Hello All!

I saw a post on Reddit about sites like this one and I thought it was about time I reached out.

My first CH was almost exactly 5 years ago. I was falling asleep in my Freshman dorm room when all the sudden this headache started building, and building, until it got to a pain level I had never felt before and then it stopped. Completely. The whole thing lasted maybe a minute. I thought, wow that was weird, and went back to sleep.

Over the next 5 years these headaches became more frequent, lasted longer, and more painful. But all of the symptoms are random/ have no pattern. One month I'll have a day of CHs once a week, Then I wont get a single CH for a month, Have two days of CH in a week, go another month without one. I say a day of CHs because once they start, whether in the afternoon, evening, or night, I'll have between 3-5 cluster headaches with a constant shadow headache in between. The shadow doesn't fully go away until I manage to fall asleep for the night.

I recently began Graduate school in a foreign country and I am scared because I am over due for an episode. With the CHs starting earlier and earlier over the years, I am worried I'll have one in front of people and not be able to find a private area to pull my hair and dance around in until it dies down.

There have not been any patterns to what triggers an episode, but, if I feel a CH beginning, one sure way to rapidly accelerate its growth is to chew crunchy or tough foods. One time I was eating kettle chips and I had the fastest building CH of my life. Went from 0-100 in about 10 seconds. Basically had to spit out my food while my eyes watered up and found a couch to squirm in.

I really hope there are others with very similar symptoms on this site. It has been so isolating having this problem that can't be adequately explained or empathized over.

G'day, welcome, and all headaches are horrible so you're in the right place if you're looking for a bit of help.

As the good BobG says, the most important thing is a proper diagnosis. This will allow you to attack the thing properly, rather than taking medications that won't help while another problem is going untreated.

You need a proper headache specialist for this, and we can help you find one, and in the meantime you can make his job easier by keeping a headache journal - when you get hit, how long they last, what you were eating and so on.

All types of headaches are manageable, many are even curable, so now you can only look forward to a brighter future.

Let us know how you get on with the Cluster Quiz because we care,

Brian down under.