How to manage a migraine
For the six million people living with migraine in the UK, learning to manage the condition is vital. On average, sufferers experience one attack every month –in more severe cases, patients experience more than 40 attacks per year.
Light at the end of the tunnel
Migraine research and treatments
Lea Raudsepp has suffered with migraine for twenty years. She works full time running her own business from home and says it can be very difficult at times, "I can’t function when I have a full blown attack. I can’t lift my head off the pillow and I’m vomiting every ten/fifteen minutes - it’s impossible to sit at a desk and work, it’s impossible to get in the car and go and see a client. The pain in your head is so severe you feel like someone has stuck a knife in your head."
Click here to watch Lea's story.
Lea has been attending the City of London Migraine Clinic for over 10 years. Through advice and consultation from the professionals there, she has learnt how best to manage her migraine. Eighty percent of the time she copes well by taking her medication, "For me Imigran has been a life saver because it means that most of the time, if I wake up feeling rough and I take an Imigran, it means that a couple of hours later I can function."
There are times though when she can’t keep an attack at bay and reluctantly has to admit defeat:"I feel horribly depressed because I know I’m in for at least two days in bed. I have no energy, I feel very sick, the pain in my head starts to locate to one side of my head and I have absolutely no choice but to be in bed because moving around makes me feel even more nauseous, my head is pounding so much I can’t think- I get into this cycle of vomiting and that’s the point when I’m at my lowest ebb."
The first step to taking control and managing your migraine is to get a positive diagnosis. Migraine affects people in different ways and so once you know what you are dealing with, you can work towards finding an effective treatment.Once you’ve been diagnosed look at your triggers – common triggers include lack of food, stress, hormonal changes in women, exercise and too much, or too little sleep.
Lea says that being able to talk about things helps and staying positive is also a really important part of the process, "I have a life, a partner who I love, I have a home, I run my own business – I’m not going to let this condition stop me from enjoying that – sometimes it does depress me, but generally when I start to get a headache I think, right, how do I manage this."
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