats. I found an unusual miracle cure was listening to music through earbuds. Also, find a Lloyd's Pharmacy migraine TENS machine - there might still be stock on Amazon, really good. My first one broke but they've been selling them off at £5 each - they were £40 originally!

Snap! I’m lying on mine right now. It’s made a huge difference

I'm sorry that everyone is suffering with headaches but also quite pleased to have found my tribe. I've had headaches and migraines my whole life, same as my mum. My partner is very supportive and sympathetic but I still don't think he really gets it. When he has a headache, he takes some paracetamol and it just goes away. I can't comprehend what that must be like!

For most of my life I used to get frequent, debilitating migraines. These have thankfully dwindled as I've reached perimenopause but instead they've been replaced with frequent headaches which last for several days. I can generally take ibuprofen and paracetamol and keep them vaguely under control, enough to just about be able to carry on as normal. But once I've got one, it won't actually 'go' until it's good and ready and it just makes me feel like I want to lay down in the dark and sleep. It's massively frustrating and I hate the feeling of waking up with a headache because I know that's it for the next 72 hours or so.

Triggers for me are hormones (far more prone to headaches/migraines right before my period), stress, bright sun, not enough sleep, crying, too much sugar, being cold, too much time in front of a screen, life in general 😄

I'm quite a bit better now that I'm healthier. Over the last couple of years I've radically changed my diet, lost a bit of weight, upped my exercise and completely stopped drinking. This also means that I sleep better which probably helps too. But even so, I still randomly get the headaches sometimes with no identifiable trigger.

I'm surprised by the amount of people here who have had success with triptans. I tried a few different types when I used to get migraines and all of them gave me the most horrendous side effects. And also didn't actually help the migraines!

My adult dd is similar. A few years ago she had a really bad three month. A chiropractor did the trick. She now goes occasionally to keep things at bay.

I’m with you op. I recently went cold turkey on pain killers as I realised I took them most days, paracetamol and ibuprofen depending on how bad the headache was. I was worried the drugs were giving me headaches. After 3 months I caved and had to take them again. I bought a water pouch that you fill with water and ice cubes, that’s the only thing that gives me temporary relief.

My triggers are.

sugar
being tired
sleeping too much
Phone usage
stress
dehydrated
alcohol
being hungry

the list goes on tbh

I get monthly migraines which last 72 hours. I had hoped that they would go when I hit the peri/meno but they haven't. I've tried a lot of the suggestions here to no avail.

My triggers are hormonal and lack of sleep mainly.

I sleep a lot when I have a migraine but its poor quality sleep as I wake up throughout the night with the pain. After three days I am exhausted.

I can't drive with them. Prescribed meds haven't worked for me. I worry about the long lasting effects of over the counter pain relief (none of which works anyway).

I eventually realised that the only cause of my migraines was hormones. I don't even get periods (Mirena) but I know when they should be because the migraines appear faithfully. I'm 48 so hoping that it won't go on for too many more years. Triptans usually help if I take them at the right time. I also use Nurofen Plus, which has been fantastic. And I'm on 40mg of amitryptyline daily - just gone up from 30 as they had worsened drastically.
It is good/comforting to read other people's experiences - thank you. And I'm going to research shakti mats!

I’ve always been very headachey (not migraines). Have a mild acquired disability due to childhood neurological injury but doubt it’s related. Have always experienced travel sickness in cars and trains (nausea, headache) so possibly at least partly balance related.

However, I suspect it may also be partly linked to dehydration. I was phobic about public toilets as a child and never used them. So naturally didn’t drink from dawn to dusk if out of the house. As an adult, I really try to address that by chucking water regularly throughout the day.

@SaveItForTheBirdsYes, relieved to find this thread but saddened that we are all here.

It’s interesting to me that I am 47 and have never had a referral suggestion despite a lifelong issue with migraine. I’m perimenopausal and feel that I’m in a constant state of trying to not trigger a migraine. No caffeine - I hate ordering coffee in a coffee shop because I’m the person asking servers to double check it’s decaff. Sleep - which is broken be perimenopause , teens and anxiety and usual stress of life, illness - battling the beginning of a cold and know it’s likely to trigger them. Avoiding sugar. I never drink alcohol and haven’t for years. Darned have bananas as they used to trigger. Panic on holiday for sun protection. Urgh. The list goes on. I hate feeling it defines me.

I have zomig which is a triptan. I have codeine but am scared of the rebound headache. The migraine hangover is enough to deal with.

I will make a list of all that is mentioned on this thread and start researching it. Thank y for sharing. Feels better to not be alone with it.

May we all have a night of unbroken sleep and a pain free day tomorrow…

I was plagued with migraines for years before I worked out they came at the same time as my period! .