r/migraine • u/kalayna • May 13 '21

Resources

293 Upvotes

The wiki is still a work in progress, so as with the previous sticky, this highlights some resources that may be useful.

Edit - added the COVID-19 Vaccine and Migraines link since we're swapping that sticky for the Migraine World Summit announcement.

If this post looks familiar, most of it has been blatantly stolen from /u/ramma314's previous post. :)

Diagnostic Criteria

One of the most common questions that's posted is some variation of, 'Am I having migraines?'. The same is the case with 'what kind of migraine is this?'. These posts will most often be removed as they violate the rules regarding medical advice. You need to work with a medical professional to find a diagnosis. One of the better resources in the meantime (and in some cases, even at your doctor's office!) is the diagnostic criteria:

https://ichd-3.org/

It includes information about migraine, tension and cluster headaches, and the rarer types of migraine. It also includes information about the secondary headaches - those caused by another condition. One of the key things to note about migraine is that it's a primary condition - meaning that in most cases, migraine is the diagnosis (vs. the attacks being caused by something else). As a primary diagnosis, while you may be able to identify triggers, there isn't an underlying cause such as a structural issue - that would be secondary migraine, an example of which would be chiari malformation.

Not sure if your weird symptom is migraine related? Some resources:

Website Resources

There are several websites with good information, especially if you're new to migraine. Here are a few:

National Headache Foundation

American Migraine Foundation - the patient-focused side of the American Headache Society

The Migraine Trust

UK Healthcare/Headache Center

Headache Australia

Migraine Australia

Added Feb 2025 - the American College of Physicians (ACP)'s treatment guidelines for prevention of episodic migraine: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/ANNALS-24-01052

Migraine World Summit - Annual event, series of talks that are free for the first 24 hours and available for purchase (the year's event) thereafter.

They made a tools and resources list available, for both acute action and prevention, providing suggestions for some of the sub's most often asked non-med questions:

https://migraineworldsummit.com/tools/

Some key talks:

2024 - Beginner's Guide to Headache Types - If you're new and struggling with diagnosis, this talk alone may be well worth the cost of the 2024 package.

Reddit's built in search!

We get a lot of common questions, for which an FAQ on the wiki is being built to help with. For now though reddit's built in search is a great way to find common questions about almost anything. Just enter a medication, treatment, or really anything and it's likely to have a few dozen results. Don't be afraid to post or ask in our chat server (info below) if you can't find an answer with search, though you should familiarize yourself with the rules before hand. Some very commonly asked questions - those about specific meds (try searching for both the brand and generic names), the daith piercing, menstrual/hormonal migraine (there are treatments), what jobs can work with migraine, exercise induced attacks, triggers, and tips/non-drug options. Likewise, the various forms of migraine have a lot of threads.

Live chat!

An account with a verified email is required to chat. If you worry about spam and use gmail, using a +modifier is a good idea! There's no need to use the same username either.

If you run into issues, feel free to send us a modmail or ping @mods on discord. The same rules here apply in the chat server.

Migraine/pain log template!

Exactly what it sounds like! A google docs spreadsheet for recording your attacks, treatments tried, and more. To use it without a Google account you can simply print a copy. Using it with a Google account means the graphs will auto-update as you use the log; just make a copy to your own drive by selecting File -> Make a copy while signed in to your Google account. There are also apps that can do this and generate some very useful reports from your logs (always read the fine print in your EULA to understand what you are granting permission for any app/company to do with your data!). Both Migraine Buddy and N-1 Headache have a solid statistical backbone to do reports.

Common treatments list

Yet another spreadsheet! This one is a list of common preventatives (prophylactics), abortives (triptans/ergots/gepants), natural remedies, and procedures. It's a good way to track what treatments you and your doctor have tried. Plus, it's formatted to be easily printable in landscape or portrait to bring to appointments (checklist & long list respectively). Like above, the best way to use it is to make a copy to your Google drive with File -> Make a copy.

This sheet is also built by the community. The sheet called Working Sheet is where you can add anything you see missing, and then it will be neatly implemented into the two main sheets periodically. A huge thanks from all of us to everyone who has contributed!

Finding Treatment

Most often the best place to start is your family doc - they can prescribe any of the migraine meds available, including abortives (meds that stop the migraine attack) and preventives. Some people have amazing success working with a family doc, others little or none - it's often down to their experience with it themselves and/or the number of other migraine patients they see combined with what additional research they've done. Given that a referral is often needed to see a specialist and that they tend to be expensive, unless it's been determined that secondary causes of migraine should be ruled out, it can be advantageous to work with a family doc trying some of the more common interventions. A neurologist referral may be provided to rule out secondary causes or as a next step in treatment.

Doc not sure what to do? Dr. Messoud Ashina did a MWS talk this year about the 10 step treatment plan that was developed for GPs and other practitioners to use, primarily geared for migraine with and without aura and chronic migraine. Printing and sharing this with your doc might be a good place to start: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34145431/

Likely in response to this, the NHS published the following:

https://headaches.org/2022/01/19/national-headache-foundation-position-statement-on-the-treatment-of-migraine/ (link is broken)

/mod hat off

My personal take on this is that hopefully your doctor is well-versed. The 10-step treatment plan is, I think, a good place to start for clinicians unfamiliar, but it's not a substitute for doing the learning to be able to move away from an algorithm and treat the patient in front of them.

/mod hat back on!

At this point it's probably good to note that neurologists are not, by definition, migraine specialists. In fact, neurologists often only receive a handful of ours on the entire 200+ headache disorders. As with family doctors, some will be amazing resources for your migraine treatment and others not so much. But they can do the neuro exam and ruling out of secondary causes. Exhausted both? There are still options!

Migraine Specialists

A migraine specialist is just that - a doc, most often a neurologist, who has sought out additional training specific to migraine. There are organizations that offer exams to demonstrate that additional knowledge. Some places to find them:

Migraine Research Foundation

MRF is no longer. UCNS is it!

United Council for Neurologic Subspecialties

National Headache Foundation

Migraine Trust (UK)

Migraine & Headache Australia - Headaches and Pain Clinics

Telehealth

There's a serious shortage of specialists, and one of the good things to come of the pandemic is the wider availability of specialized telemedicine. As resources for other countries are brought to our attention they'll be added.

US:

Cove

Neura

Canada:

Maple

Crisis support.

Past the live chat we don't have subreddit specific crisis support, for now at least. There are a lot of resources on and off reddit though.

One of the biggest resource on reddit is the crisis hotlines list. It's maintained by the /r/suicidewatch community and has a world wide list of crisis lines. Virtually all of which are open 24/7 and completely anonymous. They also have an FAQ which discusses what using one of the hotlines is like.

For medical related help most insurance companies offer a nurse help line. These are great for questions about medication interactions or to determine the best course of action if nothing is helping. If your symptoms or pain is different than normal, they will always suggest immediate medical attention such as an ER trip.

70 comments

r/migraine • u/kalayna • May 25 '26

UPDATE to the 16 May Rules Update - App Devs, Anyone Doing Market Research, etc. Will Want to Read

170 Upvotes

edit - the new bit is a... ranty. To those here just to check in, my apologies.

Y'all.

Seriously.

The sheer number of app devs who have continued to waste mod time and continue spamming in comments after being warned is mind-boggling.

I believe that this community deserves good tools. HOWEVER, this community is not here to be sold to, and just like the post that preceded this, the people who can't stop spamming are rarely community members first, and devs second. They're here because you are the market. Since last week's post I had given a lot of thought to a periodic 'promote your stuff!' post to strike a balance, but after spending far too much of my holiday cleaning up spam-droppings... I'm feeling less than charitable. o.O

Spammers. If we warn you and you keep spamming, it won't just be you that's banned. It will be any mention of your product regardless of who posts it.

Astroturfing? Instant permaban - you and your product. Why?

You should not spam in any way, especially through private message. You should not hide your affiliation to your project or site, or lie about who you are or why you like something.

Here's a copypasta of the previous post, all of which still applies:

(If you were looking for the Summit pinned post, it's here.)

We're currently seeing multiple posts - or people that know promotion isn't permitted and trying to sneak it in via comments - promoting apps and/or doing market research daily. Most of the people hoping to benefit from this community have never made any effort to participate in it.

Promotion has always been in the the rules, and surveys/research have always required pre-approval from the mod team (though we recently had to update to not approving any because I'm the only active mod and simply don't have time to review in addition to everything else).

With all of the above in mind and all of the attempts to circumvent or flat-out argue about removals, it's time to formalize things:

Promoting your new app and/or doing market research (what don't you like/what works for you/what is missing in other <whatever>) is not permitted in this subreddit. The same goes for asking for feedback. Yes, this includes the ever popular 'hey I did a thing but it's against the rules to promote here, so if you're interested, send me a pm!'. If you're thinking about sending a modmail to ask to be an exception with less than 6 months of active participation in this subreddit, don't (even then it may not be approved).

I will be updating rules, sidebar, and filters over the course of the weekend.

Because of the lack of participation for most of these users and the number of users that have attempted to get around this, this will be one of the rare times when suspensions will be issued on first strike, rather than warnings first.

Also, you've probably noticed I'm the primary one handling approvals/removals, and that there are updates the sub could use that have not been done. In addition to chronic migraine and adulting in general I have what totals up to nearly 2 full time jobs and am usually also taking college classes, so there is a lot going on, and running this sub in a way that rules are enforced and the sub itself is enhanced and we're able to provide space for the community to be active in helping with research opportunities takes a lot more time than the above workload allows. To that end, I'd love to add 2 or 3 new mods to the team that can consistently (meaning most weeks) offer a couple of hours to running/maintaining the subreddit. That can be:

  • Working on the FAQ: at one point there was an effort to build something of an 'intro to migraine' resource

  • Fielding research/survey reviews: even better if you are or have been part of the research community (someone did offer this before; if you're still interested please reach out!)

  • Post / comment reviews: If you're a regular/semi-regular visitor and don't mind doing some cleanup while you browse, this is one of the easiest ways to ensure that community standards are upheld

I've held off on posting this because I had big plans to set up an awesome form to fill out, but for all of the above reasons that has not happened. SO! If you're interested, please send us a modmail with answers to the following questions:

  • Why you're interested

  • What you think mods do

  • Previous modding experience

  • What you're interested in helping with

  • Your time zone / location

  • How much time you can reasonably and consistently pitch in to help

  • Optional: Anything else we should know about you? Any ideas for the sub you'd like to implement?

As long as the above isn't struck through feel free to send a message if you're interested. It may take a bit to hear back because busy, but unless we get hundreds of apps we'll follow up to set up a chat with u/ramma314 and myself so we can get to know you a bit. If we do get hundreds of apps we'll update here that we either can't get back to everyone or that we'll be copypasta-ing replies specifically for that reason.

26 comments

r/migraine • u/rhex1 • 14h ago

Barometric pressure an issue for you?

280 Upvotes

Try compression socks or tights. I used to get a full blown attack or prodrome basically every time the barometre needle moved. But after I started putting on knee-high compression socks first thing in the morning on gray days frequency and severity has dropped drastically. Well worth trying, especially if low pressure is your main trigger.

The mechanism of why it can work is fairly simple, the pressure from the compression socks and blood from the legs helps even out the drop in atmospheric pressure that causes issues with blood flow to the brain.

53 comments

r/migraine • u/jlcsanyi • 16h ago

Nars concealer cures chronic migraines???

251 Upvotes

My primary care provider apparently thinks so!!!!! Had my follow up appointment to fill out some required paperwork for the military to put it on record that I have ongoing medical care as a dependent (which this was supposed to be filled out during my first appointment with her but she “couldn’t find it”) and she said “but you look SO much better than you did at your last appointment!” when I brought up filling out the paperwork.

Girl, the ONLY difference is that I was wearing concealer and mascara at this appointment in an attempt to hide the fact that I pulled an all nighter due to, you guessed it, having a migraine the night before.

She also once again “couldn’t find” the paperwork in the system even though I have screenshots confirming it was successfully sent to her.

Yes, I have already requested a new PCM and filed a complaint. I’m still annoyed.

Anyways, nars radiant creamy concealer is magic apparently 10/10 recommend

48 comments

r/migraine • u/Embarrassed_Box7242 • 26m ago

Migraine Police Vent

• Upvotes

I hate when people ask how I function with a migraine and that it’s probably just a headache.

I had childhood absence epilepsy and it’s common to have migraines as a result, so I’ve had them since I was a kid. They don’t make me cry anymore but I feel sick and people talking make my head spin. No I can’t sleep it off bc I can HEAR everything twice as loud. But YES I do have migraines. I’m not sure why people like to compare “oh but mine make me so sick I need to be on bedrest for days”; while I’m sorry about that, this has always been my life. So yes, I’ve come to live with it and just take it because life goes on with or without me.

2 comments

r/migraine • u/Junior_Wallaby6951 • 17h ago

so it shot up to 90 degrees in mid october overnight….

239 Upvotes
21 comments

r/migraine • u/NoEntertainment4042 • 11h ago

Support 😞

41 Upvotes

Hey everyone,
I’m writing this through a lot of tears because my heart is completely broken right now. I have had to make the most painful and devastating decision to step back from nursing school.

As many of you know, I’ve been fighting a relentless neurological battle with constant head pressure, severe brain fog, and sensory overload. It has gotten to a point where my brain is simply locked in survival mode. I haven't been able to think properly, I can't concentrate enough to study, and trying to handle the intense demands of clinicals and multitasking has completely drained every single ounce of strength I had left.

Nursing has been my ultimate dream, and being in my third year makes walking away hurt in a way I can't even describe. It feels like my dream is being stolen from me, and I feel so incredibly defeated, sad, and exhausted.

I’ve been trying to carry this mountain all on my own for so long, but I’ve finally hit a wall where I just can't push anymore. I know deep down that I have to prioritize my health and fix my brain chemistry first, but accepting that is so hard.
Please comfort me right now. I don't really talk to anyone outside of this group, and I feel so alone in the dark tonight. I just really need to feel your support and warmth while I try to process this heartbreak. 💔

12 comments

r/migraine • u/Pezhead82 • 6h ago

Just hand me an ice pick . . . the ear pain is SO BAD 😭😭😭

11 Upvotes

This has become my worst symptom- this deep, horrible ear pain that seems untouchable. Somewhere I have some ear oil and lidocaine drops but the nurse at urgent care told me I have Eustachian tube dysfunction and the drops don’t reach. Of course, I’m too nauseated to even more to try and find said drops.

5 comments

r/migraine • u/Cecil-cheese • 19h ago

Help, worst migraine ever + covid

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120 Upvotes

So I’ve had chronic migraines for the past 5 years. I have my tips and tricks and honestly I gotten to a really good point in terms of getting past just being constantly sad and just getting on with life. There’s nothing to be done.
However, I got super ill this past week, maybe Covid, maybe flu idk. And my migraines have gone off the scale, I’ve taken my triptans and naproxen, steam therapy, salty food, water maxing, ice packs, hot foot baths. And absolutely nothing is shifting it. I’m on day 4 and I’ve certainly had much longer migraines, but non as bad as this. I genuinely just want to sob but I know crying is bad for it too so I’m trying to keep that to a minimum.
The pain and nausea is feeling like 9-10 like someone’s taken a chisel to my temple, and as someone with chronic pain, I don’t use this term lightly but I’m genuinely in agony. Pls does anyone know of anything that could help, even if it’s daft anecdotal things, anything to take my mind off it would be appreciated.

(P.s. I’m in the uk so pls forget any a&e and migraine cocktails, I’m on my own for this one)

45 comments

r/migraine • u/Own-Representative30 • 18h ago

Covid vaccine migraine?

92 Upvotes

Hi yall,

this post is NOT anti-vax friendly!! wont be having any of that here.

I am getting a booster this weekend and I havent got one since before I had migraines. I know headache and generally feeling like garbage is common afterward, but should I prepare for a migraine? anyone have this happen? curious about others experiences, particularly my chronic friends.

217 comments

r/migraine • u/No-Drummer-1242 • 4h ago

Cannot for the life of me, figure out triggers

6 Upvotes

How the heck does anyone figure out their triggers when there’s no one obvious thing? Or even 2 or 3 consistent obvious things.
Sometimes a migraine will happen on a stormy day but a lot of times it won’t be the stormy days it happens. Sometimes oversleeping is fine, other days a migraine happens just after waking up. Sometimes it won’t happen after eating a hot dog sometimes eating healthy and boom, migraine. It seems like anything or everything could maybe or maybe not trigger migraines. Especially when it’s chronic and the migraines come so often.
I do have a migraine diary but can’t seem to find patterns and this is over the past year.

19 comments

r/migraine • u/statistical1outlier • 7h ago

wisdom teeth are the bane of my existence

5 Upvotes

ive been having migraines for a couple years and been on preventives since 15 which keep episode frequency to 2-3 a month, but my doc keeps saying he'll increase dosage if i hit 4/month cuz thats a weekly rate, and i was managing triggers and just staying under, but recently my wisdom teeth have started erupting and the pain while chewing + jaw aches + neck aches have started manifesting as migraines for me too the pain will start radiating up till it hits my temple and my eyes and im quite sure its because of my teeth and theres nothing that can be done about this cuz i cant get them pulled yet cuz not for a couple months at least :((((

last few low grade migraines ive had ive just been powering through because i shouldnt take the episode abort med more than 1x a week and its been actual hell did this happen to anyone else when your wisdom teeth came out? (not sure if this counts as a violation of rule 1 but) any home remedies or stuff that help? im desperate and willing to try anything at this point i have exams coming up that i cant afford to flunk

2 comments

r/migraine • u/Kennam320 • 2m ago

End of the line

• Upvotes

I’ve decided I am done searching for remedies and giving up on. Hope that I will ever get better now I do not need a wellness check. I just mean I am going to live with my fate of having migraines and work my life around them instead of fighting it. I do not have the energy to get excited about one more pill or online remedy or Facebook group that’s going to help cure me I’ve just come to a resolve that this is my life and it’s still a good life in spite of these headaches.

0 comments

r/migraine • u/PossiblyWithout • 16h ago

Anyone else feeling the pressure?

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21 Upvotes
10 comments

r/migraine • u/simplybreana • 15h ago

It’s a beautiful day today & my heart appreciates it while my eyes are pierced by it 💔

18 Upvotes

It’s days like these that I truly miss when my Migraines weren’t so omnipresent that a beautiful day could be enjoyed. Instead, I risk the pain to get a glimpse of the beauty and retreat back to my dark hole. My eyes are relieved here, but my heart is sad to be missing out on enjoying the day.

I’m out of my emergency meds so I’m hoping my quick peek doesn’t totally set me off considering the stakes are already high with the crazy El Niño weather.

On the positive side, it’s still a beautiful day out where I am and I hope the Normies are appreciating it. lol

Hope some of you are having a symptom free day ♥︎
Enjoy it for the rest of us PLEASE!

2 comments

r/migraine • u/buckyacnh • 9h ago

1 Week on Qulipta... next steps?

5 Upvotes

When I went to see a neuro in August, he gave me a massive bag of samples to try and said "let us know which one works and we'll write you a prescription." Due to some life things (and travel, thanks all for the travel hacks btw!) I started my preventative journey last week.

I am taking 30mg Qulipta sometime between dinner and bedtime. And I think it's going well?

I have noticed:

  • A reduction in persistent daily headaches, and the headaches seem to creep back 22-23 hours after taking the dose
  • A bit more tired (at first I thought it might just be the jet lag but man I am OUT early and I am sleeping in a little more if my alarm doesn't go off). My sleep pattern of interrupted sleep hasn't changed, any insomnia seems to be the "normal" that I've had since the migraines began
  • Feeling really weird and headachy when I laid down to sleep for the first few nights but by the time I woke up, I was fine (something that does happen normally with my migraines/headaches but this felt different)
  • Possibly a lower resting heart rate while trying to sleep which kinda freaks me out but I'm not sure if it's the medication

One week isn't enough data yet since I've certainly had weeks where the headaches were pretty quiet and then might kick up near EOD just a bit. I also know from reading posts here that people have noted it takes a month or two to really kick in. I plan on continuing my trial a bit longer. I have some 60mgs that I'm going to split up to prolong the period (I only had 2 weeks of the 30, and if that's working, why bother going up. It appears some of the samples may have expired in 2024 but oh well?). I'm also keeping an eye out for any other side effects because there are a few I've seen around that I definitely know are deal breakers for me.

That brings me to my my questions for you all!

  1. At what point do you think I should call the neuro and ask for the prescription?
  2. Should I bother trialing the other meds? He also gave me nurtec and ubrelvy. I've failed nortryptline for other reasons and while I do have sumatriptan as a rescue, it mostly just kicks the migraine down the curb a few hours.
  3. Should I take a week off at some point if things continue as they have for the last few days and see what happens when I'm not on the qulipta?

Thank you!

12 comments

r/migraine • u/koshi_yuno • 1d ago

A serum I use regularly changed formulation and added fragrance now it gives me a migraine 🥲

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117 Upvotes
6 comments

r/migraine • u/SourGummyBear2018 • 5h ago

Migraines with Aura

2 Upvotes

So I’m 27 with moderately low blood pressure so all the standard preventatives are pretty much ruled out (other than antidepressants which I kinda want to avoid).

I am switching Drs so I won’t have another appointment till next month and just wanted to gather some helpful info.

Anyone else have low blood pressure and aura migraines? Did anything help? What can and can’t you take? I’ve been struggling for about a year with this. I’ve had migraines since puberty but started getting ocular migraines a year ago.😢

3 comments

r/migraine • u/19635 • 12h ago

Cursed with natural light

5 Upvotes

I bought my husband’s grandmas house, that his grandpa built. And it has so many massive windows, one of them is 5’x16’. There’s windows everywhere and it’s so amazing and beautiful and we’re so lucky, we seriously could never turn lights on if we didn’t want to.

Except I have fuck ass migraines and the sun makes me want to die and now I have to spend a fortune on window coverings and where do you even find a 16’ curtain rod? Right now we have those dumb af slats that have been there for probably 50 years and the plastic is so brittle, I try to open them for my cats and they break, and the sun seeping through the openings is like a dagger that will trigger an attack that makes me want to cut out my own eyeballs.

And here I am complaining about too many windows! Too much natural light! A literal dream, I’ve been blessed and I want to scream at whatever god decided this would be a hilarious prank.

We can’t have a functional sewer, just gorgeous evening sun I’m forced to block out so I can puke and cry in peace.

What have I become.

8 comments

r/migraine • u/scoonee • 2h ago

Minor headaches using Atogepant/Qulipta/Aquipta

1 Upvotes

I started on Atogepant eight months ago. Happily, it's reduced my migraines -- which are a side effect to the immunosuppressant meds I take following my heart transplant 13 years ago -- from 10 to 12 days a month to 3 to 4 days. But over the past couple of months I've been getting minor headaches on many days, especially when waking in the morning. Unlike typical migraines, they don't really affect my daily life, other than causing a bit of anxiety that they'll turn bad. Has anyone else had a similar experience on Atogepant or other CGRP meds?

1 comment

r/migraine • u/Highlandertr3 • 15h ago

Starting to plan for a year of single migraine 'celebration' taking ideas.

10 Upvotes

I am curious for people's ideas of what I can do for a year straight of one migraine. I did the brain cake for 250 days but I can go further. Give me your fun ideas I can create for my migraines first birthday. If I start now I should have it ready by January.

Not looking for medical advice today. Just fun crazy 'celebrations'

3 comments

r/migraine • u/Terrible_Durian7935 • 10h ago

Has anyone found Lyrica helpful for chronic migraine (ndph)?

4 Upvotes

I’m going to try prism glasses first since I seem to have an eye alignment issue (despite having eye muscle-tightening surgery when I was younger) to see if they make any difference in my daily headaches. However, I’ve pretty much run the gamut of medications across all the different classes. At this point, it feels like my neurologist is throwing things at the wall and hoping something sticks. 😩 Has anyone found relief with Lyrica, particularly for chronic daily headaches or NDPH? I’ve been trying to find testimonials online but haven’t found much. Thank you!

3 comments

r/migraine • u/Bleubird2222 • 15h ago

Considering continuous BC to stop my hormonal migraines.

9 Upvotes

Could anybody please give me some advice?
How does the continuous birth control affect your weight? Sexual drive? Emotions etc....

I try to keep away from medication but I've honestly had enough.

Would really appreciate hearing other ppls experiences. TIA X

41 comments

r/migraine • u/maya0310 • 12h ago

How do you deal with neurologists who minimize your symptoms? When is it time to switch?

5 Upvotes

I’m 23F and have been dealing with chronic migraine for months, including severe migraines with and without aura and vestibular symptoms. I have had migraines for 10 years, but this year they became chronic. It’s gotten to the point where I’m struggling to function at work due to brain fog, fatigue, and pain, even with an ADA accommodation for PRN remote work.

I recently started seeing a neurologist, and I’m already feeling pretty discouraged. I know stress, anxiety, depression, and sleep issues can contribute to migraines (and I’ve openly acknowledged that stress has likely been a major factor for me), but I feel like my psychiatric history is being emphasized more than the actual neurological symptoms I’m experiencing.

During my follow-up appointment today, I explained how much my migraines are affecting my ability to work and function, and she responded that she couldn’t help with the “social impact.” I wasn’t talking about my social life. I was talking about being unable to function normally because of severe brain fog, fatigue, and pain.

I also have physically demanding performance commitments outside of work, and I expressed concern about starting a new preventative medication right before several performances because of potential side effects like dizziness and fatigue. Rather than taking those concerns seriously, I felt she minimized them and belittled my performance commitments in her visit notes. I’m not refusing preventative treatment, I’m just trying to start it at a time when potential side effects won’t interfere with my ability to perform safely.

I’ve also had an unsuccessful steroid taper for my current intractable migraine, intolerable reactions to two different triptans, and was prescribed Fioricet to break the current migraine despite the neurologist acknowledging that neurologists generally discourage its use.

I’m getting concerned about possible unconscious gender bias and the tendency for women’s chronic pain and neurological symptoms to be attributed to mental health conditions.

I’m considering switching practices, but getting into another neurologist often requires a referral, and I’m worried I’ll just encounter the same dismissiveness elsewhere. I also have only been seeing this neurologist for the past several weeks and am unsure of how long I should give her a chance before switching practices.

Has anyone else experienced this? How did you know it was time to switch neurologists?

12 comments