Migraine - what are your triggers?

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I've started getting what I believe could be migraines. Proper nausea, headaches, dizziness etc - where you actually have to retire to bed in a pitch black room.
Am trying to work out what could be triggering them. What are you triggers?

Thanks!

your triggers, obviously.
And sorry if its been done before

classic triggers are coffee, oranges/juice, cheese, stress & weather,

my personal triggers are food additives, too long with busy patterns, flashing lights etc & changes in barometric pressure - I'm like a human barometer & can literally feel a storm coming on days in advance& will get a doozy of a migraine just before it breaks - my Dad is the same, as is a good friend of mine - I also find sitting at the computer, typing too much, & generally using my arm a lot puts pressure on my neck & sets it off too, but they now think that is actually arthritis, not migraine

this is a great site for info

Stress! Hormones! Dyhydration! Had more frequently in early stages of pregnancy.

I have the zig-zag lines in vision and blind spots and with a severe one I cannot speak properly it comes out wrong. I have to go to bed for the rest of the day and also feel really drained the next day.

Mine are hormonal. I get a fairly mild one mid-cycle and then they start up about 5-6 days before my period is due. I get them most days then until about 2 days after period starts then that's it (until mid-cyle again )

bright lights

hormones

carbs

being too busy

and i used to get bad heads before a storm too!!

Any of the above, in any order can tip me over the edge, recently though dh has spotted them before I do....i get a "look" and usually have a bit of a headache but have been ignoring it, so i have been having a few early nights with meds and seem to be fending them off.

catsmamma hehe I can identify with your DH. Sometimes my very first sign is a feeling of confusion (something just doesn't feel right!) then in VERY quick succession the vision problems come. It's unbelievable how quick it all happens. Mostly I don't get enough time to get some meds from the cupboard to stop it in its tracks, it's that quick.

Dairy, esp chocolate. Stress, strange lighting (eg flashing lights to the side of me). I can't take the pill because I get too many migraines while on it. Hormones a trigger too - only get migraines at certain times of the month.

Caffeine is the main one
Also dehydration, extreme tiredness, stress, being run down generally.

cheese and eggs do it for me,the two together are like poison to me e.g. quiche is a no no shudder at the thought.

Too little or too much sleep / change to sleep patterns.
Blood sugar peaks and troughs - too much sugary food and drink
Staring at a PC for too long
My own triggers are aspartame and orange flavouring .

stress, real gut wrenching breath holding stress.

Get blind spots in vision, head splitting, feel like i am dying pain in my head, nausea/vomiting.
following day, feel wiped out and weak.

awful.

I wish I knew. First I know is that when I talk to people, their noses are fuzzed out, like those films where people want to remain anonymous and their faces are pixelated. Then the fuzzy patch gets bigger until I cannot see most of their faces.

I definately suffer storm headaches but they don't always become migraines. Also dehydration and I suspect hormonal.
I am considering doing a "diary" to try to work out my triggers.
I've learned to take tablets sooner rather than later.I get visual disturbances (like being underwater or pixillating) and I'm trying to catch them even earlier.

Always hormonal for me. A couple of days before I am due on is usually the worst danger time.

I get blurred vision, including psychedelic patterns that would cause me to crash if I was driving at the time, tingling/numbness down the left part of my body (particularly hands and face). Have occasionally vomited, and at its worst I lost the power of speech - very scary that time. The headache itself, whilst hideous, I usually control with ibuprofen. I find that the worst of the symptoms pass once the actual pain arrives for me, and the pain you can medicate (at least to a degree). The hangover/washed out feeling for the following couple of days is grim though.

So sorry you are suffering them, they are most unpleasant whatever form they take. Have you seen a GP? I haven't been for a while, and I know that advances are frequently made in this and related fields.

My dh gets them if he has any sort of long life bread .... Took months to find the trigger

I also sometimes find I can't make sense of what people are saying like I've partially forgotten how to communicate.

Get them rarely - always when I've been under severe stress. Usually a bare bulb or bright light gives me visual disturbances. Then the tips of my fingers, up one side of my arm, my chin, tongue and nose go numb.

If I go for a nap for a couple of hours, it's finished. My dad had exactly the same during a stressful time.

Mine (quite severe) are mostly unavoidable:

Barometric pressure changes (ie. before storm)
Extreme change in temperature
Stress
Occasionally low blood sugar can do it too

DH's:

MSG
Tannins (sp?) in red wine
Aspartame

I did the diary for over six months and isolated them with my neurologist. It is worth doing, you might find out they are avoidable...good luck.

Low energy lightbulbs are a common cause of migraine.

Physical tension in my neck and shoulders brought on by stress. I get visual disturbances pins and needles in my fingers and numb tongue or face. Also confusion and difficulty stringing a sentence together. It's hellish. (I don't actually get that bad a headache anymore but was blue-lighted to hospital first time with suspected meningitis!!)

Sosick - that sounds familiar. I've had them 3 times - would hate it if it was more often. A good sign I need to take better care of myself when they do happen though.