How I take control of migraines

Whether it's bright lights or stress that bring on the crippling pain of a migraine, the effects bring misery to thousands of people in Ireland. But by seeking advice and investigating your triggers, you could release the pressure in your head - and your life.

Often dismissed as "just headaches", migraines can actually have a serious impact on a person's health and lifestyle. Some 400,000 Irish people are estimated to suffer from the condition.

Susan Lyons, a medical rep from Dublin, is one such person. She started getting migraines when she was just three years of age.

"My mum thought it might be something like meningitis, but I was checked out and it wasn't that," she says. "As I got older, the headaches got more frequent but they were never properly diagnosed as migraines."

Susan (31) decided to trace her birth mother when she was 23 and found out that there was a strong family history of migraines. This led to her getting diagnosed with the condition.

"I went to the Migraine Clinic in Beaumont Hospital and also got in touch with the Migraine Association. At the time, the migraines were getting worse. I had to regularly take painkillers to try and keep them at bay and the migraines were really knocking me out."

Susan's migraines differ from the typical presentation of the condition.

"I don't have a lot of nausea and mine usually hit in the middle of the night when I'm asleep, which is unusual. It means I don't get any of the warning signs of a migraine and can't

take something for it in time. Most people who get migraines find it helps to lie down in a darkened room, but it actually makes the pain worse for me."

Fortunately, Susan's migraines have decreased in frequency over the past five years.

"I'm on a preventative medication and it's cut the frequency of getting a migraine from two a week to one every four or five months. When I get a migraine now, it does seem worse because I forget how severe they can be."

Like most other sufferers, Susan has spent a good deal of time trying to find what triggers her migraines.

"For me, food doesn't trigger an attack. Changes in temperature can bring one on and there is a link to the menstrual cycle, though it's not a big trigger for me.

"I find that if I have a stressful event, I'm fine in the run up to it and during it. But during the comedown, I can get bad migraines. It's like my body releases the stress afterwards and then it hits me."

Fellow migraine sufferer Dermot McMonagle, from Cavan, didn't get his first migraine until he was 42.

"I did wonder what it was ,but when I described it to my son, who suffers migraines, he recognised the symptoms," says Dermot, now 60.