Top Tips For Dealing With Migraines

Top Tips For Dealing With Migraines

I’ve lived with migraines for 22 years now, and I remember my first migraine vividly. Migraines aren’t just an intense headache, they truly effect your whole body, and they’re absolutely awful. Migraines can’t be relieved by a paracetamol like a conventional headache, but there’s a few ‘rituals’ I have to try and help myself whenever a migraine hits, or things I do to try and keep my migraines at bay so I wanted to share some top tips for dealing with migraines.

What is a migraine?

According to the NHS, they describe a migraine as the following;

“A migraine is usually a moderate or severe headache felt as a throbbing pain on 1 side of the head. Many people also have symptoms such as feeling sick, being sick and increased sensitivity to light or sound.“

Whenever I get a migraine, I can’t even move without needing to vomit and even moving your head is unbearable. I’ve tried a few different medications over the years, and so far I’ve found Sumatriptan to be the most effective, but as it’s a prescribed medication, I don’t like to take it too frequently, so I like to do the following things to help keep my migraines at bay.

One of my biggest triggers is due to posture. I have awful posture and carry a lot of tension in my neck and shoulders, so I really recommend a pressure relieving pillow. If I use an orthopaedic pillow, it really helps to relieve pressure on my neck and spine, and I’m currently eyeing up one of the Millercare Mobility Specialists Memory Foam Pillows. It looks like it would be ideal for both support, and helping to alleviate pressure build up.

Whenever I feel a migraine beginning to surface, I swear by using a frozen gel pack on the base of my neck. It feels extremely cold and uncomfortable at first, but it does sometimes manage to stop a migraine from fully forming and taking hold. I know some people find that hot therapies work better for them, but for me it’s cold that’s the most effective. Even if I just have a headache, I like to use an Ice Towel wrung out and around my neck, and it has such a nice soothing effect.

My next tips is a little random but it’s something I’ve found to be really helpful, and it’s citrus flavoured sparkling water. I don’t know why it works so well, but it’s the only drink I can drink without being sick when I have a migraine and if it’s super cold, it really helps with the pain and nausea. I now always have a bottle in the fridge, and it’s only about 50p from any supermarket so it’s amazingly affordable too.

The last of my top tips for dealing with migraines was something my neurologist recommended, and it was starting a headache diary. I know it sounds a bit lame, but it has really helped me to notice the triggers and similarities between my headaches, so I could notice a pattern. For example, I now know that chocolate and cheese are triggers, and once you begin to notice patterns, you can modify your diet / life to avoid certain triggers which can be massively beneficial.

I really hope you found these top tips for dealing with migraines helpful.

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