Anxious about how much my migraines have changed

So I know that migraines can change over your lifetime but mine have changed so drastically in the past little while it’s really making me anxious / scared.

The MAV / dizziness is one thing. I’ve been dizzy for 4 months now and it’s been long enough that I can tell myself “it’s just dizziness”, though even that still makes me anxious somedays. But now the migraine headaches are feeling drastically different as well and it’s getting pretty scary.

Yesterday I woke up with a full blown migraine and the headache was more severe than usual. I took Advil and the headache lasted into the afternoon until It went away. Then the headache came back only a few hours later and got very intense and lasted all through the night. Took more Advil but barely slept at all last night because of it.

Today the pain is gone but the dizziness is awful (I only had mild dizziness during the pain all day yesterday). I just took 0.5mg lorazepam as that usually reduces the dizziness a bit and helps ease my anxiety over being dizzy so I’m praying it kicks in soon.

This migraine has not been “normal” for me, but is it normal to have migraine pain that lasts over 24 hours? Should I be concerned that my migraines have become so much worse? Or is this just the nature of the beast?

Hello.

First off I should say that I am not a doctor. I am a person who has migraines & the whole MAV thing.

The second thing to say is that if your migraine is not your usual or is the worst headache you’ve ever had then you should go to the ER and get checked out. Headaches do change - that’s pretty normal. But, you need to know that those changes are okay for you.

The migraine you described is one that I’ve had a lot of times. You wake up with it, take some meds and they help a bit but the pain returns in a few hours and is worse and lasts longer. The meds taken may not have been strong enough to stop the migraine entirely - the Advil eased it off a bit but when the Advil wore off the pain returned & worsened.

I’ve had headaches just like that. I’ve had headaches that lasted 3 days - those are usually related to a large change in barometric pressure with a storm front approaching across the Great Plains. It can take several days for a large, slow-moving storm to reach my state and the headache lasts until the rain or snow arrive and begin to fall.

If you take over-the-counter painkillers more than twice a week that will train your brain to increase it’s pain level. (I’m sorry, I know how to describe this better than I’m doing. The book Heal Your Headache explains it well. So does the book The Pain Chronicles.)

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Stress will always make things worse - the pain, the overall worry. It can be very helpful to see your neurologist or whatever doctor you see for your headaches to let them know you had one that was different and be reassured that all is okay.

My best - Molly

Molly is right, this sounds like the rebound effect which is something migraine specialists and books all talk about. It seems that to get migraines under control you have to stop all painkillers and take a preventative med only. Otherwise you keep the cycle going and the headaches get worse. The Heal your Headache book explains it well and a neuro would also be able to help with this I think x

Thank you both :slight_smile:

It’s definitely just migraines. And I think a lot of it is to do with the really wacky weather changes that have been happening in Alberta this year.

I also definitely need to stop pain killers all together.