diya, Cody Leach My reply went to the wrong person. Sorry about that, Cody. Diya, I am also like you, one whiff and down the rabbit hole. I really hate when cars drive by with those plug-ins and their windows are rolled down. Bam, there we go! Walking my dog has also been a problem thanks to dryer sheets and exhaust. Often I forget my mask and a diesel will get me or a dryer sheet. Also smoke. Since I live in a small town, the farmers surrounding us are in the county and they are burning constantly!
Have you ever had a brain injury or stroke? I'm pretty sure only a migraine specialist will understand this unusual aura.
We are definitely not alone! I have a friend, Teri, whom I met on My Migraine Team with similar problems, but her Achilles heal is cigarettes, vapes and pot smoke. She lost her job as a school teacher because of her issues. The children's clothes and back packs can set her off. Her neighbors smoke pot outside, they and move to the far side of their property, (closer to her property) to hide in the woods. Of course their smoke floats over to her property and attaches of her clothes drying on the line, so she has to wash them again. Her husband went over and told them that her wash day is Tuesday morning, so please, don't smoke on Tuesday. Wait until night time at least. What lengths we must go through to live with migraine!!
There's a theory I heard on Migraine World Summit in 2019... that migraine is actually a spectrum: mild migraines at one end, and severe migraines at the other, but we only recognize the severe ones due to the intense pain. The theory is that what we recognize as a regular headache might actually be a migraine at a low, low level. Using this theory, things we think of as "triggers" actually are not, but rather intense sensitivity to things like perfume because we are ALREADY in a full blown low grade migraine. Therefore, our strong reaction to just a whiff of perfume is actually happening because we're already sensitive due to this low grade migraine. Does that make sense? It really rang a bell for me! Even though my sensitivity started with a brain injury, I still think the theory works. Since research proves the more migraines we have moves us towards episodic, then on the chronic, and then daily, it actually makes sense that being in a constant migraine, even at low levels, would push us faster towards daily.
Don't give up hope. Perhaps like me you, need to wear a mask when in public. I use 3M Aura 9205. (I just caught that it's called Aura. Coincidence or God-cidence?!)
Try to make peace with our condition. Stressing makes it worse. My friend, Teri, says we're special.
![3M mask](/content/images/2024/07/05/d055e0a480a0fcccb2f50d2e7cb0db9f_medium.jpg)