Grief and Migraines?

Dear wolfiewoman,

First, please accept my condolences on the loss of your friend. True friends are rare and precious, and I wish I could do something to ease your pain and grief. Please know that I'll keep you in my thoughts.

Now, on to your question.

Grief and other emotions, in and of themselves, are not Migraine triggers. However, the can impact our Migraines. They stress our bodies as well as our minds and emotions, and that makes us more susceptible to our triggers. In fact, many of us find that we have triggers that are strong enough to trigger a Migraine only during times of some kind of stress, such as the grief you're experiencing. Also we can unwittingly do things that become Migraine triggers when we're stressed.

For example, I find that during times of upset or stress, I tend to skip meals, not sleep enough or on a really irregular pattern, or cry. These things are all Migraine triggers for me anyway, and when I'm upset or stressed, I don't stop to think about them. So, there I go -- not fixing dinner, staying up half the night, or retreating into extra sleep -- and BAM! I get slapped down with a Mgiraine.

My guess would be that you're unknowingly doing some things such as those that are adding to your Migraines. You might want to keep a very detailed Migraine diary, at least for a while, to see if you can spot some of these triggers. That can be a huge help, because once we realize that we're kind of doing it to ourselves, we can often eliminate some Migraines by simply eliminating those triggers. If you need a diary, you can download a free diary workbook from our article Your Migraine and Headache Diary.

Something else to take a hard look at is how many days a week you're using Fioricet or Vicodin. If you're using them more than two or three days a week -- total for BOTH medications, it's quite possible that they're making matters worse by causing medication overuse headaches, aka rebound. You can find more information on that in the article Medication Overuse Headache - When the Remedy Backfires. Keep in mind too that Fioricet and Vicodin cannot abort (fully stop) a Migraine. All they can do is mask the pain for a few hours.

Please don't hesitate to call your doctor and ask for some assistance if you need it. If Fioricet and Vicodin are all you have to take for a Migraine, why? There are Migraine abortive medications that actually stop the Migrainous process in the brain. Most common are the triptan medications -- Imitrex, Maxalt, Zomig, Amerge, Relpax, Axert, Frova, and Treximet.

I hope this helps,

Teri

Hello, and welcome to MyMigraineConnection.com!

I'm so sorry for your loss. One of my dearest friends recently passed away too. Grief and Migraines do not go well together. Teri gave you all great information.

Thank you for creating a SharePost. SharePosts are a form of blogging, and there are many things you can do with them. You can share an experience, suggest something that's helped you, use SharePosts as a Migraine and headache journal, and many other things.

We also have a discussion forum that you may want to check out. Especially if you have questions or are looking for information, you may find the interaction on the forum to be quite helpful. We hope to see you there. To get to the forum, just look for the orange box marked "Manage" and click on the Migraine Forums link. Because our forums are maintained by a third party, you'll need to register for the forum. You can use the same information you used to create your community log-in if you like. If you want to go directly to the forum, you can click HERE.

Along with your personal "My Home" page and the discussion forum, you'll find links to a great deal of helpful information and a spot to sign up for our free newsletter on the main page of our site, http://www.MyMigraineConnection.com.

If you have any questions, please feel free to post them to the forum or send me a message through my profile.

Welcome again,

Nancy Bonk
MyMigraineConnection.com Expert

like teri said grief doesn't trigger them. but it did make me more likey to get one if i was near a trigger.

i lost my granddaddy last summer, and my migraines got worse right after that. it's been just over a year and i am starting to come out of my fog so to speak.

topamax helps keep them away, and aside from a couple of smaller ones. i haven't had one bad enough to put me in bed in 5 weeks. ( thank the lord)

please try to sleep when you can. and make yourself eat if that's what it takes.

I in interested in knowing how you were able to reduce your migraines from 30 to ....Wow!  I have severe migraines 30 or more per month.  please help?

I've come to know stress-induced migraine as an old heckler.  First comes the stress, regardless of cause, then the aura, then the migraine pain.  As the migraine improves I am aware that I still have a stress headache, which in turn triggers another migraine.  I once went 3 months this way with no relief.  The only thing I could do was treat both types of headache - muscle relaxants, tranquilizers and Maxalt.  Ice water injections in the pressure points at the back of my head.  Meditation and deep breathing exercises.  Hot and cold packs.  Self-hypnosis. Lavender and mint essential oils.  I still don't know why I suddenly awoke with no headache, but I sure was grateful.

Now, I watch for the beginning symptoms of either type of headache I treat them right away.  If I get them early enough I can get rid of them or reduce the intensity so that it doesn't trigger the other headache.