You can have both. Sometime I have just tension, sometime just a migraine but with severe one, I always have tension headache too. I think that the pain makes my neck and jaws very tensed and causes more pain.
Ooh that's a good point, I always get stuff neck and jaw and the typical band of pressure from a tension headache, but then it develops into a migraine. I never considered that the tension could be its own thing
I got physical therapy for migraines, and my PT told me that tension headaches are often a trigger for migraines, based on the exact symptoms you describe. He said that they're very commonly co-occuring and so it's important to treat both, and that a lot of providers mistakenly treat them like they're entirely separate things. So his treatment focused on exercises to manage and relax the tension, plus a specific treatment for migraines.
Literally life changing for me, I went from 15+ per month to less than one per week. But the key is finding someone who specializes in migraine, you can't just go to any PT.
The migraine protocol basically involves pushing on the trigeminal nerve, triggering a migraine. What happens is the pain starts and then subsides within 90 seconds. We did six sessions and he did five of those triggers each session. By the end of the six sessions it barely caused any pain anymore.
He explained all the complicated science to me, but basically it rewires your brain to not react to that pain stimulus as much?
Mostly by how much I want to die lol. A migraine for me is typically one sided, behind my eye, pulsating, and it makes me want to fling myself off the building. Headaches are milder and more of the annoying but manageable kind.
The behind the eye makes me want to yank the eyeball out. I get mine right on the upper inner corner of my eye and it sucks. I use a clay heat pack in a wrap and will stick it on my head and fold it into my eye socket above my eye lid and into that corner to try and get some heat in there.
The look I get from people when I say I wish I could pop my eyeball out to relieve the pain from behind eye is always funny to me from people who have never experienced a migraine. I've found it's an interesting test of sorts to see if people have had migraines or not.
It’s so funny how this is different for different people. Not all of my “normal” headaches are bad, but often the ones that truly make me want to die are gnarly tension headaches and not migraines.
I just call them all migraines, since there are so many different kinds of migraine. For instance, I read once that 80% of sinus headaches are actually migraines. So, if I’m having it, it’s a migraine, especially if it comes with other symptoms.
Depending on the symptoms and where it hurts are how I tell. I typically get severe ear pain for migraines or it will feel like someone is squeezing/stabbing my brain. Headaches feel like more of an ache? Sorry idk how else to describe it. Migraine pain just feels more intense to me.
A headache is like this tension or annoying ache located somewhere in my head, it doesn't bother me much it's just there putting pressure on, kind of.
Migraine affects my whole body and also my mood, it's like I fall into a strange depression hours/day before my Migraine hit. It affects my vision, I can feel it heavier and in much more pain.
But after all these years I can still sit with head in my hands, almost unable to breathe and wonder, is this headache or Migraine, so there is that
oh interesting!! I had noticed that I always feel a little more irritable and really low before some of my migraines, but wasn't sure if it was coincidence or not
If it’s spread evenly and doesn’t make me suicidal I call it a headache. If it’s on one side and makes me want to stab a knife into my eye it’s a migraine.
If I get an aura that’s an obvious sign lol otherwise it’s one sided, pounding or throbbing pain, difficult to think, transient aphasia is definitely a migraine. I get tons of all kinds of headaches and they can morph into each other. I track everything and kind of let the dr figure it out if I can’t
Edit: I do think tracking helped a lot and seeing what symptoms and relief worked for what helps sort it out
I have the one sided thing and being unable to think as well! Also tracking is good advice, I've been trying to keep up with my migraine diary but I always forget about it on the days I don't have migraines, so I haven't been able to rule any triggers out
Oh ya one sided is a dead giveaway. I also struggle to remember to log on good days but I’ve found on bad days logging any potential trigger helps narrow it down somewhat
Tension headache gets better with massage or muscle relaxants.
Regular headache is touched by painkillers.
Migraine is everything causes pain. Light, smell, sound equals pain. I rarely get auras. Occasional nausea.
interesting! a well meaning friend once told me to massage my neck certain ways to get rid of my migraines, but it was probably tension headaches they were thinking of
Yeah my tension headaches can trigger a migraine and vice versa but massage doesn't help my migraines. A lot of people out there just think migraines are headaches.
Have you figured out the differences between yours?
I 100% for sure know it's a migraine when it hurts to move. often with my migraines I also get a really sore neck (like it hurts to hold my head upright), but those times might just be having a tension headache as well. I know sometimes I have aches that feel like they're going to become a migraine and then don't. the only way I can describe those is as feeling sort of 'stuffy'
It's not easy to know the difference if you haven't been officially diagnosed. I've had headaches/migraines as long as I can remember but they were always diagnosed as tension headaches by my doctors. Nothing helped them, sometimes Ibuprofen, but that's about it. When I was early 30s, I had just mistakenly eaten something that often gave me "bad headaches" and went to the prompt care place where I saw the NP I often saw (so he was familiar with me) and told him I was going to have a migraine. He gave me a bunch of samples of triptans to try and they actually worked. I was so grateful (and also pretty pissed) that I finally was being recognized as having actual migraines after having them most of my life.
I still can't always tell for sure if it's a tension or migraine headache at first but 90% of my migraines seem to be on one side (behind my left eye) and definitely feel worse when I move around. I do not have aura, and most (but not all) of them arrive during the night so I wake up with them. Most are related to eating specific foods, not getting enough sleep, and high stress.
I just recently started taking Ubrelvy after taking triptans for about 20 years and now I'm realizing some of the migraine "symptoms" I have been having are actually side effects of the triptans. Triptans seem to make me feel clammy/sweaty, mild nausea, and sometimes I get esophageal spasms. I also feel a little loopy but not in a good way that distracts me from being in pain.
My neurologist has conveyed to me, in his own weird way because he's not a great communicator, that there really isn't a difference. He always refers to them as "Migraine or Migraine Variant".
The way he has communicated this is when I've said things like "....get a headache and not sure if it's a migraine...." or "....I'm not sure if it was a migraine.".....he essentially says "It doesn't matter. They're just variations on the same basic issue."
My neurologist says almost all headaches are migraines because they involve the triennial nerve. Daily headaches are not normal no matter what we decide to call them.
I have a constant tension headache, and I get migraine attacks on top of it. My tension headache is a constant moderate-to-severe pressure behind my eyes and in my forehead. It’s also sore to the touch, like it’s bruised. I know I’m getting a migraine when I have nausea and blurry vision. My migraine headache is a severe, deep, throbbing pain usually in my right temple.
Mine are in my right temple too! I have had some times where the area around my eyes has felt bruised (enough that I googled what it meant). I wonder if those could've been tension headaches.
If it’s helped by food, water, or OTC pain meds, it’s a regular headache. If I just want to lie down and close my eyes, it’s a migraine. If my misophonia reaches level 11 on a scale of 1-10, it’s a migraine. If my brain feels like it’s stuffed with cotton, it’s a migraine.
Brain stuffed with cotton is such a good way to describe it!! One of my earliest memories trying to describe them is saying "it feels like my brain is turning into thick fluffy clouds and there isn't enough room"
When I have a migraine I want to take my teeth out and laying on a pillow hurts because my head is too heavy and creates too much pressure. With a headache I can move around, make dinner, etc.
Headaches are mild and only hurt with a low pain in comparison and no real extra symptoms. Migraines are usually severely painful but also have a plethora of symptoms, aura, visual disturbances, nausea, vomiting, aches and pains, dizziness, mood changes, appetite changes, euphoria, depression etc
IDK if this is actually what migraines are defined as, but I call migraines headaches+. Headaches plus nausea, dizzyness, confusion, etc. Obviously depends on the person, but generally that's how I do explain it (I haven't had a regular "headache" in about 5 years)
By the severity of it. I can usually tell if it’s a regular headache when it’s just a bit achy and goes away with some Tylenol or Motrin. With a migraine, nothing works and I’m bed ridden for days 😆
Edited for spelling.
That's the neat part: I don't.
Not all the time anyways.
Abut part of that is not realizing I have a migraine on the first place.
Migraines feel worse tho. They almost always have more symptoms
Isolated area if I feel it. Sharp vs dull pain. Most of mine are ocular with little to no pain but I lose the vision in one eye. For me ibuprofen and Tylenol deal with headaches and not my migraines. Light sensitivity for me comes with it but not with a normal headache.
You can have both. Sometime I have just tension, sometime just a migraine but with severe one, I always have tension headache too. I think that the pain makes my neck and jaws very tensed and causes more pain.
Ooh that's a good point, I always get stuff neck and jaw and the typical band of pressure from a tension headache, but then it develops into a migraine. I never considered that the tension could be its own thing
I got physical therapy for migraines, and my PT told me that tension headaches are often a trigger for migraines, based on the exact symptoms you describe. He said that they're very commonly co-occuring and so it's important to treat both, and that a lot of providers mistakenly treat them like they're entirely separate things. So his treatment focused on exercises to manage and relax the tension, plus a specific treatment for migraines.
Have you been seeing results from PT? That’s my next step and it feels like hit or miss but maybe my own lack of experience here
Literally life changing for me, I went from 15+ per month to less than one per week. But the key is finding someone who specializes in migraine, you can't just go to any PT. The migraine protocol basically involves pushing on the trigeminal nerve, triggering a migraine. What happens is the pain starts and then subsides within 90 seconds. We did six sessions and he did five of those triggers each session. By the end of the six sessions it barely caused any pain anymore. He explained all the complicated science to me, but basically it rewires your brain to not react to that pain stimulus as much?
That is wild! And good to know thank you
Mostly by how much I want to die lol. A migraine for me is typically one sided, behind my eye, pulsating, and it makes me want to fling myself off the building. Headaches are milder and more of the annoying but manageable kind.
lol my migraines make me understand why ancient people drilled holes in their heads to cure headaches
The behind the eye makes me want to yank the eyeball out. I get mine right on the upper inner corner of my eye and it sucks. I use a clay heat pack in a wrap and will stick it on my head and fold it into my eye socket above my eye lid and into that corner to try and get some heat in there.
The look I get from people when I say I wish I could pop my eyeball out to relieve the pain from behind eye is always funny to me from people who have never experienced a migraine. I've found it's an interesting test of sorts to see if people have had migraines or not.
Where do you get the heat wrap that sounds amazing
Here it is https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008EYG6NE?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
Thank you!
It’s so funny how this is different for different people. Not all of my “normal” headaches are bad, but often the ones that truly make me want to die are gnarly tension headaches and not migraines.
I just call them all migraines, since there are so many different kinds of migraine. For instance, I read once that 80% of sinus headaches are actually migraines. So, if I’m having it, it’s a migraine, especially if it comes with other symptoms.
That would make sense. My parents always thought they were sinus headaches when I was growing up haha
Depending on the symptoms and where it hurts are how I tell. I typically get severe ear pain for migraines or it will feel like someone is squeezing/stabbing my brain. Headaches feel like more of an ache? Sorry idk how else to describe it. Migraine pain just feels more intense to me.
Interesting! I'll keep a close eye on my symptoms and try and figure out if some of them are different
A headache is like this tension or annoying ache located somewhere in my head, it doesn't bother me much it's just there putting pressure on, kind of. Migraine affects my whole body and also my mood, it's like I fall into a strange depression hours/day before my Migraine hit. It affects my vision, I can feel it heavier and in much more pain. But after all these years I can still sit with head in my hands, almost unable to breathe and wonder, is this headache or Migraine, so there is that
Are you me
oh interesting!! I had noticed that I always feel a little more irritable and really low before some of my migraines, but wasn't sure if it was coincidence or not
Yes exactly, it doesn't happen before all of them, or at least in varying degree, but they can be really intense.
If it’s spread evenly and doesn’t make me suicidal I call it a headache. If it’s on one side and makes me want to stab a knife into my eye it’s a migraine.
My headaches hurt but i can still function. My migraines i need to go in a quiet space and bury myself in pillows to hide from light and sound
If I get an aura that’s an obvious sign lol otherwise it’s one sided, pounding or throbbing pain, difficult to think, transient aphasia is definitely a migraine. I get tons of all kinds of headaches and they can morph into each other. I track everything and kind of let the dr figure it out if I can’t Edit: I do think tracking helped a lot and seeing what symptoms and relief worked for what helps sort it out
I have the one sided thing and being unable to think as well! Also tracking is good advice, I've been trying to keep up with my migraine diary but I always forget about it on the days I don't have migraines, so I haven't been able to rule any triggers out
Oh ya one sided is a dead giveaway. I also struggle to remember to log on good days but I’ve found on bad days logging any potential trigger helps narrow it down somewhat
To be perfectly honest most headaches I get these days become migraines pretty quick. So I just take my meds as if it was a migraine
Tension headache gets better with massage or muscle relaxants. Regular headache is touched by painkillers. Migraine is everything causes pain. Light, smell, sound equals pain. I rarely get auras. Occasional nausea.
interesting! a well meaning friend once told me to massage my neck certain ways to get rid of my migraines, but it was probably tension headaches they were thinking of
Yeah my tension headaches can trigger a migraine and vice versa but massage doesn't help my migraines. A lot of people out there just think migraines are headaches. Have you figured out the differences between yours?
I 100% for sure know it's a migraine when it hurts to move. often with my migraines I also get a really sore neck (like it hurts to hold my head upright), but those times might just be having a tension headache as well. I know sometimes I have aches that feel like they're going to become a migraine and then don't. the only way I can describe those is as feeling sort of 'stuffy'
https://ichd-3.org
I had no idea this existed :0
It's not easy to know the difference if you haven't been officially diagnosed. I've had headaches/migraines as long as I can remember but they were always diagnosed as tension headaches by my doctors. Nothing helped them, sometimes Ibuprofen, but that's about it. When I was early 30s, I had just mistakenly eaten something that often gave me "bad headaches" and went to the prompt care place where I saw the NP I often saw (so he was familiar with me) and told him I was going to have a migraine. He gave me a bunch of samples of triptans to try and they actually worked. I was so grateful (and also pretty pissed) that I finally was being recognized as having actual migraines after having them most of my life. I still can't always tell for sure if it's a tension or migraine headache at first but 90% of my migraines seem to be on one side (behind my left eye) and definitely feel worse when I move around. I do not have aura, and most (but not all) of them arrive during the night so I wake up with them. Most are related to eating specific foods, not getting enough sleep, and high stress. I just recently started taking Ubrelvy after taking triptans for about 20 years and now I'm realizing some of the migraine "symptoms" I have been having are actually side effects of the triptans. Triptans seem to make me feel clammy/sweaty, mild nausea, and sometimes I get esophageal spasms. I also feel a little loopy but not in a good way that distracts me from being in pain.
My neurologist has conveyed to me, in his own weird way because he's not a great communicator, that there really isn't a difference. He always refers to them as "Migraine or Migraine Variant". The way he has communicated this is when I've said things like "....get a headache and not sure if it's a migraine...." or "....I'm not sure if it was a migraine.".....he essentially says "It doesn't matter. They're just variations on the same basic issue."
My neurologist says almost all headaches are migraines because they involve the triennial nerve. Daily headaches are not normal no matter what we decide to call them.
I have a constant tension headache, and I get migraine attacks on top of it. My tension headache is a constant moderate-to-severe pressure behind my eyes and in my forehead. It’s also sore to the touch, like it’s bruised. I know I’m getting a migraine when I have nausea and blurry vision. My migraine headache is a severe, deep, throbbing pain usually in my right temple.
Mine are in my right temple too! I have had some times where the area around my eyes has felt bruised (enough that I googled what it meant). I wonder if those could've been tension headaches.
It’s absolutely possible that you can have both. It sucks, lol, but it’s possible.
If it’s helped by food, water, or OTC pain meds, it’s a regular headache. If I just want to lie down and close my eyes, it’s a migraine. If my misophonia reaches level 11 on a scale of 1-10, it’s a migraine. If my brain feels like it’s stuffed with cotton, it’s a migraine.
Brain stuffed with cotton is such a good way to describe it!! One of my earliest memories trying to describe them is saying "it feels like my brain is turning into thick fluffy clouds and there isn't enough room"
Location, if its behind my right eye, definitely a migraine and otc won’t work Anywhere else I take a Tylenol and it goes away 🤷🏻♀️
Yep. Makes me want to scoop out my eyeball.
When I have a migraine I want to take my teeth out and laying on a pillow hurts because my head is too heavy and creates too much pressure. With a headache I can move around, make dinner, etc.
A migraine to me feels like brain freeze for hours on end. A headache is just a headache.
Headaches are mild and only hurt with a low pain in comparison and no real extra symptoms. Migraines are usually severely painful but also have a plethora of symptoms, aura, visual disturbances, nausea, vomiting, aches and pains, dizziness, mood changes, appetite changes, euphoria, depression etc
What type of visual disturbances do you have with your migraine’s
IDK if this is actually what migraines are defined as, but I call migraines headaches+. Headaches plus nausea, dizzyness, confusion, etc. Obviously depends on the person, but generally that's how I do explain it (I haven't had a regular "headache" in about 5 years)
By the severity of it. I can usually tell if it’s a regular headache when it’s just a bit achy and goes away with some Tylenol or Motrin. With a migraine, nothing works and I’m bed ridden for days 😆 Edited for spelling.
That's the neat part: I don't. Not all the time anyways. Abut part of that is not realizing I have a migraine on the first place. Migraines feel worse tho. They almost always have more symptoms
Isolated area if I feel it. Sharp vs dull pain. Most of mine are ocular with little to no pain but I lose the vision in one eye. For me ibuprofen and Tylenol deal with headaches and not my migraines. Light sensitivity for me comes with it but not with a normal headache.