Migraine

Do you take migraine medications like gepants, triptans, or monoclonal antibodies? How well do they work for you? Here's why migraine meds don't work for everyone, and what progress science still needs to make.

If you're migraining and can't read too good, this video summarizes the info: New Migraine Prevention Goals by the IHS (2025)

The International Headache Society says no more to a blanket 50% reduction in migraines counting as "successfully treated." Instead, treatment success should be measured by migraine days per month, with more than 6 days considered "insufficient control."

Excerpts from the "Setting goals of migraine burden while on treatment" section:

Migraine Freedom. This is defined as the complete elimination of days with migraine or moderate-to-severe headache, ideally over a period of three months.

Optimal Control. This is defined as less than four days with migraine or moderate-to-severe headache per month for three months, with a satisfactory response to acute treatment, defined as pain-freedom within two hours from the intake.

Modest Control. This is defined as four to six days with migraine or moderate-to-severe headache per month. In this case, disability may persist, but this level of control may represent a meaningful improvement especially for those with high frequency episodic migraine (10–14 headache days per month) or CM (>14 headache days per month) before treatment.

Insufficient Control. This is defined as more than six days with migraine or moderate-to-severe headache per month. At this level, migraine imposes a substantial burden and may require frequent use of acute medications.

As the title says. For me it's always the same: at first, my boss is understanding, but when I miss work because of a migraine for the 15th time, that compassion kind of dulls away... At some point, they start complaining that I am unreliable and they always seem to be waiting for when I get better, as if there is a cure for this chronic condition.

I always feel like somehow it is my fault for being sick and I feel like I let my team down even though I know it's the last thing I want.

How do you guys cope with it? What do you tell your boss? How do coworkers view you? Any tips and tricks are always welcome!

I have heard some wacky migraine treatment techniques, and thought if anyone is on here, it could be a potentially interesting light-hearted thing to discuss.

Reddit swore by McDonald's fries (salt intake?), but what prompted me to think to post this was my new DIY "heat treatment" for retinal migraines.

I like warm or cold things on the pain, and cooling strips etc are sold as migaine treatments. So one day I figured blasting my eye pain with a hair-dryer was worth a punt because why not?

Instantly pain free! I swear by it, it is temporary relief like I have never had before! The internet says heat possibly tricks pain receptors, I say dumb method works! I thought this was funny enough to share.

With this tale out the way, what are Lemmy's wacky migraine superstitions or unorthodox migraine strategies?

Edit: blasting one's face with a hair dryer is not medical advice! I am just a moron on the internet, and this is purely anecdotal

Hello folks, I haven’t seen anything new in this community in quite a while, but perhaps someone might see this…

I’ve been taking Nurtec for migraine for the past 4 months now and I’m very curious about other’s experiences with this medication. I’ve had fairly decent results with it (actually, it works better than anything I’ve tried in the past), but I also think I experience some pretty unfortunate side effects as well and I’d like to see if anyone else has noticed anything negative?

Thanks!

We know that migraines, which are recurrent and sometimes debilitating headaches, have some genetic basis, but the link with our DNA isn't entirely clear. Newly identified genetic variants could help in developing treatments, according to recent study.

Rare variants with large effects provide functional insights into the pathology of migraine subtypes, with and without aura.

Journal reference:

Nature Genetics DOI: 10.1038/s41588-023-01538-0

After going through hell the last 7 days I finally feel better! Yay! No more excruciating pain for at least a couple of days!

But one of the worst parts has only just begun. Worse not because I feel any more shitty than during the pain, but because no one who hasn't experienced it first hand understands it.

Everyone's like "Oh you're not in pain anymore? Then you can go back to work, right?" And some part of me, the blissfully ignorant past-me probably, thinks the same. It blames me for being lazy and work-shy.

But I can't go back just yet. I'm physically not able to. I'm glad I even got out of bed today, not letting the depression and anxiety devour me. I may be not in pain anymore, but I don't feel any less shitty. Not yet.

I need some rest.

It only lasts for 12 months out of the year.

I was trying to ask my partner for a pbj sandwich. I accidentally asked for a beef sandwich, then tried to describe the sandwich as boneless and without the meat.

I eventually reached apricot marmalade, which was close enough for my partner to understand the request.

Hi there y'all,

Anyone here have a favorite backlight/home office light setup? My migraines have been getting progressively worse, and I would really like to finish my dissertation.

Hey guys, we're defederated! Woohoo! I don't know if posts made during this episode gate posted, so I post again:

Yesterday my neurologist and I agreed on trying cgrp injections to tackle my chronic migraine. Now I need to decide which one to try. But looking at the facts and numbers the differences are marginal. So I'm looking for some first hand experiences! TIA!

I’m a graphic designer who works from home and I have an ancient monitor with a 60 hz refresh rate. I’m pretty sure that’s not helping my migraines so I’m looking to get something with a higher refresh rate to help with the flicker. I don’t think an EyeCare monitor is a great pick for me because of my job, but ideally I’d love the ability to set custom brightness profiles so I can toggle between “working at vampire light levels” and “checking color fidelity”. My current monitor lets you set one custom profile.

From what I’m seeing online getting at least a 70 hz refresh rate can help with migraines. Are there any other specs I should pay attention to as I shop?

I was officially diagnosed with migraines about 18 months ago. I keep a journal of my symptoms and migraines to take note of triggers, symptoms, things that help, etc.

I have a possibly odd question for all of you. Have you noticed any connections between constipation, finally going #2, and getting a little relief from your symptoms?

It doesn’t happen every time, but sometimes my postdrome symptoms improve very soon after I’m no longer constipated.

I can’t figure out why my gut would affect my head like that. Maybe it’s a coincidence, but I’m curious to hear if anyone else has noticed this sort of thing.

I've been logging my headaches since I started taking Eletriptan in 2020.

I've had an average of 10 days per month with headaches, and 4 days per month with migraines.

So far I've identified stress and insufficient sleep as contributing factors.

Hey beautiful people, need to vent a bit. Figured you might understand + we need a bit activity. (Just hope it's not entirely dead.)

I'm currently at hour 28 of my most recent attack. As a chronic sufferer I'm in pain more or less all the time, so I'm calling the really severe ones "attacks". So it's been 28 hours and the triptanes aren't working anymore. I'm so exhausted and tired by now and my head's not working properly. Migraine makes me stupid. I didn't even manage to call in sick today. I'm just lying around doing literally nothing, focused on not dying.

Now the major problem is I need to go to a doc to get a sick note, otherwise my hours for yesterday and today are lost and I'd need to work overtime next week. But how am I supposed to physically get there? I'm inable to get myself a freaking glass of water, but driving through the whole city and then sitting in a crowded room for hours full of sick people coughing and talking while the light flickers, only to get "headache? Oh that sucks. You better stay home" by the doc is fine? Does that even follow any logic?

So yeah I guess I'm just taking the hours. Even though I lost my last job because of this specific reason. Migraine sucks.

Thanks for coming to my vent or something and have a great day for me!

Has anyone experience in those, yet? I think it will be available in Germany soon, so if anyone can tell me the difference they experienced I’d be grateful.

One of the first migraine symptoms I get is brain fog. This makes it really hard to identify even the most obvious symptoms.

My partner will ask me if I need to take my abortive medication (Eletriptan), and if I don't know the answer, I have to take it. I'm usually angry for about 20 minutes about being told what to do, then the medication starts working and I'm really grateful I took it so soon.

I count myself lucky that I've found medication that works for me. My thoughts go out to all the people still looking.

Helps me for s few hours and makes me feel less off/weird than rizatriptan.

This is an attempt to figure out what caused it. It is also an example of how it's pretty difficult to figure out what actually causes a migraine from day to day.

Slept from 12 to 9:30AM. Breakfast was French Toast and Eggs. Skipped Coffee. Went swimming out in the sun for about an hour (had sunscreen on). First started feeling a headache and getting dizzy and progressed into a migraine - 11:30AM. Had pizza and root beer for lunch. Took a midday nap for about an hour at 12:30PM. Woke up with throbbing migraine. Took Aleve. Drank 1000ml of water (not that that helps really). Drank a cup of coffee. Migraine went away at about 2PM.

If I take Aleve quickly enough I can usually stop a migraine within an hour or two. If I take it too late then the Aleve does nothing and the migraine can sometimes last until the next day.

Why does this timeline matter? It matters because it's an example of how anything could have caused the migraine especially when there are so many confounding factors at play.

1. Woke up later than usual.
2. Didn't drink my normal coffee in the morning, withdrawal/craving?
3. Out in the sun too long?
4. I had sunscreen on, sensitivity to the sunscreen chemicals?
5. Didn't eat enough for breakfast + craving more substantial food, needing to eat lunch earlier?
6. Something else entirely not listed here?

Sometimes you just can't figure it out - you just gotta take the meds quickly and move on.

But here's to hoping this /c/ will gain critical mass!

It gives me a headache just looking at this chart. If it's close to true then that means I typically get migraines, cluster headaches, and sinus headaches depending on many environmental factors changing.

Please post any ideas for logos, banners, and community description/info details. I already filled in some temporary imagery and description to get things started.

Hoping to build a successful support community with other contributors.

So uh, welcome! Hopefully more people come and join this community, but until then I'll try and do my part and contribute.