Watts Migraine?

Migraine is a headache that can cause severe throbbing pain or a pulsing sensation, usually on one side of the head. It’s often accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and extreme sensitivity to light and sound. Migraine attacks can last for hours to days, and the pain is often so bad that it interferes with your ability to function.

For some people (like me), a warning symptom known as an aura occurs before or with the headache. An aura can include visual disturbances, such as flashes of light or blind spots, or other disturbances like tingling on one side of the face or in an arm or leg, and difficulty speaking.

Prodrome
One or two days before a migraine, I often notice subtle changes that warn of an upcoming episode. These include:

  • A feeling of déjà vu or brief memory lapses
  • Becoming increasingly sensitive to smell (usually something no one else can detect)
  • Constipation
  • Food cravings (and being unusually hungry)
  • Frequent yawning
  • Increased urination
  • Mood changes, from depression to euphoria
  • Neck stiffness
  • Restlessness and insomnia

Aura
Aura always starts on one side for me and can sometimes swap to the other. Auras are reversible symptoms of the nervous system. They’re usually visual, but can also include other neurological disturbances. Each symptom tends to begin gradually, build over several minutes, and can last more than and hour in some episodes.
Auras can present in many different ways, and are usually different for every episode. Some examples include:

  • Visual phenomena (shapes, bright spots, or flashes of light)
  • Vision loss
  • Pins and needles sensations in an arm or leg
  • Weakness or numbness in the face or one side of the body
  • Difficulty speaking

Attack
Migraine attacks usually last around 4 hours to several days. In my case, they occur around 15–20 days each month.

During an attack, many sufferers (including me) experience:

  • Pain on one side of the head, but often on both
  • Throbbing or pulsing pain
  • Sensitivity to light, sound, smell, and touch
  • Nausea and vomiting
  • Skin hypersensitivity (allodynia)

Post-drome
Migraine attacks can make you feel feel drained, confused, and washed out for a day or two after. It sometimes feels like a hangover — only without the party.

Sudden movements or bending over can bring the pain rushing back, just in case you happened to forget what you’d been dealing with.

Sometimes the whole process starts again later the same day, only in reverse — aura on the opposite side, followed by pain that stacks on top of the headache that never really left. When this happens, it doesn’t feel like one long migraine. It feels like a new one layered over the top of the last.

⚡ Watts Triggering Migraine Attacks?

Migraine doesn’t always play fair — or predictable. Triggers can vary from one attack to the next, and not every exposure leads to a migraine every time. But over time, patterns emerge. These are the ones I’ve learned to watch for — and avoid when I can.
🍷 Drinks
Red wine and alcohol, even in small amounts, can trigger attacks. Caffeine withdrawal or overuse can also play a role.
🍊 Food Triggers
Citrus fruits (especially orange juice), aged cheeses, salty or processed foods, and skipping meals altogether have all caused problems. Some additives — like aspartame or MSG — are also repeat offenders.
💥 Hormonal Changes
Fluctuations in oestrogen levels — around periods, ovulation, or menopause — can act as a trigger, especially when combined with other factors.
💊 Medications
Oestrogen based oral, vasodilators (like nitro-glycerine), beta blockers and some opiate based pain relief can aggravate migraine attacks.
🏃‍♀️ Physical Exertion
Sudden bursts of activity, overdoing exercise, or even lifting something too heavy can provoke an attack.
😴 Sleep Changes
Missing sleep, oversleeping, or having an inconsistent sleep routine can all push my system into migraine territory.
🌿 Smells & Sensory Triggers
Bright lights, flickering screens, loud sounds, and strong smells (perfume, paint, diesel fumes, etc.) can all set things off — especially when more than one hits at once.
🧠 Stress & Emotion
Emotional stress, tension, and post-stress let-down effect can all act as triggers.
🌫️ Weather & Environment
Changes in barometric pressure, humidity, temperature, or storms have all been linked to migraine days. They’re also the hardest to avoid — thanks, nature.

💥Watts Still Making My Head Ache?

In addition to migraine with aura, I experience a wide range of other headache types — some neurological, some structural, and some triggered by external factors or overlapping conditions. Each comes with its own patterns, pain profiles, and treatment challenges.

Sinus Headache
Typically felt as pressure or pain in the forehead, cheekbones, or around the eyes — often linked to sinus congestion or inflammation.

Mast Cell Flare Headache
Triggered by mast cell activation, this type causes intense head pain often accompanied by flushing, sinus pressure, and systemic allergic symptoms.

Spinal CSF Leak Headache
Caused by a leak of cerebrospinal fluid from the spine, usually resulting in positional headache that worsens when upright and improves when lying flat.

Cranial CSF Leak Headache
Similar to spinal CSF leaks but located in the skull, often presenting with clear nasal discharge and pressure symptoms alongside severe headache and vomiting.

Trigeminal Neuralgia
A sharp, electric-shock-like pain affecting one side of the face, linked to irritation or compression of the trigeminal nerve.

Cervicogenic Headache
A headache that originates in the neck or base of the skull and radiates forward, often due to structural instability or muscle tension.

Cluster Headache
Severe, stabbing pain usually around one eye or temple, often occurring in clusters over a period of days or weeks, typically at the same time of day or night.

Thunderclap Headache
A sudden, intense headache that reaches peak severity within seconds — often requiring urgent investigation to rule out serious underlying causes.

Cold-Stimulus Headache
Often referred to as “brain freeze,” this headache comes on rapidly with exposure to cold food, drink, or temperature — and in my case, it’s far from a joke.

Exercise-Induced Headache
Triggered by physical exertion or sudden movement, this type builds with activity and often involves pressure at the back of the head or temples.

External Air Pressure and Humidity Headache
Linked to changes in weather, air pressure, or humidity — this headache often feels like pressure building inside the skull.

Eyestrain Headache
Caused by prolonged screen time, poor lighting, or visual misalignment, resulting in pain behind the eyes or across the forehead.

TMJD-Related Facial Pain
Facial pain and headache linked to temporomandibular joint dysfunction — often presenting as pressure, aching, or stiffness around the jaw, temple, and cheek.

Vestibular Migraine
A migraine variant that affects balance and spatial perception, often with dizziness, vertigo, or visual motion sensitivity — sometimes without head pain.

🩺 Watts the Management Team?

Migraine with aura — along with the many other headache types I experience — doesn’t fall neatly under one medical specialty. Over time, I’ve worked with a multidisciplinary team of healthcare professionals who each bring a different piece of the puzzle — and who’ve helped build a treatment plan that reflects the complexity of these conditions.

  • GP – for day-to-day care and referrals
  • Neurologist – for nerve pain, botox, nerve blocks, CSF leaks, and dysautonomia
  • Rheumatologist – for immune involvement
  • Cardiologist – for autonomic dysfunction
  • Pain Specialist – for managing chronic and complex pain
  • Physiotherapist and Exercise Physiologist – for neck and head treatment, strengthening, and joint protection strategies
  • Psychologist – for mental health support and pain coping strategies
  • Dentist and prosthodontist – for management of dental related headache and tooth pain
  • Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon – for TMJD treatment
  • ENT Surgeon – for review and monitoring of Cranial CSF leaks and sinus headache treatments

Managing these conditions involves building a toolkit that works for your particular wiring. That often means trial, error, and gradual progress, supported by a team that understands the need for long-term, collaborative care.

🧩 Related Conditions

Many of the conditions I’ve been diagnosed with have strong links to migraine and chronic headache — either as triggers, overlapping diagnoses, or contributing to the general neurological chaos. If you’d like to understand how they fit into the broader picture, you can explore:

…or you can visit my blog — where I share the trials of dodging triggers, surviving migraine attacks that appear without warning at the most inopportune times, and the absurdity of trying to pace through a thunderclap headache with grace. Some days it’s just about swearing and surviving. The sparkles and smiles will be back tomorrow…

You can also visit the Helpful Links page for resources and organisations I’ve found useful along the way.

Disclaimer:
I’m not a doctor — just someone with a lot of medical letters on my file and a few too many hospital wristbands. Everything shared on this site comes from my personal experience living with complex chronic conditions. It’s not medical advice, and it shouldn’t replace professional guidance. Always speak to your healthcare team before making any treatment decisions (especially if it involves sparkles, spreadsheets, or ice cream therapy).

© WattsWithPain 2025