I've been having a lot of headaches lately, and consequently I've been thinking about what causes them. People often talk about food triggering headaches, but I've never noticed that to be the case for me. Excepting of course getting much less caffeine than usual (whatever "usual" happens to be at any given time).
When I can identify a trigger, it's usually environmental. Loud noise, bright light, air pollution, even temperature, especially if the environment changes rapidly. For instance I learned long ago not to go to matinee movies in the summertime. Because the sudden change from a dark, cool, climate controlled room to the intensely bright, intensely hot, intensely humid outdoors always caused a killer headache, without fail. Stress also seems to contribute a lot and make it easier to get a headache.
Lately I've been trying to get better at recognizing the symptoms of a headache coming on, and remove the problem (or remove myself from it) as quickly as possible. Two nights ago at trivia at Dain's, when the trivia contest ended they turned the TV on so loud. And of course everyone started talking really loud, to be heard over the TV. I knew that if we stayed in that din for any time at all, I was going to get a headache. I insisted that we leave immediately, and in retrospect was maybe a little rude about it. But really, leaving abruptly and preventing a headache is better than sitting there and pretending to have a good time while my head is pounding.
Unfortunately I can't always remove myself from the situation. I always carry "excedrin migraine" in my bag, which sometimes isn't enough. Like for instance at work today. Sometimes there's nothing you can do, and you just have to tough it out. Well, I came home and Georg was wonderful (of course), made me tea and brought me dinner and was generally quiet until I felt better. Which I do now.
Something to investigate might be hormonal influences. I started getting KILLER migraines "periodically" about two years ago. Then this summer I tried being off all BC for a while and WOW -- they increased to almost 2-3 times a week! When I saw my ob/gyn about it she said that it could be an effect of getting older/hormone levels getting lower, as lower levels of estrogen (I think) can trigger headaches.
Went back on the BC and headaches have almost completely stopped... only the one "periodic" one (which is predictable, so that helps).
These sound like migraines (based on triggers)... you may want to consider getting a migraine-specific prescription. I use Imitrex and think it's a wonder drug. Allevel/Advil/Tylenol/whatever don't touch the headache, but 30 minutes after Imitrex and all is well with the world.
There's also a little acupressure trick that really works (not the one about mashing on your thumb web), but I'd have to show George how to do it. Adrian managed to knock my migraine out last night completely with it!
This all makes a lot of sense. I'm pretty sure they are migraines. They come with the classic symptoms: nausea, light and smell sensitivity, even blurred vision a couple of times. This is embarrassing to admit but I have an Imitrex prescription and have never used it. There was some kind of insurance snafu and I had to pay cash, and Imitrex is really expensive. $22 a pill expensive. And every time I have a headache I find myself thinking, "is this is a $22 headache?" Every time the answer is "no, I'll tough it out." It's stupid because I've spent more than $22 on dinner many times, and probably enjoyed it less than I would enjoy a headache going away. But that's the way my brain works (when it's mad at me).
Excedrin Migraine works pretty well for me. I'm pretty sure it's the caffeine because right when the headache goes away, I start to feel jittery.
jason can show you the acupressure trick if you'd like. he's done it to me when i've had headaches and it really does help.