I get one about once a decade. My mother got them frequently.
Real migraines absolutely suck. A lot of folks describe regular headaches as “migraines,” but they are a pale imitation of the real thing.
In my case, they usually start in the morning, but don’t get really excruciating until early evening. I usually figure out it’s a migraine, about lunchtime. Around 9-10PM or so, I puke, then the headache starts leveling off, until I fall asleep. The next day, it’s as if nothing happened.
I did “short-circuit” one, the last time one started, using advice that I remembered from my mother. I sat in a recliner, in a dark room, with a towel wrapped around the top of my head and eyes (probably looked ridiculous). It’s important not to engage my eyes at all. After a couple of hours, the headache stopped.
On the contrary, I'd argue that migraines are probably much more common than diagnosed, rather than the other way around. Migraines, much like seizures, vary in both symptoms and severity.
Not my area of expertise, but anecdatally, everyone that I know, that has suffered from diagnosed migraines, has had really crippling symptoms. They seem to be fairly universally severe. I have had headaches all my life (including ones related to a brain tumor, back in the 1990s. The migraines don’t seem to be related to that tumor, which was treated with surgery). In my personal experience, the comparison is night and day. There’s a clear difference.
Basically, a migraine is a “day-ending” event. In my case, I’m fortunate that I can still get stuff done in the morning, but after lunch, the day’s pretty much a write-off.
I’m really grateful that they are so rare (I’ve had three full-term, and one “aborted” one, in the last 30 years). My mother used to get one or two a month, and her day ended fairly early. When I was a teenager, I got them more frequently.
Real migraines absolutely suck. A lot of folks describe regular headaches as “migraines,” but they are a pale imitation of the real thing.
In my case, they usually start in the morning, but don’t get really excruciating until early evening. I usually figure out it’s a migraine, about lunchtime. Around 9-10PM or so, I puke, then the headache starts leveling off, until I fall asleep. The next day, it’s as if nothing happened.
I did “short-circuit” one, the last time one started, using advice that I remembered from my mother. I sat in a recliner, in a dark room, with a towel wrapped around the top of my head and eyes (probably looked ridiculous). It’s important not to engage my eyes at all. After a couple of hours, the headache stopped.