Hello everybody... Just thought I'd quickly introduce myself as I've just discovered this place!

I've only recently found out about CH although I believe I've been suffering with them since 2007; always referred to as my 'crazy march headaches' I began to absolutely dread March, down to avoiding any social plans whatsoever - which isn't brilliant as it's mothers' day (UK) my mother's birthday and two of my best friends birthdays all in that month.

I've always been a 'put up and shut up' person or 'see it through', this is partly because of my upbringing, pride, and because I've always had terrible doctors. However, the crazy march headaches have been extending in to April for the last couple of years... And this year they hit two weeks ago! (2 months early)

I've still to get an official diagnoses but I'm 95% certain that what I get is CH, I have almost every symptom - the only difference is mine seem to last almost exactly 3 hours every time - quite a bit longer than most reports.. And are perhaps not quite as intense/painful as a lot of the reports (but still 'why me?' And thoughts of suicide painful).

I recently got a new doctor who I'm really happy with so I have an appointment to hopefully get an official diagnoses and start looking in to different kinds of treatments so I thought I'd be good to maybe keep a little log here which hopefully provides some interest to a few people.

I'm especially keen to get a diagnoses and hopefully treatment now as the thought of this period lasting until April really does fill me with dread. I can also keep headaches at bay during the day by keeping regularly dosed up on 8/500 co-codamol. And obviously this is not ideal due to the large amounts of paracetamol and the potential formation of a codeine addiction!! But it's obviously preferable to getting an attack which absolutely NO amount of pain relief takes away.

Anyway - I'm completely waffling on! Apologies for that - just feeling like I need to vent as most people I talk to just think I'm a massive drama queen/hypercondriac and just smile and nod. 

For the record:
Male, 23 (attacks started at 17/18), smoker, drinker (probably too much but absolutely zero during cluster periods). Attacks seemed to start when I began to gain weight, now over weight and recently been diagnosed with hypothyroidism (again, shite Dr until recently!) potential link?!

Anyway - hope to talk to you all soon! Gonna go and have a look around whilst I keep myself awake for as long as possible to avoid sleeping. 

Hi Markei and welcome

Don't worry about thinking your post reads poorly, it's actually great at describing your current situation.

Your symptoms sound as if they have a lot in common with those associated with CH, but you really do need to get an accurate diagnosis from a doctor experienced with headaches, which normally means a headache specialist as even most neurologists have little experience with CH, never mind a GP.

It's only when you get this diagnosis can you start to get the right treatment as there are multiple other things that can cause the same symptoms, some due to headaches and some from other causes.

Diagnostic criteria for CH can be found at Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or . Do note the "Not attributed to another disorder" which is where your diagnostic results will be needed to rule out anything else.

The duration for CH is given as generally between 15 and 180 minutes, so 3 hours does not rule out CH.

As well as a log here, do start to keep a headache diary, noting when the headache starts, duration, pain level, description and anything else that seems applicable to try to identify any triggers. This will help with the diagnosis.

You wrote that you are using co-codamol as a preventive. This really isn't a good idea as the paracetamol is potentially damaging your liver (very easy to overdose fatally) and you are likely to be getting medication rebound headaches if taking it more than 10 days a month. Plus as you mention there is the strong potential for codeine addiction. And with CH, no pain medication, even the strongest opiates, can really make a difference to anything but the very mildest CHs.

I hope you don't have CH, but if you do then you've found a great place to learn so much more about it.

There is also a UK forum for CH too - Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or - they also have a helpline. They can assist with getting the NHS to actually work somewhat better than it normally does.

Keep reading and do get that diagnosis soon.