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“The majority of the oral medications for migraines can take some time to start working, which is unfortunate,” she continues. “I recommend at least a six- to eight-week trial of a medication. And if you can tolerate it, the appropriate trial period is considered three months.”
What to do when nothing helps your chronic migraines
It can feel like you’re shouting into the void about how often you have migraines and how much the debilitating pain affects your day-to-day life. Is anyone listening?
If you haven’t spoken to a healthcare provider, it’s time to do so. And if you’ve been working with your primary care provider or a neurologist, let them know the difficulties you’re having.
“You may have had headaches for years but haven’t really seen a healthcare provider. You may think your headaches are normal or that it’s not a big deal,” relates Dr. Soni. “Or you may not want to talk to your primary care provider about it because you don’t think that there’s anything to be done.”
In fact, research shows that many people tend to underreport how many headaches they have a month.
“One of the biggest reasons why people underreport may be because of the way the question is asked by a healthcare provider,” says Dr. Soni. “For example, a provider may ask, ‘How many migraine days do you have?’ So, the person only considers their most severe headaches as migraine and they may not count any milder or lower-level headaches.”
Dr. Soni says she prefers to ask: “How many days out of the month do you have some level of headache whether it’s mild, moderate or severe?”
And she stresses how important is to speak up for yourself.
“You need to be an advocate for yourself, so if you’re struggling or suffering, bring it up to your family doctor or ask for a referral to a neurologist or a headache specialist,” she recommends.
Here’s what else you can do to get back on the right track with managing your chronic migraines:
Reevaluate triggers and lifestyle factors
“When we’re at a point where you have a headache that’s not going away at all or your headaches are occurring more frequently, we want to backtrack a bit and go back to reevaluating any potential triggers and taking a closer look at your lifestyle,” explains Dr. Soni. “Lifestyle factors like sleep, diet, exercise and mood can get put on the backburner.”
It bears repeating how important certain lifestyle factors can be to managing chronic migraines.