What Are the Essential Facts Everyone Should Know?
You do not need to experience an aura for it to be migraine. An aura is a neurological symptom in which you have temporary visual, sensory, and/or language disturbances with or without pain. Only about one-third of migraine sufferers experience an aura.
With a migraine comes multiple symptoms and one over-the-counter pain medicine won’t necessarily help. There are more than 100 treatments for migraines; if the solution were one pill, everyone would be buying it.
In addition, painkillers are often not the most effective treatment, experts say. They don’t help with things that make a migraine worse, like bright light, movement, or noise — and they do not relieve nausea.
Pain relievers such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen help relieve mild migraine symptoms, but they shouldn’t be used to treat moderate or severe migraines, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Typically Prescribed Medications
- Botox: Multiple studies concluded that Botox is safe and effective for the prevention of chronic migraines in adults.
- Dexamethasone: This corticosteroid reduces inflammation and may be used with other medications for migraine pain relief; it’s taken infrequently because of the risk of side effects.
- Triptans: They work with brain chemistry to constrict blood vessels, helping relieve migraine pain, nausea and sensitivity to light and sound.
- Beta-blockers: Commonly used to treat high blood pressure and coronary heart disease, these drugs can reduce the frequency and severity of migraines in some, but may make it worse for others.
- Cefaly: Provides reduced pain and eventually can prevent migraines. It is a small battery-powered prescription device that resembles a plastic headband and delivers an electric current to head to stimulate branches of the trigeminal nerve, which has been associated with migraine headaches. The experiences tingling where the electrode is applied and it is used once per day for 20 minutes.
- Ergot: These combine caffeine with ergotamine, another blood-vessel constrictor, and work best in patients who have pain lasting more than 48 hours.
- Tricyclic antidepressants: This form of antidepressant medication may help prevent migraines by altering brain chemistry, whether or not you have depression.
- Anti-nausea medications: These help with the migraine symptoms of nausea and vomiting.
What Does Migraine Typically Feel Like?
Awareness about what a migraine sufferer might be going through can work wonders in easing the challenges and stress they face in any given week.
Do you wonder why your coworker calls in sick from work when they have a migraine? Here is what may have prompted that call.
A migraine sufferer may, for example, wake up and feel like their head (or part of it) is under extreme pressure. Once they get up and begin their day, it soon feels like one side of the head has something ready to burst within it.
We are talking “I wonder if this is an aneurism?” kind of pain. The sunshine on the way to work is torture and increases their pain even more. Moving their head sends shockwaves of pain through them and they are nauseous or vomiting by the time they arrive at work. Then, once the initial pain of a migraine passes — however long that may take — there can be a period of recovery time afterwards when they have to deal with postdrome symptoms like continued pressure in the head, weakness, and confusion.
For those of us who battle chronic migraines, one of the most exhausting and sometimes upsetting parts of dealing with your condition is combatting the lack of awareness rampant among your friends, family and coworkers.
Many people are quick to judge if they have not experienced migraine pain themselves. It is bad enough to suffer without having to contend with misinformation that belittles your battle and accuses you of making too much of “just a headache.” It is so much more and it is very important for those who get migraines to be understood and respected.
Greater Awareness Matters
So, spreading awareness is critical for the typical perception about migraine to finally change. Migraine pain may affect the head, but it is not all in your head.
Sufferers are not being overly dramatic or seeking attention — the pain and its triggers are very real and life altering. Awareness is needed in both the general public and the medical community if there is any hope for better treatment and emotional support for this painful condition.
