I started getting migraine headaches in high school. Actually, I was diagnosed with cluster headaches — a rare treat with the nickname “suicide headaches.” They get their name because they come in clusters. Once I got one headache, I could pretty well count on getting several more that week.
If you know anything about migraines, which involve intense pain, nausea, sensitivity to light and sound and other rotten symptoms, you’ll understand that the only thing worse than one migraine is repeated migraines.
I started getting them after a wicked car crash smashed up my face, which likely brought them on. Or maybe I would have been prone to them anyway. Either way, I got headaches badly enough that my post-college boyfriend learned to give me shots because they eased the pain but I couldn’t really think straight to administer them once they hit.
But I grew tired of feeling like a fragile, sickly girl who needed help with shots. I started paying closer attention to when I got the headaches.

Waiting too long to eat seemed to trigger them, so I made more of an effort to eat quickly once I realized I was hungry.
Going out in the sun without sunglasses seemed to bring them on so I made sure I always had shades on.
Not getting enough sleep seemed like a problem so I stopped staying out so late so often.
And I began to see a payoff. Each trigger I addressed reduced the number of headaches.
Now I’ve learned more. Getting dehydrated is bad but drinking a little coffee each morning is good, for example. I get maybe one headache a year now.
My point is not to prescribe a plan to reduce your migraines. Even the smart folks at the Mayo Clinic will tell you that the medical community doesn’t really understand what causes migraines. Everyone is different. Thankfully, cheese and red wine don’t seem to cause headaches for me but they do for many others.
Instead, I’m suggesting more generally that maybe paying attention to whatever’s ailing you can help you identify the root cause and make changes to help.
This isn’t a new idea — you can buy a migraine journal book on amazon.com — but I think it’s a powerful one.
Rather than accepting that whatever you’re suffering just has to be, can you change your diet, your exercise routine, your stress management? Maybe it’s even simpler, like buying a better pillow or an eye shade so you sleep better? Have you thought about attacking the root cause instead of just treating the symptoms?