Headache Auras and Epilsey

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Just currious as to what experiences are with headaches. I get headaches about 2x a month, but 3 or 4 times a year I get a very, very intense aura that is almost unbelievable in its pleasure.

The symtoms of sensory overload appear; everything is turned into hushed white noise and I get a sensation I can only describe as being pulled into the sky by angels. I feel almost god-like (I don't do anything risky, just a feeling) and the world just seems to really open up. I guess I could also describe it as being high, but since I have never used drugs in this manner I don't know for sure if that describes it.

A visual image of what goes through my head is essentally the scene from 2001 space oddessy where dave enters the "wormhole".

After the aura, I get a terrible migrane and I feel I must sleep or it will escalate.

After I wake up, I normally feel hushed, silent inside. As if a storm had passed or was the calm before the storm. Very peaceful.

Right before auras I tend to be and feel extremely creative, as if my mind was a thunderstorm almost.

I had four nocturnal seizures when I was entering puberty, first one at age 12 and the last at 16. A MRI found a lesion in my left temporal lobe and EEG was abnormal, but not eplietic in nature. Sometimes I freeze for a very brief time and jerk once all over my body, and I suspect this is a seizure, although I am reluctant to share this with the doctor b/c I need to drive.

I do not have full-blown seizures.

Please do share thoughts and experiences.

Prometheus, I think that the aura you describe is not uncommon with people who suffer from classic migraine attacks, but perhaps you are unusual and lucky in finding it pleasurable! (although I guess the headache itself is no fun).
Me, from about age 8 for approx. 30 years I suffered from classical migraine attacks.These were always preceded by a visual aura; bright flashing lights , shimmering around objects, and a large blind spot to one side of my visual field. I found these auras very distressing, not just because of the blind spot and visual distortion, but because I knew they would be followed by several hours of intense pain and vomiting. At age 38 I suffered a subarachnoid (brain) haemorrhage caused by a ruptured aneurysm ...apparently I had been born with a malformation of blood vessels, previously unrecognised. To cut a long story short I had surgery to mend the damaged blood vessels.... and lo! The migraine attacks disppeared! Well, almost. Since that time I have had practically no headaches, and none of the dreadful one-sided migraines at all; but I do occasionally have the visual disturbance, but with no pain. Unfortunately, even though it is painless, I still find it distressing as it reminds me of being very ill in hospital (before my operation I had a lot of visual disturbance) I have actually seen a suggestion that low blood sugar levels can trigger migraines But I am not sure if this has been researched.

As you have indicated, migraine is said to be related to epilepsy .... both involve changes in (electrical) brain activity. So please , if you are having brief attacks - which could be small seizures or 'petit mal' - consider being checked out by your doctor. These can be controlled, but if neglected, could make driving dangerous.
fter my operation, because of the possibility of having a seizure, I was not supposed to drive for a year so I know how frustrating this can be!
Although in my case it appears the migraine headaches were related to the blood vessel malformation, I should stress that my doctor said this is unusual. With most migraine sufferers there is sadly no obvious cause for what can be a very painful and repeated complaint.

Glenn

God like? Hmm.. I used to get migrane attacks and the aura was nothing shot of unpleasent and uncomfortable.. Those flashing lights were what made me desperatley afraid of a migrane attack.

We might be talking about different things?

Is there a website devoted to migraines and/or seizures that you could request advice annonymously from in ordeer to get treatment without revealing the extent of the problem? Maybe addressing it as a simple migraine would suffice?

quite possibly. Many in my family suffer from migraines.

Although I did have 2 migraines where my vision was affected, they tend not to affect vision at all and just be more of a sensation of being high.




Great suggestion, sean. I'll look into it and post once I find something (if anything)

I don't think I have migranes... but I do get frequent small annoying headaches that linger for days. It seems to move around my head too... and sometimes accompanied with this is a sense of nausea.

I have also felt something like those Auras... I don't really much anymore. But its a feeling like I am taller than anything I am looking at... its not a frame of mind, like I am arrogant or anything, just a differient perspective. And conversations seem to go slower to me, everything is moving slower... its quite strange.

I also had very werid sureal dreams while I had the chicken pocks... its almost impossible for to describe... it felt like something was growing uncontrolable and other things were moving to brace for impact. I kind of wish I had one of these again, it was quite an interesting experience.

Very very strange sensations.

found:

http://www.searchword.org/ep/epilepsy.html

And far more interesting for me:



Maybe I am not so AS than I thought. . . .. . .this is getting more and more interesting the farther and farther I get!



/me stims hard in excitment

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ictal_headache

more on seizure-related headaches. . .

http://web.lemoyne.edu/~hevern/psy448/4 ... poral.html

Last edited by Prometheus on 02 Jul 2005, 3:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I get a headache every day.

I get migraines related to humidity, hormones, allergy, lack of sensory input, and a few other things. All together I get maybe one or two a month. Before them I get the auras, bright flashing lights, blind spots, dizziness, and a general odd and unpleasant feeling. Then of course the headaches that follow are no picnic, either

hmm. I also neglected to add that I also do get what I consider "mini-auras" without the headaches that seem to be much smaller and less intense in duration. I get these on a quite regular frequency, about 3 or 4x a week. They do not neccesarily make me feel god-like, but I do feel absolutely complete, as if everything was in place. not as intense, but there nonetheless.

I used to see auras around people and objects when they were up against particularly light backgrounds, especially white. This happened mostly when I was a kid.

Does anyone else experience this? Anyone know perhaps why it happens if so???

Next, you'll be visited by a couple of midget doctors carrying scissors on the roof of a hospital.

[/obscure reference]

That's something to do with the retina, I think, like if you look at something then move a tad.

People that see supernatural aura's don't need any specific backgrounds I don't think.. I'd like to know what they see though.

I have in the past had euphoria-inducing migraine auras. Now they're just the plain old ordinary ones.

Functional imaging showed abnormalities in both temporal lobes in my case, EEGs abnormal but not epileptic-looking, but I do also seem to have classic temporal lobe seizures that go away almost entirely when I take Neurontin. Sometimes, though, if I have a migraine long enough (like a week or more) I can have a seizure, but that may be from the sleep disruption since not getting enough sleep is a seizure trigger for me. Also when I took neuroleptics I got new kinds of seizures (in that case atonic and myoclonic).

It can at times be hard to tell the difference between migraines and seizures because both of them can do such strange things during the auras. Including I think both a migraine and a partial seizure could cause freezing in place. But I freeze in place for reasons that appear unrelated to both. So no real answers here.

Besides AS I also have CP which I have had SEIZURES on and off ALL MY LIFE.

They SHORT CIRCUIT the poor Brain. Even ahve sometimes CONVULSIONS.

Have had these types of SEIZURES.

Absence seizures, Tonic-Clonic seizures, Atonic seizures

My advise is this if YOU are having seizures you might in danger yourself or others if they happen when you are driving, I hope they are not.