The Mindful Migraine

Ever wondered if there is a link between Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and migraines? To be honest, I hadn’t really thought about it until one of The Mindful Migraine Blog readers, named Clive, suggested there might be a link between the two diagnoses.

Huh.

Curious cat that I am (for better or worse), I decided, “that there is a post” and off I went to investigate.

[Disclaimer: before I write another word, it’s time for a heartfelt confession – I do NOT have ADHD, and no one in my family has been officially diagnosed with it (although there are a couple of relatives who MIGHT have undiagnosed symptoms) – so remember that everything I write is my best guess understanding of a complex situation. Please be sure to talk to a qualified healthcare provider if you think this is an issue that is relevant to your wellness journey.]

In the past, I had read that migraine-pain problems are often related to hyperactivity in brains. Whilst that’s often assumed to be a relationship with anxiety and catastrophizing, it makes sense to me that ADHD could also be a trigger. Busy brain – too many brainwave signals – too many messages to decode – it all leads to brain overload.

My fellow Australian, Majella, has a blog called Curating Quietude which is worth a visit for its serene layout and how she combines words and images to deliver simple but profound insights. In a comment she made recently on one of my posts, she noted that she had learnt that her brain could get stuck in a “traffic jam” and when it did, she knew that it was time to have a rest and wait it out.

I love the idea of a “traffic jam” of too many ideas rushing through too fast until they all squish uncomfortably… I can easily imagine the blood flowing around my head similarly rushing and colliding, and rage-tooting until it’s all one giant gnarly-snarly mess.

Which brings me to a second memory. A while ago, I heard someone else compare overwhelm to having too many tabs open on your desktop. “Oh that’s interesting”, you say as you open a page on your computer, “I’ll come back and finish reading that in a minute… but first… oh, that ad looks good, I’ll just click there… ah, and this clickbait… and I’ll just double check whether my credit card is still on life support before I open this shop-tab there…”

Eventually, your computer’s hard drive collapses under the weight of so many enquiries, so many open-ended requests. If you can’t give it closure, it closes itself down.

Bye bye.

You have to breathe through the shock of your computer screen going blanky-blank-black, and then you wait a moment, reboot your computer, and cross all your fingers and toes that the valuable bits (in amongst all the flotsam and jetsam of web surfing) is still floating where you left it.

Traffic jams, computer crashing, wipeouts, overload and overwhelm.

Sounds a bit like an ADHD type of thing to me.

Time to get webby….

According to the Healthline website, there IS a likely comorbidity between the two diagnosis. They quote a 2011 research paper from Norway where they discovered that 33% of adult women with migraine, and 25% of adult men with migraine were also diagnosed with ADHD. That sounds like a lot to me.

The page then goes on to suggest that whilst “an ADHD diagnosis increases the likelihood of experiencing migraine attacks, this type of headache is not a typical symptom of ADHD.”

When I go to the research paper itself, it is very clear: “The prevalence of migraine was significantly higher in the patient group compared to the controls.” The paper’s summary then also notes, “In both patients and controls, migraine was associated with symptoms of mood and anxiety disorders.”

I’m not a fan of the notion of a “migraine personality” but as a “fretter” who overindulges in “domino thinking” (where I go from minor perceived incident to (extremely unlikely) potential problem of catastrophic proportions in the blink of an eye) I have to admit that I might be setting myself up for that whole car-crash inducing traffic jam of a migraine event.

Over at The Migraine Trust, a staff member named Oscar writes about his own experience of living with BOTH ADHD and migraines. “My mind is always racing with at least 4 topics at once and I find it hard to relax. Stress can be a trigger for my migraine, and I think my ADHD exasperates this in my life. Sleep is also a big challenge…” Already you get the picture. Busy brains and low sleep can generate a stressful combination, and stress is a big trigger for migraine-brains.

The article then flips over to recounting some of the probable reasons there’s a link, and it loops back to those mood and anxiety issues. Trying to do too many things at once, and not getting things finished, makes you get flustered… that flustering causes fretting, which in turn leads to stress, and stress feeds the migraine monster. The migraine days then cause more fretting for a person who’s not great at lying still… so the loop continues. Then there’s the added issue with sleep, and that they might eat and drink in irregular ways (which your migraine-brain (who I call Goldilocks), doesn’t like).

Interestingly, The Migraine Trust’s website writes that ADHD medication “will not cause migraine conditions, but rather it’s side effects may lead to symptoms that could trigger an attack in someone already predisposed to migraine.”

Back over on the Healthline site they counter this slightly by noting “Sometimes, though, ADHD medication can be an indirect cause of migraine attacks. For example, if the medication suppresses your appetite (and you skip meals), a lack of calories could possibly bring on a migraine episode.” Moreover, there are actually some patients who believe “ADHD medications might help improve migraine attacks” due to the changing dopamine levels in the brain.

The recurring advice on both sites was to remember that even though ADHD and migraines might co-exist, they are TWO SEPERATE CONDITIONS with their own individual causes, symptoms and treatment options.

[Disclaimer – quick but important reminder – I am NOT a doctor – please seek your own individual diagnosis and treatment advice from a trained professional.]

Before signing off, I want to circle back to Oscar’s note about his life with ADHD and migraine. What I loved most about it was this: “It is an interplay I am still learning about for myself and thinking of ways to help both co-exist together, such as trying to build in relaxation and mindfulness practices into my everyday life.”

We are who we are.

The trick is to find a way to live YOUR life in a way that best suits your quirks and the “interplay” (I love that word!) between the different aspects of yourself. You’re not better or worse if you have two or more diagnosis combined, just different, and chances are, that even if you know someone else with those same two diagnosis, you still won’t be identical in how it affects your life, or how you manage your way through.

You do you.

Stay curious, learn about your personal glitches and quirks and super-powers, and use them to your advantage. Make the most of what you’re got and live the best life you can, and as always…

Take care taking care, Linda xx

PS – if you want to get a bit more technical the MigraineDisorders.org website has a bit more information, such as the three possible reasons for comorbidity: genetics, imbalances in neurotransmittors in the brain, and abnormalities of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (it relates to stress and the nervous system).

PPS – this seems like a good moment to ‘lean into’ insatiable curiosity and do a shout out to a fellow blogger Sam Adams who recently told me about a book by Russell Davies called “Do Interesting” – I’m yet to track down a copy, but in the interim, I found a promotional website (here) which has the following summary-blurb (which I LOVE):

“In this book, writer and strategist Russell Davies has rounded up a bunch of interesting people to help you:

• Notice more — practise paying attention and everything gets more interesting
• Collect more — gather together what you’ve noticed, new ideas pop out
• Share more — get good at sharing it all and more magic arrives

You’ll turn the things you notice into a compost of creativity — slow hunches, spark files, scrapbooks and moodboards. It’s where unexpected elements collide to form new ideas. Then you’ll share those ideas. And you’ll learn something about yourself — your passions and interests. Your life and work will become more creative, fulfilling and fun.

Interesting isn’t a personality, it’s a decision. Don’t hunt for diamonds. Get fascinated by pebbles.”

PPPS – long post sorry – but busy brains like staying busy! Keep collecting and sharing those pebbles people… because… yay for pebble-power as I’ve written before (here)!