Many people have auras before and during migraines. These can be visual (seeing colors or black spots or colors/lights look brighter or dimmer), sensory (sensitivity to light/sound), speech-related (difficulty speaking or understanding speech), motor (impairment to movement), and brainstem (vertigo, tinnitus, ataxia, decreased consciousness, etc).

I get sensory, speech related, motor, and possibly some brainstem aura symptoms. You kind of just learn to recognize when a migraine is coming on and not a regular headache.

I notice changes in sensory processing first. Reading becomes difficult and my eyes lose focus easily/take a long time to focus. I also notice a difference in my thought patterns. My thoughts start to kind of skip around. It becomes hard to concentrate on any single thing, but not in a distracted kind of way. I very much realize that this description is vague and probably doesn’t make sense unless you experience similar migraines. I do also experience visual auras, but those aren’t apparent until the migraine is about to become very painful.

A full blown migraine manifests as sensory processing mapping to pain. Light and sound are unbearable even in relatively moderate amounts. One of the worst migraines I had led to the pressure of my head on the pillow making every hair follicle feel like a a needle poking my scalp. You don’t realize how much your brain autonomously filters out tons of sensory input to keep your focus on a very small slice of interest until the filters break down and let everything through.

Over the counter pain pills do nothing for my migraines. Sensory deprivation and sleep are the only things that can actually stop a migraine for me. I have blackout blinds, a well fitting eye mask, and foam earplugs ready to go. Early detection is very important. If I act as soon as I notice the warning signs, I can usually avoid a full blown migriane. A large glass of water + darkness and silence will usually have me back up in less than an hour. If a migraine gets to the point of pain, I will need sleep to get rid of it and will still feel rather off afterwards. Also falling asleep with a brutal migraine is no easy feat. A catch-22 so to say.

My migraines are actually usually without headache, just a lot of aura. That might sound not so bad, but it’s pretty bad.

They tend to start a bit insidiously, with a little bit of sensitivity to light and sound and, even more so, frequently changing or bright light and fast sound.

That’s when things start to feel overwhelming in my head, so if I’m not being obtuse, I recognize that it’s time to take medication. Sometimes my partner realizes it before I do because I’ll start covering my eyes and just mildly complaining about things being too bright or too much.

Anyway, at that point I take sumatriptan. It requires a prescription, but it’s not expensive. It works like magic for me.

Before I found sumatriptan, I would have to be in a dark, silent room with my head in a pillow.