Migraine headaches are an odd thing. Not odd as in funny but odd as in how they can just come into your life out of the blue. Odd in how they can affect one or two people in a family but no other family members will have the migraine curse. The thing is that once migraines are part of your day-to-day existence then you need to accept it as a problem that you have to live with. For how long? Well it varies from person to person but usually for at least a few years.



My first migraine hit me when I was 15 years old and cycling around my hometown. This left me blind for the first few moments from the pain - yup I actually lost my sight temporarily. Then the sickening pain settled in. For the next 15 years of my life I had to come to terms with the fact that migraines were something I had to deal with on a weekly (and sometimes daily) basis. This included taking prescription painkillers which stopped my migraines in about an hour. The problem was that I'd pass out afterwards and was like a zombie the next day.

Then around my 30th birthday my migraine problem pretty much stopped. Right now I only get migraines about once every 3 months - at the height of my problem I was having 3 - 4 migraines a week. For several years of my life it was just miserable.

So how do I suggest you learn to live with migraines? Well the first and most important thing is knowing what triggers your migraines. The usual suspects here are too much caffeine, too much red wine (tannins), chocolate, dairy products, nicotine and stress. Your migraine could be caused by a single one of these or a combination of a few of them. If needs be keep a diary so you can track when your migraines are starting and then you can look at what you were eating and drinking around that time - identify your triggers and eliminate them or reduce them to almost zero.

For me it means I have to be careful about how much dairy product I consume (and I love cheese!), stop smoking, get more exercise, drink more water and cut down on things that were causing me a lot of stress. This combination and my age helped cut my migraine attacks to almost zero. What has my age got to do with it? Well some people simply grow out of migraines - yup they can just go away completely on their own (well almost completely). My mother suffered from severe migraines for several years too and she had the same experience - she outgrew them to the point where she maybe gets one or two per year (instead of 2 - 3 per week). So have faith in the fact that this might just be a phase for your body - it can go away just as quickly as it arrived.

You have to understand your migraine triggers but you need to keep an eye on your migraine symptoms too - whether it's migraine aura, tingling in your hands, a weird taste in your mouth or aching in your neck, jaw or eye socket. Once you feel the earliest hint of a symptom that's the time to take action with either medication or an alternative migraine treatment. Never wait until you're slap bang in the middle of a migraine attack. Prevention is always going to be better than cure when it comes to migraines.

At the first hint of a migraine headache I get myself to someplace quiet and dark to lay down and get some lavender oil on my pillow - I never wait until the migraine has reached its full force before I'm doing my best to get rid of the damned thing.

So learning to live with your migraines is a combination of:

1. Understanding your triggers.

2. Cut down on/remove your triggers.

3. Know your symptoms like the back of your hand.

4. Live a more healthy life.

5. Have faith that your migraines will pass.