Patterns - Migraine
Oliver Sacks reflects on migraine patterns, or “visual migraine”:
I have had migraines for most of my life; the first attack I remember occurred when I was 3 or 4 years old. I was playing in the garden when a brilliant, shimmering light appeared to my left — dazzlingly bright, almost as bright as the sun. It expanded, becoming an enormous shimmering semicircle stretching from the ground to the sky, with sharp zigzagging borders and brilliant blue and orange colors. Then, behind the brightness, came a blindness, an emptiness in my field of vision, and soon I could see almost nothing on my left side. I was terrified — what was happening? My sight returned to normal in a few minutes, but these were the longest minutes I had ever experienced.
I was lucky here, and lucky, too, to have a mother who could reassure me that everything would be back to normal within a few minutes, and with whom, as I got older, I could share my migraine experiences. She explained that auras like mine were due to a sort of disturbance like a wave passing across the visual parts of the brain. A similar “wave” might pass over other parts of the brain, she said, so one might get a strange feeling on one side of the body, or experience a funny smell, or find oneself temporarily unable to speak. A migraine might affect one’s perception of color, or depth, or movement, might make the whole visual world unintelligible for a few minutes. Then, if one were unlucky, the rest of the migraine might follow: violent headaches, often on one side, vomiting, painful sensitivity to light and noise, abdominal disturbances, and a host of other symptoms.
Here’s the part you might not care about: yes, I have these too, sometimes. Especially when I’m tired, sitting down, and then rise suddenly. The visual field is instantly filled—sometimes completely, sometimes just the edges—with colorful or dark patterns; the head feels heavy, I get nauseous, and then it passes. Lasts for anywhere between a few seconds and a minute, then it’s pretty much over.
I also have regular headaches, which I don’t think I’d ascribe to migraine. And I had one headache once which, had I had to endure it regularly, probably would have driven me to madness and suicide. I was perhaps eight, nine, or ten. It just suddenly hit, and all I could do was cry and hold my head. The kind of pain which paradoxically could be described as “indescribable”. Someone standing on your every nerve sensor, applying even pressure everywhere, smoking a cigar, if you will. Then it passed, quick as it came. Weird stuff.
(I don’t care, you say? Well, I told you you might not be interested. Link via lonelysandwhich)
