• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Migraine 'Auras' & Other Visual Disturbances

You're right, especially about ones accompanied by auras, but I don't know if that applies to menstrual migraines which are treated by using the pill and other hormonal contraceptives.
 
I have classical migraine so the mini pill is a no-no for me apparently it increases the risk of stroke for women who suffer classical attacks, I did try the other one but that seemed to trigger even more of them off. I should expect that it's different for other people, I also tryed feverfew for a while but that seemed to trigger more attacks aswell. The doctor gave me an ergotmine inhaler many years ago but it was vile. I stick with the codine and the anti sickness tablets the doctor gave me. Apparently if taken at the first stage of aura the anti sickness tabs force the stomach to work again and this helps absorb the painkillers.
I went through years of misery to find somthing that suited me, like other people have mentioned I used to dread going anywhere just in case I got an attack. I am getting married sometime next year and am even going to the lengths of working out my cycle in advance in order to avoid dates that may clash with a possible attack..
 
My son in law used to suffer from migraines quite often. A few months ago he went to a chiropractor about his back and xrays showed that his neck was out of alignment as well so he had a couple of treatments and has had no more migraines.
 
Does anyone know if THC has an effect on migraines....has there ever been any research done??

I used to have regular migraines...really painful stay in bed in a dark room for 2 days sort of migraines.

I used to live in London in the 1990s and in 1999 moved to Amsterdam to work and then moved to Berlin. Both of these cities have no problem with marijuana and so I happily joined in the consumption. I have never had a migraine since....I was 36 when I moved to Amsterdam.

I now live in Sydney where smoking is somewhat frowned upon so I no longer indulge but the migraines are just a distant memory.

Any connection....??

JWS
 
Sometimes you just 'grow out of' migraine. ;)

Some people 'grow into' it, suffer for however many years, and then it seems to wear off. So I dunno if the smoking helped, but time might have done.
 
escargot1 said:
Sometimes you just 'grow out of' migraine. ;)

Some people 'grow into' it, suffer for however many years, and then it seems to wear off. ...
Click to expand...

Circa 1972 or 1973 I had a university clinic physician attending me for my migraines (1 or 2 weekly; first symptom 'blind spots' leading to an odd blindness on one side ....). He claimed that the onset for women could come at any time in life, with the condition tending to persist, whereas for men it most often began in the 'teens or early twenties and commonly faded away by the time the (male) sufferer reached age 30. I don't know if he was correct or not, but the course of my own affliction followed that very pattern. The attacks became decreasingly frequent and were just a painful memory by around age 30.
 
Yup, I am female and started having attacks at 30. They continued for 10 years, then became less frequent over a few more years until now I can't remember when I last had one.

If I do feel 'migrainy', which is rare now, I take an over-the-counter migraine drug like Migraleve, which didn't help years ago but seems to work now.

It may be that the migraine has cleared up and the tablets don't do anything, of course. ;)
But I'm taking no chances.
 
Time for a nonmigraine-related visual disturbance.

The background condition. I am extremely nearsighted, especially in my left eye. If I don't wear glasses, I can see colors and that's it for normal distances, though I can read if I hold the print within three inches of one eye and shut the other. Even with glasses, I see halos around light sources. I have only been driving a car for two years, and I don't do it very often. (Boring and stressful at the same time - does it get any worse?)

Last year, my husband and I drove down to the Gulf Coast for birdwatching. I did most of the driving so as to get experience. Driving out and back on the coastal plain, I kept seeing sheet lightning flicker to the right, but the sky was clear, I never heard any thunder, and it wasn't nearly hot enough for heat lightning. When I asked my husband about it, he could not see it. This only happened at highway speeds and only when I was driving, not when he drove and not driving from birding spot to birding spot. I decided it was an optical illusion.

Between last summer and last week I haven't seen the lightning, so when I went to the optometrist for my checkup I forgot to ask about this effect. Thursday (before my new glasses came; however, my right eye prescription did not change, so I presume it wouldn't have made a difference) I had to drive down to Houston, which is also on the Gulf Coastal Plain. It was overcast and we kept driving in and out of rain, so at first I thought the sheet lightning effect of to the right was real, but my companion couldn't see it and sure enough, as soon as we got into Houston I couldn't either.

So - any ideas? Nobody else I know gets it, which makes me think it must be related to my eyesight problems, but I can't convey to you how weird it is for my right eye to be the culprit and not my troublesome left; and I'm puzzled as to why it only starts up once I get down off the Balcones Escarpment onto the coastal plain - and I mean right down onto it; I've driven to my sister's on the highway through prairie that's plenty flat for most purposes and never gotten the sheet lightning. I tend to drive right at the speed limit or a little lower (65-70 mph most places) and stick to the right lane (US rule is slower traffic keeps to the right; remember that the driver's side is on the left here), so any physical objects contributing to the lightning effect would have to be stationary, not other vehicles. Tall objects you pass on Texas highways are trees, utility poles, oil derricks, and cell towers, none of which I am likely to notice much when driving.

I don't know whether it would happen at night because I haven't done any prolonged night driving yet.
 
Migraines

I've been a sufferer for thirty years with visual disturbances, debilitating pain etc etc. On of the things I find interesting is the effect they have on my state of consciousness. It sometimes feels to me as if I am still asleep, even though I am awake. In this state I suddenly find that I remember dreams that I know I had years ago and that I can play through quite extensive bits of them rather than just odd snatches as you normally can. I also find that it feels like I have woken up at the wrong place in some kind of sleep cycle, and that nothng can fix it, except going back to sleep, which seems to feel liike resetting something. It often works with even just half an hour's sleep, which if it was tiredness would be unlikely. I'm aware of the cycles of REM and nonREM sleep and sometime wonder if there is something going on with that.

One of my big triggers is seeing a bright light from a darker place - so sitting in a dimly lit room with a window to a bright summer day outside (we often have the lights in in our house - to even up the light levels!) or watching TV or working on a computer in a darkened room - I always have lights on around the room when I'm doing this.
 
I have suffered from focal migraine for 10 years now. I experience the "blind spot" thing which starts much like the after effects of staring at a lightbulb. I then find that if I look directly at an object, for example a glass, I cannot see it at all but am aware of things around it if that make sense. I have learned to live with it and find that if I pop a Nurofen Plus as soon as the visual effects start, it NEVER develops any further.

I am really interested in this though
mostly in the form of spider-like things running up walls, along the floor, etc.
Click to expand...
Jerry B, I have suffered that all my life. Is it connected to the migraine? I've never linked them before.
 
My dearest Mods,

I believe we already have a thread on this subject in 'It happened to me'

Yours sincerely
Witchflame ;)
 
Hmm. Yeah I get those shimmery, jagged, rainbow things too. And flashes. It's like when you turn on an old fluorescent light and it takes a while to connect properly. In fact, flashing fluorescent light cause my migarines. As does heat and too much light. Luckily, like Minda, I don't get the headache part, I just get really REALLY dizzy and sick.
 
this has been a really interesting thread. I have suffered from migraine since the age of about 8. During my younger years i was totally incapacitated for at least a couple of days by excruciatingly painful headaches and vomiting, always preceded by what is known as "fortification strata" i.e. flashing zig zag lines across one half of my vision. for you sufferers a bit of hope, the attacks get much less severe as you get older. I'm 50 now and I get zig zags for 30-40 miutes followed by a reasonably mild headache. UNLESS YOU'RE A MIDDLE AGED WOMAN, when hormonal stuff can mean a late life onset (sorry ladies).

Things that get on my wick, people who say stuff like "oh my god now you've given me a migraine". No i haven't you've got a headache, bosses, particularly when i was younger who always assumed I was hung over.
 
I mentioned this on another thread recently, but this is a better place for it.

I've never had full-blown migraines, thank God, but I've had optic migraines. Ever since I've been on Trileptal (an anti-seizure/convulsant medicine prescribed as a mood stabilizer for me, I'm bipolar) I don't really get them anymore. The most I have now is a little streak or blob that appears for a while but fades quickly if I close my eyes and cover them with my hand (making it totally dark). Like SFegredo says, a bright light in an otherwise dim room can bring them on.

Anyway, they used to be the stereotypical jagged line that expands (almost always in my right eye only) and fills in with a blind spot. Mine would last exactly one half hour, then shrink quickly. I'd usually be left feeling a little woozy or tired, but that was all - no other migraine symptoms. In my left eye, I'd sometimes get a bright streak of light, but never the blind spot.

The incident I related on another thread was different, though. I've always chalked it up to an optic migraine, but maybe it wasn't.

I woke up one morning, and my body clearly wasn't ready to wake up. It was bright outside, and the light was filtering through my curtains (which let a lot of the light in). I sat up and looked around the room, and my entire field of vision was divided into little circular or octagonal mosaic bits - and each was individually spinning! I've heard of people seeing the room go upside down momentarily. It was like that, but not all in one piece, and the pieces were spinning at a fairly high speed. I wasn't on anything, except maybe I'd had some Benadryl the night before (which could account for grogginess, although I take it frequently). Recently I woke up with a similar feeling (including dizziness) but not the whole visual phenomenon.

Anyone ever experience anything like that? Does that sound like an aura/optic migraine? It's the only time it ever happened. I simply went back to sleep and woke up later feeling refreshed.
 
I have gone through this thread with interest as I have had extreme visual disturbances following a bad fall, (and no I did not land on my head!!)

Two years ago I fell down some steps bad enough to stun me for a few (I think) seconds. I went to A&E to get patched up but was totally unprepared for the distressing visual effects that followed. The whole of my vision was taken up by what looked like slowly revolving clear crystal shards which distorted everything rather like some Picasso pictures. This would go on for a couple of hours or more gradually fading and getting smaller. I could still "see" the kalidoscopic effect with my eyes closed.

The doctors told me it was migraine and that it would go, I got no medication for it. After about 9 months the problem ceased with the attacks becoming less frequent and less strong as time went by. It must be horrendous to have this problem without hope of it going for good except for medication.

Reading about other peoples experiences make me realise how lucky I have been.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top