Yeah, I used to get bad migraines. Turns out something in soda was my trigger. Sometimes it's not until the day after you eat something, as it leaves your system, or whatever
Anyway, I stopped drinking soda and the migraines stopped.
Migraines suck and i feel for you. This is not personal experience but a friend suffered from them quite badly and this helped him.
Try cutting back on everything... processed food, to much time in-front of a screen, poor posture, caffeine ect for about a month or so see if that helps. If so you know its more of a lifestyle choice rather than a medical symptom. De-stressing is also important. If your stressed or tense a lot you have to make an effort to de-stress and relax. Relaxation is like exercising a muscle if you don't practice its hard work .
Let us know how you get on. Hopefully you don't need to got he drug rout.
If you haven't done so already, get your retina examined. Flashes and weird stuff going on in your vision could be a sign for an upcoming retina detachment. Just make sure that it's certainly not anything to do with that, because retina detachment surgery ain't fun.
I used to get those all the time as a kid/teen, lasted 3-4 days at a time. Doctors had no idea what triggered them and no idea how to stop them - most painkillers had little effect (later I found ibuprofen manages to dull it a little where aspirin and paracetamol failed, but I didn't have access to that as a kid).
Same deal as you - unable to focus, intense pains around my eyes which get worse with exposure to bright lights and crippling headaches.
Thankfully I've mostly grown out of them but if I get a headache for whatever reason, there's a good chance it'll develop into a migrane. So I do all I can to ensure I don't get headaches - drink lots of water to stop dehydration, try and stay well rested and relaxed, try and avoid hangovers, try not to stare at screens for prolonged periods, drink less high-caffiene coffee/pop, etc...
Check out f.lux if you're working at your PC all day. It's really helpful for eye strain (obviously, it sucks if you're texturing, but for general modelling it's fine) I've found it helps a lot. Just be sure and set it to slow fade :P
I suffered from migraines pretty bad a long time ago man, but by the sounds of it not this bad.
Whats your water intake like ?
I wasnt drinking any water back then, as it happened passing on the soda's and drinking plain old water was all that i needed to kill the migraines. I've since been able to add coffee / tea's back into daily consumption as long as i keep up the water. Like a fool I tested my theory, stopped drinking water and went back to soda's & coffee.. boom came back in a couple days :S
I've rarely ever gotten head aches in my life so I'm not of much help but I'd like to support / emphasize how awesome water is (though your problem sounds severe). Just keep a ridiculously large water bottle with you at all times! Only draw back is sometimes the amount of times I get up and piss can be really distracting.
Also water really helps you keep a clear mind which I guess acts as a replacement for caffeine at times! And it keeps your skin silky clean for all the lucky ladies and grand mamas .
I get super tame opthalmic migraines - I only get the visual aura and not the headache(which I am profoundly grateful for) but it leaves me with really blurry vision and a muzzy head for about half an hour at a time. I used to only get them once a year or so since puberty but the past few years I started getting loads, which I put down to a combination of stress(this is a huge factor!) and my oestrogen levels being affected by my BC pill.
Probably not relevant to most of you, but for women who get migraines - make sure you're not using a form of combined hormonal BC that contains an oestrogen synthetic because that exacerbates migraines and can lead to an increased risk of stroke! Progesterone-only pills and IUDs are safe though(as well as non-hormonal methods, obvs) - I haven't had a migraine since I changed my pill.
I've also had migraines since I was a kid - interestingly, when I used to get them in primary school, they'd get more and more painful and my stomach would become more and more unsettled until I'd throw up - at which point the migraine would go away. So I'd be puking up my guts then perfectly fine right after. As I got older the needing to throw up thing went away, which is sort of a shame since it was a surefire way to end it. Can't say I've tried forcing myself to throw up when I have a headache, might be worth trying although I'm highly skeptical that would work.
Never had any optical nonsense going on, although my mother has - maybe like you I will start experiencing that eventually?
Hey man, a lot of cool cats in this thread are relating similar stories, BUT, I actually have/had this exact same kind (Ocular migraines!) Your description of the symptoms are spot on so let me relate my findings (if you don't mind.)
As soon as I start to get the blur spot in my vision, I take some tylenol. It can be any pain reliever you want, just make sure it doesn't have caffeine. While caffeine is good to relieve headaches, it will ruin the next step After that, you can preemptively go take a nap, or wait until the headache pain hits, then take your nap--usually for an hour or 2. This is to avoid the most intense pain. I'm able to sleep through this part now. If you have to stay awake/can't nap, there are a couple things. I found it very helpful to run water (as cold as possible) directly on my eyes. Yes the bare eyeball. Also, close your eyes...rest them as much as possible. If you can't run water on your eyes, get a wet cloth as cold as possible and put that on your eyelids and the surrounding area while you close your eyes.
Literally that's it, then let it pass--and pray you don't cough or sneeze (they bring such intense pain!)
Also, I worked with a dude who took a prescription medicine for the headache part and the pills would make him vomit so, there's that.
Sorry this response is long but 1 final point/observation! I used to get them much more frequently when I was young and wore glasses. Now I wear contacts and it doesn't happen nearly as often. Also I think being really close to something while drawing/working (less than 10 or 12 inches) and focusing very hard below that distance seemed to be a trigger.
I cannot imagine a worse nightmare than feeling like the inside of my head is exploding repeatedly. Hope you get it sorted. If only the one known diffuser of migraines was something other than LSD eh? :P
I get these as well, it's a real pisser. I can be working fine most of the day and then I get the little spot in my vision. It's like i can see the migraine getting closer to me. My headaches afterwards aren't especially painful though, but they can last for 2 or more days. Luckily this only happens a couple times a year, usually on a Friday afternoon just in time to mess up my weekend. I haven't actually found anything that fixes it, aside from having a nap in a dark room but that usually isn't an option.
I've found that I get migraines from MSG in food. That stuff is really hard to avoid.
I had a somewhat similar problem with one of my eyes about year and a half ago. Partial to full blindness (wasn't electric arcs more like fog -> fade to black) followed by extreme pain. At first I thought I was having a stroke or something because it just suddenly happened one day without warning.
Similar story of multiple doctors not being able to figure it out. I then went to an opthamologist who diagnosed me right away. Turns out I had acute angle-closure glaucoma. A few laser eye surgeries later and I was all good
If you haven't already seen a good opthamologist, I suggest you do so.
I've never been plagued by migraines myself - although last year i went through a roughly two month period where i would get something along these lines - a massive exploding headache and partial blindness - at a very...unfortunate time. they would only last about 5 to 10 minutes, usually, but a doctor told me it was likely stress/blood pressure related. they gave me some horrible anti-anxiety medication that i stopped taking after two days because it turned me into a raging ass hole.
then they inexplicably stopped happening as suddenly as they started. Weird stuff. i think my brain is broken.
Ive been having these for about 15 years now. Chocolate is the cause of mine. If i eat any, it's guaranteed Ill loose my vision and have a migraine the next day. It's taken almost twelve of those years to find the relation, but ever since Ive been migraine free. Once in a while Ill eat some, but always regret it. I can usually tell these are coming on when words start disappearing off of pages... it really freaky when your not expecting it:) Hope you find the cause, they are terribly painful
Lattice degeneration and Retina detachment - it was mentioned already in the tread. The "electric arcs" you see can be the "lattice" type structure that forms as a result. Fluid gets in behind and starts peeling the retina off the back of the eye.
Sounds harsh, but can be treated. My wife had it, it took a couple rounds of laser treatment to repair.
Most regular eye exams do not detect this issue. You need to specifically ask to get this checked.
Lattice degeneration and Retina detachment - it was mentioned already in the tread. The "electric arcs" you see can be the "lattice" type structure that forms as a result. Fluid gets in behind and starts peeling the retina off the back of the eye.
Sounds harsh, but can be treated. My wife had it, it took a couple rounds of laser treatment to repair.
Most regular eye exams do not detect this issue. You need to specifically ask to get this checked.
Your wife was lucky. Usually they do laser only when the detachment hasn't really started - i.e. they just seal the breaks in the retina before it fully detaches. When it detaches you can lose vision very quickly - you notice this when there's milky blurry spots in your vision that won't go away. The flashes are basically a warning that worse is to come.
Once the retina detaches you will get a blind/milky spot that is not going away or even growing unless you have surgery or go blind. This can happen in just a few days. There's no lasering for this. The longer you wait the worse it gets and the smaller the chance the surgery will restore full vision. Even in the best case the affected parts of the retina won't be as good as before.
I have headaches too and I had flashes, like every few months or so, but I never really had my retina examined until it was too late. I thought it was stress or headache related. Fortunately I had very good doctors available at a university hospital and got it treated asap. Vision is pretty good now on the affected eye, but still a bit worse than before.
If you have flashes, better be sure and have your retina examined. It's not painful and a fairly quick procedure and can save you a lot of grief and pain.
I get that but without the migraine part usually ill need to close my eyes/take a shower until i goes away very annoying but it doesn't happen too often for me to warrant a trip to the doctors :P
Yup, getting these from time to time, but didn't in a while ( fingers crossed ).
I usually get 3 distinct stages - Auras first ( also taste and light irritability ), then Headache, then some vomiting.
Worst stage for me is the Auras though, i'd much prefer my migraines without that, but i guess its a good "heads up" to get prepared for the other stages This page has some fairly good renditions of them, makes me uncomfortable even looking at these, heh.
So far i haven't found a good way to stop it either, had some minor successes with getting some fresh air, chewing parsley, neck-stretching and round-house kicking motherfuckers in the face, but it doesn't always help.
I have a lot of experience with this. Only over the past few years have they subsided in frequency, prior to that and especially when I was in school I'd get them once week or more. They'd last anywhere from a couple hours to a couple days, and they always started with that weird geometric/electric visual disturbance (that was a great description by the way I've always had a hard time with that), which was a clear "oh shit" sign that I was in for a world of hurt. Went to doctors, tried a variety of pills and nothing worked. Not even remotely. First they tried various pain medications for when they started and while they seemed to lessen the intensity of the pain, they made my forehead feel like it was burning, like the skin was tightening up or had gotten sunburn, I hated it. Then they tried some every day preventative stuff which didn't really seem to do a whole lot, tried it for a few months to no avail.
I have since discovered a variety of direct triggers, and have had some overall life changes that I can only assume have helped in addition. The fluorescent lightbulbs they used in school seemed to be the main thing - I usually didn't wind up having them start at home, but I did wind up having the same thing when I was working as a custodian for a high school in a different state - I'd get them anytime I had to change a lightbulb within minutes.
Additionally - tea. I cannot drink tea, the smell of hot tea fucks me up worse than almost anything else. Couple years ago, trying to be healthier my wife was like "Try some tea", so I bought a variety of tea bags to try and holy mother of god, I didn't even get to drink it the aroma from the teabags caused the most painful, long lasting migraine I've ever had. Course I had to try it again to be sure, so the next week was the same thing. My wife drinks tea, but only cold and she doesn't make it near me.
For the past three or four years I've pretty much stopped consumption of caffeine, I drink coffee but it's decaf. I'm also a vegetarian so there's that. When I was younger soda was my life water, I can only assume making some of these changes has helped a lot - but I still can't make hot tea or reside in certain lights for extended periods of time. Now I get them maybe three or four times a year, which in comparison to once a week is fine with me.
As an aside, you guys are making me want to get my retina's checked.
Hey, I currently suffer from Ophthalmic Migraines alot, my vision goes crappy for like half an hour, then i'll have a bad headache for an hour or so, I just try and fall asleep in the 30 minutes of bad vision to try and make the headache less painful tbh. I found the more water I drink the less frequent I get them.
The last one I had was a week ago, but before that I went 3 months without one, I keep trying to find a pattern but I can't, they just seem really random.
Drinking a lot of water and not getting too hot could help to fight the frequency of them but who knows, I'll be keeping an eye on this thread cause they can be a real pain when I'm trying to do some work
I used to have them when I was in college and just resorted to moving away from the computer and walking around for a bit or just closing my eyes for like 10 mins seemed to help. Thats what I tend to do at work, just get up 30 mins or so and walk about.
It seems that eye strain is what causes mine. At least from what I figured out. I've gotten migraines in my sleep before so there has to be some kind of other trigger. I do know though when I was a game tester, I had to play on a NTSC to PAL conversion so the games were really blurry. I suffered from daily migraines when that was going on. Sunny days seems to be a cause too cause the office I work in is pretty dark so with that strong natural sunlight contrasting everything my eyes strain a lot more.
My mom and uncle used to get really bad migraines, I remember several occasions where they were down for the count for hours at a time. They both had other health problems to go along with them but they both ended up eliminating gluten from their diet, and within a month it all went away, it was pretty insane. Have you gotten tested for any other sort of allergies? It might not explain the issues with your vision, but from what I've surmised the causes of migraines are wildly varied, so you never know. Hopefully you get this figured out, I know the pain it caused them, best of luck man.
Not that this is the reason but a possibility of your body telling you, you need a nutrient that you aren't getting in your diet. I echo the water intake, I usually sit with a gallon right next to me so I can keep refilling my cup, working fine so far up to 1 gallon and a half a day now.
My ex got shot in the eye with an arrow as a girl and has these episodes to this day. Something you could try is to have sex after the vision bit and before the migraine sets it. Worked for her.
It seems that eye strain is what causes mine. At least from what I figured out.
This too. Bright light (flashing light in particular) or loud noise seem to give me headaches, although its hard to be 100% certain about these things. Generally when I wake up I try to take it easy by not playing intense videogames like shooters and not listening to music (or only listening to softer tracks), but again it's hard to tell how much this really matters - it's not like any loud noise or flashing lights will 100% give me a migraine (I can go to gigs and be fine), but these things early after waking up seem to increase the chance of having one later that day. Might just be a superstition I've created for myself over the years though.. Sort of sucks that my main triggers involve some of my favourite things though, heavy metal and videogames.
As far as I know I have no caffeine intake, not sure about MSG (probably very little, can't say I've ever linked having mi goreng and headaches after). Giving eyes a break (focusing on something distant for a while) also seems to help prevent a headache if I feel one coming on, early prevention usually involves taking ibuprofen or some other painkiller (codeine or paracetamol or whatever), drinking water and lying down for awhile.
Actually, Caffeine helps get RID of head aches. But, here's the kicker... You have to be hydrated enough, otherwise it makes it worse. Go figure.
I actually get migraines from the weather. Severe change in weather, the pressure in the atmosphere, triggers them. I can usually tell if its going to rain tomorrow, or if its going to be sunny if it has been really shitty the past few days, based purely on my head. It's pretty shitty.
For those types, Ive noticed that when I drop weight, they go away. So I dunno if you`re over weight or not, but if so, reducing that could help a little.
Also try pinching the muscle between your thumb and index finger when you have it. make sure you grab the muscle, and not just skin, and squeeze as hard as you can bear. It surprizingly works, if only for a short period of time.
gotta try this with the thumb...maybe it works? Because I have the weather thing going on too. And in general noise and bad air quality in the office don't help - I hope the guy who invented open floor plans is already dead because whenever I get a headache I feel like I want to kill that guy.
This too. Bright light (flashing light in particular) or loud noise seem to give me headaches, although its hard to be 100% certain about these things. Generally when I wake up I try to take it easy by not playing intense videogames like shooters and not listening to music (or only listening to softer tracks), but again it's hard to tell how much this really matters - it's not like any loud noise or flashing lights will 100% give me a migraine (I can go to gigs and be fine), but these things early after waking up seem to increase the chance of having one later that day. Might just be a superstition I've created for myself over the years though.. Sort of sucks that my main triggers involve some of my favourite things though, heavy metal and videogames.
Could well be flashing lights that've triggered mine in the past - or caused eye strain which has triggered them.
With 50-60Hz CRT monitors (not so much TVs) and some fluorescent lighting that runs at the same frequency, I can see them flicker. Used to do my head in. But now CRTs have largely been phased out, perhaps that could be a big impact on why I don't get migranes as often.
Seems that my last migraine messed up my vision really good. Or I got messed up vision somehow and got migraines as a result. Anyway, something happened and it is now really hard for me to focus. I'm going to see an optometrist about this cause this is really annoying.
Well I saw the eye doctor. He said my eyes were in great shape and I have 20/15 vision. The only issue that came up is that my ducts aren't producing any oil. Does that mean I literally can't cry? I don't know. But I get to take lots of eye droppers over the next week to see what happens.
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Anyway, I stopped drinking soda and the migraines stopped.
Migraines suck and i feel for you. This is not personal experience but a friend suffered from them quite badly and this helped him.
Try cutting back on everything... processed food, to much time in-front of a screen, poor posture, caffeine ect for about a month or so see if that helps. If so you know its more of a lifestyle choice rather than a medical symptom. De-stressing is also important. If your stressed or tense a lot you have to make an effort to de-stress and relax. Relaxation is like exercising a muscle if you don't practice its hard work
Let us know how you get on. Hopefully you don't need to got he drug rout.
Same deal as you - unable to focus, intense pains around my eyes which get worse with exposure to bright lights and crippling headaches.
Thankfully I've mostly grown out of them but if I get a headache for whatever reason, there's a good chance it'll develop into a migrane. So I do all I can to ensure I don't get headaches - drink lots of water to stop dehydration, try and stay well rested and relaxed, try and avoid hangovers, try not to stare at screens for prolonged periods, drink less high-caffiene coffee/pop, etc...
Check out f.lux if you're working at your PC all day. It's really helpful for eye strain (obviously, it sucks if you're texturing, but for general modelling it's fine) I've found it helps a lot. Just be sure and set it to slow fade :P
Whats your water intake like ?
I wasnt drinking any water back then, as it happened passing on the soda's and drinking plain old water was all that i needed to kill the migraines. I've since been able to add coffee / tea's back into daily consumption as long as i keep up the water. Like a fool I tested my theory, stopped drinking water and went back to soda's & coffee.. boom came back in a couple days :S
Also water really helps you keep a clear mind which I guess acts as a replacement for caffeine at times! And it keeps your skin silky clean for all the lucky ladies and grand mamas
Probably not relevant to most of you, but for women who get migraines - make sure you're not using a form of combined hormonal BC that contains an oestrogen synthetic because that exacerbates migraines and can lead to an increased risk of stroke! Progesterone-only pills and IUDs are safe though(as well as non-hormonal methods, obvs) - I haven't had a migraine since I changed my pill.
Never had any optical nonsense going on, although my mother has - maybe like you I will start experiencing that eventually?
As soon as I start to get the blur spot in my vision, I take some tylenol. It can be any pain reliever you want, just make sure it doesn't have caffeine. While caffeine is good to relieve headaches, it will ruin the next step
Literally that's it, then let it pass--and pray you don't cough or sneeze (they bring such intense pain!)
Also, I worked with a dude who took a prescription medicine for the headache part and the pills would make him vomit so, there's that.
Sorry this response is long but 1 final point/observation! I used to get them much more frequently when I was young and wore glasses. Now I wear contacts and it doesn't happen nearly as often. Also I think being really close to something while drawing/working (less than 10 or 12 inches) and focusing very hard below that distance seemed to be a trigger.
Hope it helps!
try decaf coffee , surprisingly it has less caffeine than tea or chocolate ... ,
if comfort and placebo all you need .
I get them once or twice a year, totally randomly. I take two advil and two tylenol immediately when it starts. It reduces the headache a huge amount.
I had a somewhat similar problem with one of my eyes about year and a half ago. Partial to full blindness (wasn't electric arcs more like fog -> fade to black) followed by extreme pain. At first I thought I was having a stroke or something because it just suddenly happened one day without warning.
Similar story of multiple doctors not being able to figure it out. I then went to an opthamologist who diagnosed me right away. Turns out I had acute angle-closure glaucoma. A few laser eye surgeries later and I was all good
If you haven't already seen a good opthamologist, I suggest you do so.
Hopefully it's just food, good luck!
then they inexplicably stopped happening as suddenly as they started. Weird stuff. i think my brain is broken.
Sounds harsh, but can be treated. My wife had it, it took a couple rounds of laser treatment to repair.
Most regular eye exams do not detect this issue. You need to specifically ask to get this checked.
Your wife was lucky. Usually they do laser only when the detachment hasn't really started - i.e. they just seal the breaks in the retina before it fully detaches. When it detaches you can lose vision very quickly - you notice this when there's milky blurry spots in your vision that won't go away. The flashes are basically a warning that worse is to come.
Once the retina detaches you will get a blind/milky spot that is not going away or even growing unless you have surgery or go blind. This can happen in just a few days. There's no lasering for this. The longer you wait the worse it gets and the smaller the chance the surgery will restore full vision. Even in the best case the affected parts of the retina won't be as good as before.
I have headaches too and I had flashes, like every few months or so, but I never really had my retina examined until it was too late. I thought it was stress or headache related. Fortunately I had very good doctors available at a university hospital and got it treated asap. Vision is pretty good now on the affected eye, but still a bit worse than before.
If you have flashes, better be sure and have your retina examined. It's not painful and a fairly quick procedure and can save you a lot of grief and pain.
I usually get 3 distinct stages - Auras first ( also taste and light irritability ), then Headache, then some vomiting.
Worst stage for me is the Auras though, i'd much prefer my migraines without that, but i guess its a good "heads up" to get prepared for the other stages
This page has some fairly good renditions of them, makes me uncomfortable even looking at these, heh.
So far i haven't found a good way to stop it either, had some minor successes with getting some fresh air, chewing parsley, neck-stretching and round-house kicking motherfuckers in the face, but it doesn't always help.
I have since discovered a variety of direct triggers, and have had some overall life changes that I can only assume have helped in addition. The fluorescent lightbulbs they used in school seemed to be the main thing - I usually didn't wind up having them start at home, but I did wind up having the same thing when I was working as a custodian for a high school in a different state - I'd get them anytime I had to change a lightbulb within minutes.
Additionally - tea. I cannot drink tea, the smell of hot tea fucks me up worse than almost anything else. Couple years ago, trying to be healthier my wife was like "Try some tea", so I bought a variety of tea bags to try and holy mother of god, I didn't even get to drink it the aroma from the teabags caused the most painful, long lasting migraine I've ever had. Course I had to try it again to be sure, so the next week was the same thing. My wife drinks tea, but only cold and she doesn't make it near me.
For the past three or four years I've pretty much stopped consumption of caffeine, I drink coffee but it's decaf. I'm also a vegetarian so there's that. When I was younger soda was my life water, I can only assume making some of these changes has helped a lot - but I still can't make hot tea or reside in certain lights for extended periods of time. Now I get them maybe three or four times a year, which in comparison to once a week is fine with me.
As an aside, you guys are making me want to get my retina's checked.
The last one I had was a week ago, but before that I went 3 months without one, I keep trying to find a pattern but I can't, they just seem really random.
Drinking a lot of water and not getting too hot could help to fight the frequency of them but who knows, I'll be keeping an eye on this thread cause they can be a real pain when I'm trying to do some work
Hopefully we can find a solution!
^lol at comments above.
Somewhat beaten to the punch by quid
This too. Bright light (flashing light in particular) or loud noise seem to give me headaches, although its hard to be 100% certain about these things. Generally when I wake up I try to take it easy by not playing intense videogames like shooters and not listening to music (or only listening to softer tracks), but again it's hard to tell how much this really matters - it's not like any loud noise or flashing lights will 100% give me a migraine (I can go to gigs and be fine), but these things early after waking up seem to increase the chance of having one later that day. Might just be a superstition I've created for myself over the years though.. Sort of sucks that my main triggers involve some of my favourite things though, heavy metal and videogames.
As far as I know I have no caffeine intake, not sure about MSG (probably very little, can't say I've ever linked having mi goreng and headaches after). Giving eyes a break (focusing on something distant for a while) also seems to help prevent a headache if I feel one coming on, early prevention usually involves taking ibuprofen or some other painkiller (codeine or paracetamol or whatever), drinking water and lying down for awhile.
I actually get migraines from the weather. Severe change in weather, the pressure in the atmosphere, triggers them. I can usually tell if its going to rain tomorrow, or if its going to be sunny if it has been really shitty the past few days, based purely on my head. It's pretty shitty.
For those types, Ive noticed that when I drop weight, they go away. So I dunno if you`re over weight or not, but if so, reducing that could help a little.
Also try pinching the muscle between your thumb and index finger when you have it. make sure you grab the muscle, and not just skin, and squeeze as hard as you can bear. It surprizingly works, if only for a short period of time.
Besides that... water, water and more water.
With 50-60Hz CRT monitors (not so much TVs) and some fluorescent lighting that runs at the same frequency, I can see them flicker. Used to do my head in. But now CRTs have largely been phased out, perhaps that could be a big impact on why I don't get migranes as often.
Bow chicka wow wow
Go bust some nuts TeriyakiStyle.
LOL that's true. Sorry for not being helpful. Hope you can figure something out.
Surely someone would be willing to kick you in the nuts to check? :poly124: