Ocular migraine symptoms twice in the space of a 90 mins, now I'm worried. Help.

[Mark_P]

Hi guys. I have suffered with ocular migraines in the past, but generally they come and go after 20 mins, then haven't returned for 2-4 weeks at a time. However, I hadn't experienced an ocular migraine for 2+ months up until a couple days ago. I was fine yesterday and most of today, but then I had an ocular migraine about 90 minutes ago. Now I have just had another one and this time it feels like it's on the opposite eye. I am kind of concerned. I understand they can occur with stress/anxiety, and I have been in a high state of anxiety the past few days, but I have never had two in such a short space of time. I want to believe it's just anxiety, but anything to do with my eyes is a worry. I don't want to rush down to the hospital, instead I was thinking about going to see the optometrist tomorrow if he's available.

Has anybody experienced the same? I don't know how to relax when they occur. I haven't had them for well over a couple months, but then they seem to have returned with a vengence. It is so frustrating and worrying.

[BlueIris]

Been there, done that. It's horrible, but totally harmless.

[Mark_P]

Been there, done that. It's horrible, but totally harmless.

It is terrifying. I don't know how you cope. I go into high state of anxiety and worry, especially having them in short time periods. Thankfully they haven't been as bad as previous ones I've had. These ones seemed to only last 10-15 mins and my vision wasn't too badly affected.

[BlueIris]

Mine always gave me panic attacks, too, but my GP was never in the least concerned. There's no need to see anybody, just be kind to yourself.

[Mark_P]

Mine always gave me panic attacks, too, but my GP was never in the least concerned. There's no need to see anybody, just be kind to yourself.

I do try blue iris, but it can be very worrying when they occur. Just to put my mind at rest, I'm gonna go to the opticians and get a eye scan on Wednesday.

Just to be at a bit more ease. Anything to do with my eyes and head worries me. Did you get headaches with yours? I do, but they are mild generally.

[BlueIris]

Yes, I generally got a mild headache afterwards, although I'd sometimes have three or four auras in the space of a week followed by a fairly bad headache.

For what it's worth, when I was going through massive anxiety about these, I searched extensively on the web and I had to look really, really hard to find even isolated cases of these things being symptomatic of something scary; even when it was (I think I maybe found about three cases out of hundreds of pages?), the fact that you're getting them on both sides pretty much rules out any sort of nasty brain problem completely.

[Carys]

I have never had two in such a short space of time. I want to believe it's just anxiety

I have! Infact its rare for me to not have a couple in short succession when they happen. I used to get proper big scale massive headache and vomiting migraines, until about 20 years ago, they stopped (which I believe is due to taking venlafaxine, which is sometimes given for migraine) and since then I just get this aura/ocular thing going on. I don't get it often, maybe once every six months, or often even less frequent than that, but when it does happen my eyesight will do the usual vision loss/aura thing, and then once its gone - if I get up and start getting on with things - the whole thing will happen again,and maybe again a third time. I'm lucky in that there is only a mild headache and tiredness following it, but it still freaks me out bigtime when it happens.

[Anxiousinlondon]

This is interesting. I have ocular migraines every now and again and I can completely relate to how stressful they are. It’s what drove me to this site in the first place actually. My experience is that they tend to last for maybe 30-60 minutes and my vision starts to go in one eye. It’s slow at first and then before I know it I can’t really see. I usually need to lie down and sometimes I have a headache afterwards. I am typically very sensitive to light and sound while it’s happening. And then it’s gone.

I’ve not personally had one on both sides before and if you feel it’s something you are concerned about, speak to your doctor. But mine wasn’t really worried when I told him about my symptoms.