Post stress as cause?
Just wondering if others have experienced or if there is documentation of migraine being a result of severe stress, but only sometime after the worst of the stress is over? The reason I’m askibg is that I’m currently in one of the worst stretches of migraine in 2years, currently on my 6th day straight. And about 1-2 weeks ago, I was going through a MAJOR family stress. It’s still not 100% resolved, but, the main issue is much lessened in severity. It’s still upsetting me, however. I want to be clear that during the worst of it, I wasn’t impaired by migraine like I am now. Thanks for any input.
Hi Naomisdtr18,
Thank you for your question. YES! Emotional stress can trigger a migraine attack for some of us. And many of us will have a migraine attack AFTER stressful periods of time, even if the stress is positive. We have a lot of articles on this you can find here; https://migraine.com/?s=stress&submit=Go.
One school of thought is that it may not be the stress that triggers a migraine attack, rather the things we do or don't do during stressful times. For example, we may not drink enough water, nor keep a regular sleep schedule and/or skip meals. If we're able to avoid our triggers, stay hydrated and keep a regular sleep schedule during stressful time, we may be able to reduce our migraine attacks. I know the things I mentioned can be strong triggers for me and keeping a regular schedule during stressful time is important for me.
You may want to get in touch with your doctor and see if he/she can help break this current migraine cycle you're in. We don't like to see migraine attacks last longer than 72 hours as this can increase our risk of status migrainous and stroke. Take a look at this link for more information;https://migraine.com/blog/what-is-emergency/.
I hope that helps and you are feeling better soon!
Nancy
I suffer with migraines and sickness pretty often. It really gets me down and in turn that makes it worse. Filling up with painkillers becuse the doctors dont take it seriously. Stress is a trigger for me and I get so wound up its obvious its my emotions and stress. I get migraines without stress too. Seems to be a constant cycle no matter what is happening in my life. Not 100% sure what kind of headaches/migraines theu are. All I know is they male me want to cry in desperation. It really does sucks
Hi virgothinks,
Thank you for sharing your story with us. I am sorry you are having a rough time at the moment.
It sounds like its time to see a doctor who will take you seriously. Living with constant pain is debilitating, exhausting, and frustrating. Neurologists may be fine doctors, but have a hard time being experts in one area because they treat so many different conditions such as multiple sclerosis, stroke, epilepsy, Parkinson's and others. A true migraine/headache expert is a doctor (doesn' have to be a neurologist) who is board certified in headache medicine, which is different from being certified in neurology. These articles and links will help explain how these doctor are different and how to find one; http://migraine.com/blog/how-are-migraine-specialists-different/ and https://migraine.com/blog/really-find-headache-specialist/. This link has a list of all the doctor who are board certified in headache medicine in the US;
http://www.ucns.org/globals/axon/assets/12644.pdf.Please let me know if I can do anything else to help~!
NancyOh virtothinks. I forgot to mention stress. Sometimes it may be the things we do or don't do during stressful times that trigger a migraine attack. For example, we may skip meals, have irregular sleep patterns, and/or become dehydrated during a stressful time. And many of us get a migraine attack after stressful times, whether it's good stress or bad; These articles have more on this topic; https://migraine.com/migraine-triggers/emotions-stress/ and https://migraine.com/migraine-types/stress-migraine/.
Now I'm done!!
Nancy
