Poll: Migraine and Autism - Aspergers

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I had terrible migraine when I was a kid. I even pass an EEG to see what I got. I ounce thougth it would be somekind of tumor and it was because of this that I had a problem standing up. Those migraine are located in the frontal lobe and it gave me nausea. Since I smoke weed, those migraine are gone so the nausea thing.

I only get "silent" migraines (a.k.a. opthalmic/optic migraine), where there is a shimmering pattern in my visual field for a little while, but no pain or nausea. (I imagine that must be kind of annoying to people who get pain & nausea from migraines.)

I don't think I get visual auras, except I have a visual aura all the time so how could I know?

Anyway, what I usually get is a weird spacey dizziness that is hard to explain, and is in many ways worse than the actual pain.

I get bad headaches sometimes, but only when I have the flu or something.

I get very mild headaches sometime but never migraines.

When I was younger migraines were a weekly occurance, but since I've stopped eating red meat I'm down to one a month. The smell of mince meat frying in a pan can trigger an attack and weather changes.

I always have trouble speaking just before the pain of the migraine hits, my sentences become jumbled and my speech slurs, my senses become heightened specifically smell. Visual aura's include floating dots and movement in my peripheral vision.

I have been getting mygraines since sixteen. when they first started
I would only have one a year. Now at 47 I am getting one every week.
My understanding is that fewer males than females suffer from mygrains (I am a guy)
and that more males are on the autism spectrum. It would not surprise me
if there is a connection though.

I don't get migraines very often, maybe 4-6 a year, though I do have nearly constant headaches. When I do get what I assume to be a migraine it's behind my left eye, in the area of where I got kicked by a horse about 10 years ago...

I never get migraines or any other type of headache. I don't get virtually any of the ailments most people do, it seems.

Female, PDD-NOS, and I've had migraines since I was a child. For the last few months though, they have only been visual migraines, no headache. The flashing blue lighting lasts for about an hour and then I just get very tired.

I have migraines and seizures usually around the same time.

I have two owies.

Oh and I have high functioning autism.

Thanks for the poll responses. Please keep them coming!

FYI, I'm not a doctor or a scientist in medicine, so forgive me if I don't use the right terminology. Please use this post as a starting point for further research. I'll try to describe my understanding of migraines as best I can.

Migraine headaches used to be considered a vasco-neurological disorder. Constriction of the blood vessels in the brain causes reduced oxygen, which causes migraine headaches. This explains some migraine symptoms and effects: caffeine is known to help because it dilates blood vessels, breathing air with enriched oxygen can help, and traveling on airplanes (reduced cabin pressure) can trigger migraines. The short take is that migraines were considered a chemical imbalance in the brain.

Some scientists now believe that migraines are associated with abnormal levels of brain activity. If a portion of the brain becomes over stimulated, the overstimulation can cascade through the brain and the result is felt as a migraine. Many migraine sufferers experience aura before the onset of pain. The short take is that migraines are primarily an electrical imbalance in the brain.

How would this be related to AS/Autism? There is variation in the normal level of brain activity from person to person, from brain to brain. A brain that normally operates with a high level of activity would be more easily pushed over the edge into overstimulation and the cascade effect. Migraines have been correlated with depression, so a similar correlation may exist for AS.

I'm wondering whether many of our annoyances are actually triggers, or if we're just extra sensitive before spacing out.

When I was 12-14 I suddenly got a spate of migraines which scared me. It wasn't so much the headache that followed that bothered me, it was the aura that came before it, which was awful. It'd come on from 10 minutes to 45 minutes, where all my vision would be completely disturbed and flickering, it was the same if I closed my eyes. I imagine it was also scary because I am an Aspie and all. St the end I threw up and then the pain suddenly vanished, and it was lovely having the pain go in one fell swoop and going down to watch TV (exhausted). Also my sensitivies got 10x worse, especially sense of smell. My dad made me some tea and the smell from across the room would make me throw up, yuck.

Actually, it became quite a special interest of mine. I can still see myself earnestly talking about visual distortions and how to tell the difference between cluster headaches and migraines to the poor GP

I've had half a dozen or so migraines from my teens in 98 to the last one which was in early 2006. They start with a blind spot on my vision which, over half an hour or so, grows to almost completely blind me. As that subsides the actual migraine starts and lasts for about half an hour to an hour. The pain is so bad I feel nauseous but I've never thrown up. Man I hope I never have another one again. I think mine were light related as I seem to remember they all happened in warm or hot weather when the sun would have been bright and I've never had one at night. And it gets pretty bright down here in Aus.
Seems like, from the posts, this could be Autism related?