I’ve had migraines on and off for years. I have some strong medication for them – Sumatriptan and Codydramol. I also have Propranolol, which was more recently prescribed to me for anxiety, but was tried by one doctor to help with migraines (it didn’t work on its own).

While researching ASD, I discovered that autistic people often suffer from migraines. These can be brought on by stress or over-stimulation.

Family history

My mum also suffered from migraines, especially when I was younger. She discovered a few triggers. For her cochineal (red food dye made from squashed beetles – she used it to ice cakes) was a trigger. I am sure that toddlers were also a trigger for her, because her migraines seemed to ease as my brother and I grew up.

My husband said that I couldn’t claim migraines as an ASD symptom since my mum also suffered from them. I agree its less clear cut, but I think that my ASD traits can contribute to them.

My symptoms

Often, I will get tinnitus (which might be described as a sort of audio-aura). This could be an early warning that a migraine is coming – I’ve only recently identified that’s symptom, so I haven’t had much chance to test it out.

Weirdly, I can be in serious pain and not realise it until either suddenly I am aware of it, or maybe somebody asks “are you alright”

It’s crazy that I can be in so much pain and not realise it! Its not that uncommon to not be immediately aware of a migraine, since sometimes they can creep up on you.

How much of the unawareness of pain is down to ASD traits, I cannot say.

My triggers

• Droning background sounds (eg traffic, vacuum cleaners)
• Blue light (especially strip lights)
• Lots of people talking at once (like a meeting – or background noise – they are essentially the same thing!)
• Dark chocolate (which, of course, is my favourite)
• Disrupted sleep patterns
• Dehydration
• Too much caffeine (thankfully, I don’t drink much any more, so too little caffeine is no longer an issue)
• Stress!
• Eyestrain

Its a wonder I can get up sometimes!

Management strategies

Droning background sounds

I have a set of noise-cancelling headphones that I now use when I go into town or go to the supermarket; they seem to really help.

Lots of people talking at once

This is an extension of background noise, however it is worse because my brain tries to follow the various conversations. Sometimes, and only rarely, am I able to filter them out. There is nothing to be done about this, if I am having a conversation.

Meetings can be almost as bad, especially when I am not feeling great. Even when people take it in turns, following the conversation can be difficult. Even in online meetings, where the current speaker is highlighted, I find it difficult – more difficult. Its as though the words are English, but they make no sense.

I have no idea how to manage this.

Blue light

Blue lights hurt my eyes, especially car lights in the dark and the office lighting. I have my screens set for “eye comfort”, which is supposed to reduce the blue light. I have also bought myself a pair of yellow tinted glasses to help reduce the problem.

Dark chocolate (which, of course, is my favourite)

If I am idiot enough to eat dark chocolate, then I deserve what’s coning to me!

Disrupted sleep

In some respects, this cannot be helped – if I get a poor night’s sleep, then I stand a reasonable chance of developing a migraine before the day has even started. I can help myself a little by sticking to a regular sleep routine, which is also good for ASD trait management.

If I get a few rough nights, having a single sleep aid will help. I regularly take a sleep aid on the weekend as a treat.

Too much sleep basically means that I’ve had too much of a lie in. I believe that this is mostly a problem because it causes dehydration.

Dehydration

Usually, I drink a (decaffe) coffee every hour on the hour, or before every meeting I will make a fresh coffee. Being dehydrated is unusual for me.

Caffeine

When I had my wisdom teeth out, I wasn’t allowed to drink hot drinks for about a week – and I had very strong painkillers – the result was I broke my caffeine addiction. Breaking the addiction meant that I no longer have a problem of not drinking caffeine and that causing a migraine.

Occasionally, I will drink normal coffee – two mugs of that and my head starts to be a problem.

Stress!

Life gets stressful from time to time. My personal life has been unbearably stressful at times this last year or so.

I can take some limited breaks at work.

When I am at home, I can go for a lie down in a dark and silent room for a break.

Stress migraines seem to be rare for me, so perhaps it is stress plus another trigger that would cause them.

Eyestrain

I learnt that the first question the doctor asks when I complain of migraines is “when was your last eye test?”, so I always have an eye test or contact lens check-up before bothering my doctor.

Of late, I have been struggling to see the computer monitor as clearly as I would like, and reading certain typefaces in books (eg ones with serifs) is impossible, so I went to see the optician.

I wear varifocal contact lenses, which means that both my long-distance and near-distance vision is a little compromised. The contact lens dude has given me a pair of near-biased lenses to try out.

They are horrible to drive in (things are even blurrier in the distance). they are not so much fun at the gym (I can’t see to have a letch). They are much, much better for working with the computer.

He suggested that I might try one of my old lenses in one eye and a new one in the other, I could then switch lenses around the next day, all to see what works best.

At the moment, I am wondering whether I should have far-biased lenses and just wear glasses for reading/computer use. My experiments on my own with that made me feel ill though.

My bosses boss rather sweetly disabled the lights above my desk to help reduce eyestrain!

Migraine blog

If you suffer from migraines, this blog might interest you: https://themindfulmigraine.blog/