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My Top 7 Migraine Self-Care Tips

Not everything works for everyone but here are a few tried and tested methods of keeping your migraine troubles to a minimum.

By Chloe SchemanoffPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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Photo by Asdrubal luna on Unsplash

Migraines don’t always affect everyone in the same way, some people get warning signs and some don’t, they can come with a wide variety of symptoms that not everyone gets but there are some ways of trying to keep away the pain and make them have less of an impact on your day.

So, what is a migraine?

Migraines are severe headaches usually felt more on one side of the head, accompanied by other symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, light and sound sensitivity and some people even get flashing lights in their vision before it starts.

There are ways that you can help hold back some of these symptoms, however, so here are my top seven tips for looking after yourself when a migraine hits.

1) Find yourself a calm and quiet environment.

One of the best things that you can do when you have a migraine is to take yourself away to a quiet, dark room where you can relax and sleep if you need to without any distractions. If you live with anyone else, tell them you need to not be disturbed for at least a couple of hours, it can make such a difference.

2) Stay hydrated.

Drink water, lots of it! This is so important, especially if vomiting is one of your symptoms then you need to stay as hydrated as possible. Chances are that you won’t really want to drink anything else if you are feeling nauseous.

3) Get some rest.

One of the things that I find the most effective for battling my migraines is taking myself to bed and sleeping it off. Sometimes it doesn’t work but quite often it at least makes me feel a little bit better, I also find that lying on the side of my head that the migraine is affecting and applying a little bit of pressure with the pillow can be helpful.

4) Try having a bath.

One of the triggers for migraines can sometimes be stress, so relaxing and taking some time away for just you can work wonders. Maybe light some candles and take a bath, it’s a great way to de-stress and chill out. If there are other ways that you use to de-stress, try that instead or even as well.

5) Try and identify your triggers.

Quite often, people who suffer with migraines have one or more “triggers” which can bring on an attack. These can be stress related or even related to food, if I eat too much cheese I will usually have a migraine the next day, with my partner it is citrus, for some people it can be red wine, chocolate etc.

Finding out what can set it off makes such a difference and can reduce the amount of attacks that you have by a lot if you manage it properly. Try keeping a food diary if you think that it could be a cause and see if you can identify what it is.

6) If you have glasses, wear them!

I absolutely hate wearing my glasses, with a passion. But I easily forget how much my eyes are straining when I’m not wearing them so I quite often put them straight on when a migraine hits to try and help relieve some of the strain on my eyes and in turn try and relieve some of the pain. If you’re like me and hate wearing your glasses, just do it! It’s better than the pain.

7) Pain relief.

I mostly try and leave painkillers as a last resort because I don’t want to be taking them every single time, it can be dangerous and potentially addictive. However, sometimes it is the only thing that will stop my migraine dead in its tracks.

I hope that some of these tips help, these are just the ones that I find helpful, some of you may have your own. However, it’s always recommended to go and see your doctor if you have any concerns about migraines or if you are getting them frequently.

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