why would crying clear the visual disturbances of my migraine?

Ok I had just about everything go wrong and when my computer broke it was the last straw. I got cross with myself because it was only a thing and I shouldn't let it bother me but that wasn't really what was upsetting me and I bust into tears.

A bit later I realsied that I had no migraine symptoms at all, from being surrounded by visual disturbance, feeling sick, blinding headache and piercing pains that came and went between back of eyes and ears, slightly dizzy, pannicky. I looked like I needed to go to bed and would be there for at least a day.

That afternoon I went out and drove the car to the shops, made a joke with the person behind the till and took some stuff to the tip.

So does anyone have any idea why this worked, bearing in mind my normal is what someone without migraine would call ill? I wish I could recreate this obviously without having to feel that bad that I bust into tears, because I had almost forgotten how life could be.

best wishes

Di

That's interesting. I have heard of people with whom crying is a migraine trigger, but you may have the opposite! I wonder if it was just a one off thing.

Could your migraine have been caused by stress? sometimes crying is a way to relieve stress. I hate to cry and do it very rarely, but I do suscribe to the idea that everyone needs a good cry sometimes! I hate the way I feel after ward, tired, red, burning eyes, and a snotty nose, but usually I feel real relief inside. Maybe it was just some sort of release for you! whatever it was, I would take advantage of the fact that you felt better!

I think that a portion of visual disturbances, such as blurry vision or seeing double, might be caused; or if not caused, at least worsened; by overly dry eyes. The crying would have added much needed moisture to your eyes.

I do not know about the rest of your symptoms, though.

Maybe crying make you contract/relax certain ocular muscles that adjust the vision.
Or, you may have some minor eye infection that the tears can temporally wash out.

Also, it is possible that you're getting short sighted and the tears can improve the curve of your eye and temporally correct the shortsightdeness. This is what happened to me last year. I used to have blurred vision and thought that my contacts were dirty. As soon as I used artificial tears, I could see much better but the effect lasted only few minutes. Then I had my sight checked and I found out that I had lost one diopter.
With the new lenses, no more blurring vision

Hmmm, if Dizzyflower's referring to visual aura that some of us get with migraines it's a neurological symptom, not optical, so dry/wet eyes wouldn't affect it.

I've sobbed through some auras, and remained stoic and dry-eyed through others, and it's never changed a thing about the scotoma that I experience.

I quite like stephgood's theory that crying was a big stress release. Lovely that you got some reprieve - wonder how we can harness it!

LHx

Some good points on this one, thanks for giving it some thought.

My eye glasses are up to date as I have new ones and have mentioned the visual disturbances inthe examination. No joy there. I get the impression that something opens up in my head or some chemical reaction takes place. the result lasted till I woke the following day on vision, and the clarity of thinking that isn't normally there is there present tonight.

I usually run to the doctor when things get worse, perhaps I ought to make an appointment to find out if this could be useful. I know our triggers are wide and varied. Have some of us mentioned they feel better after a thunder storm, could it be a bit like that? Like the atmospherics in my head clearing?

I wondered about oxygen intake, as I seemed to breathe clearer, could that be anything to do with it?

I know that they use oxygen therapy a lot of time for cluster headaches. I think it is like 20 minutes of oxygen when they have an attack. Good Question though!