Migraine with aura... I need people to relate to!

Hi everyone! I'm 21 now and have been experiencing migraines with aura for 8 years now. I never get a terrible headache after the aura, sometimes there is no headache to begin with. Anyways, the auras used to come every few months... Now it's every few weeks, which is awful. I'd really love to hear some peoples experiences with this... How often do you get the auras, what are they like, and how do they make you feel? Thanks !!!

I have what are called basilar migraines and they have more stroke-like aura symptoms and I don't usually have migraine pain (I can however have migraine pain at other times) associated with those symptoms. I have numbness around my mouth and down my throat, confusion, sensitivity to light and sound, inability to speak and lowered level of consciousness (kind of like a fog that rolls into my brain) that usually leads to my fading out completely for at least 20 minutes. I have some of these symptoms usually every day. When the aura symptoms are over I am exhausted - like I have been in some kind of fight. My brain is tired, my muscles are stiff and sore and it feels like someone punched me in the stomach.

There are quite a wide range of migraine symptoms......what symptoms do you experience? Do you know what your triggers are? I think for me when my brain is exposed to too many of my triggers it has to reboot and the migraine happens - when it is done it is like it has reset itself and I start fresh again. Does that make sense? I know it is very frustrating to have these happen more and more often - especially since it seems that we have such little control over what is happening to our bodies. This site is a good place to chat, vent, and explore new ideas. Stay in touch! Leslie

My auras use to be only the zig zag kind and hit every month. Now the zig zags can be every month to every few months. These are the worst auras for me and the headache comes after. They are pretty scary.

I get other types of auras now. Flashes of light is one type(blue,etc). They don't bother me that much unless they are constant or I have a huge flash. The flashes come and go during the month.

Thanks you both, it's nice to have people to relate to. Dang that sucks you get the stroke like symptoms. I bet that is extremely scary and annoying too. Usually all that happens to me Is I slowly start losing my vision and within ten minutes I can barely see anything. It only starts off as a small blind spot. Within thirty minutes or so, I can see again basically. It is usually my only symptom. Sometimes I get a little confused and out of it, but I think it's only because I can't see. Sometimes I've noticed I'm really tired before the aura. That makes sense what you mean that your brain resets itself. I haven't found any certain triggers... I am a smoke trying to quit because my neurologist says I will have a stroke if I keep smoking... Which scares me. I've noticed menthol cigarettes have sometimes given me a migraine. And emotional stress. I can't pin point anything. But maybe it's a bunch of stuff added up kinda like you said. What sucks the most is they can haPpen whenever. When you are driving, at a concert, on vacation, and it makes things terrible :/ I feel so bad for all of us

Welcome! I am a chronic migraine sufferer. Sometimes I auras precede the migraines, sometimes not. Sometimes I will get an aura and no migraine after. It's weird. My auras generally start out as flashing lights, red or blue or all different colors. I see zigzagging patterns, changing colors, sometimes whole parts of my field of vision are blurred or nonexistant, if that makes sense. I've even seen objects or felt sensations of shrinking or growing bigger. It's crazy!

Can totally relate to this. I have a group of aura symptoms which convene together. There's dizziness and blurry vision, vertigo and flashing. In the end it usually ends up in tunnel vision where all my peripheral vision disappears. This is particularly scary on the way home from work if I'm driving or something and the worst is if I end up in traffic. The heat, the repetition and the flashing lights make it worse because I have very bad photophobia, it's like needles going into my eyes. During the migraine I usually get numbness in my limbs and my speech is slurred and slow, I also find it difficult to hear or think coherently, with the excruciating pain. After the really bad ones, that go on for a whole day or more, I get this really weird feeling of lightheadedness, vertigo without the pain. It's weirdly refreshing and I go on a sort of post-migraine high. The whole thing is a bit of a nightmare to be honest. Pain - relief from pain - pain again.