Tell us about your symptoms and treatment experience. Take our survey here.

caret icon Back to all discussions

Dissociation from migraine?

Hi guys!
I am a migraine sufferer since I can remember. It was chronic when I was little, but went down as I aged, and got less frequent and painful.
In December I got my COVID vaccine. Now I dont want to start a debate of whether its good or not, but after 2-3 days of the shot, my migraines went baaaad. My neck is stiff, my back hurts and it became an everyday event that I have a migraine episode. Its mixed between every type, really. And that is not the biggest problem. I started to have derealization and depersonalization. It happened before, I think it can be named as an aura, but never really understood it and never linked it to my migraine, and never really thought about it. For those who are not familiar with these dissociations, its basically getting detached and unsynced from reality and your body. Still functional, but something’s off. If you never experienced it, don’t research it, save yourself haha. Its the worst anyone can have.
Can any of you relate? Been to the neurologist, its probably the aura, but I’m waiting for an MRI, which could take months in my country.
Thanks in advance!

  1. Hi there- thanks so much for reaching out. Sorry to hear you've been experiencing a recent uptick in migraine frequency and in this most troubling symptom. I wonder if you've ever been evaluated for AIWS? If not, take a look at our resources on it and see if it resonates: https://migraine.com/search?s=aiws


    As to the potential correlation between COVID vaccinations and attack frequency uptick, we've had a number of other community members write in about this- you may find their stories of interest: https://migraine.com/search?s=covid%20vaccine


    Thinking of you- Holly, team member.

    1. I logged on this morning and searched the terms memory loss and amnesia. I've been suffering from migraines with and without aura for years. Typically, I'll have visual auras not followed by migraine or migraine without an aura.
      Something new and scary happened on Friday; I lost a few minutes of time. One minute I was in the shower, next thing I knew I was in my closet and couldn't remember the time in between. It's Sunday now and I woke up with a migraine today. My memory seems to be okay, but I have felt disconnected and fuzzy since Friday. This is the first time I've experienced this sensation and I'm pretty scared. I will contact my neurologist, but I don't want to go to the ER because of COVID. Have you also experienced any temporary amnesia with these episodes? Was your neurologist concerned about the depersonalization you experience?

      1. @missmich Amnesia, never really. Similar dissociative feelings, brain fog, but never to this extent. Your type of dissociation is not necessarily DPDR.
        Not really, I dont think he really understood what I meant. Im on the way to gettin treatment to the cause of all this, but the meantime is rather hell, haha. Wish you the best!

        Please read our rules before posting.