East Derry MLA shares her ‘debilitating’ experience of migraine

An East Derry MLA has shared her experience of suffering with migraine on this Migraine Awareness Week. 

Independent MLA Claire Sugden has spoken about the first time she suffered a migraine attack. 

Ms Sugden revealed how while working in the Bowhill Hotel and Country Club at age 16 she began experiencing an attack. 

Reflecting on that experience she said: “It was Valentine’s night and I was tasked with lighting all the candles. That is what triggered the migraine off. I noticed my vision going spotty with shadows. I didn’t really know what was happening because this had never happened to me before. We were being debriefed for the menu of the evening and I recall not being able to read the word ham which I thought was really strange because it was a three letter word. I then slurring my speech and not making sense. A colleague had said gosh Claire it seems like you have been drinking or had taken something. My dad had worked in the hotel at the same time so he took me to the doctor on call. I recall getting into the car at which point my left side had gone completely numb. The numbness then spread to my face and nose. I couldn’t put my seatbelt on. I was talking gibberish. Vision at that point was getting worse. 

“I think a lot of people after seeing my symptoms and how I was behaving felt I was taking a form of a stroke because the symptoms seemed very similar. The doctor diagnosed me as having a migraine and when those initial symptoms seemed to go away, then set in the worst headache of my life. I remember there being a ticking clock in the room that I was resting in. Every tick felt like a hammer blow to the head. The days following the migraine I felt completely weak as if I was suffering from a bad hangover. That wasn’t great at 16 years old.”

Claire touched on how that began a lifetime of severe migraine headaches and how she deals with the symptoms of an attack. 

She continued: “I don’t recall ever having one quite as bad in that sense but they can be quite debilitating for me particularly those symptoms when they begin. When they start I am pretty good at recognising them now to the point that I just have to take myself away from what I’m doing. That often means leaving my work or having to cancel my day. I will take anti-inflammatory medication and try to find some sleep just to get rid of the worst of the symptoms. Managing the headaches can be quite weakening.”

In recent years Claire hasn’t suffered as much with migraines; she says this is down to recognition as to why she was having them in the first place. 

“I know for a lot of people, they can be triggered by light which was the case for my first one, or even chocolate or red wine. For me it was my body’s reaction to stress. When I was with the GP he had asked if anything happened to me around the time I had my first migraine. I had suffered a trauma at that age and within a month the migraine occurred. Drawing that connection helped and made me recognise how I deal with stress. It can be debilitating and if anything it is not a headache, if anything that was secondary to the symptoms I was experiencing. I can nearly get on with the headache all being painful but it's the symptoms where I am unable to drive because I am unable to see or feel the steering wheel because of the numbness that limits what I can do in a day when I am experiencing one of those. Later into migraines I began taking them as a cluster so I would have them one day after the other which is really difficult. If you have no migraine you know there is an end to it but when you have cluster migraines it doesn’t feel like you have an end to it. It does very much stop you in your tracks and what you are doing.”

The MLA has now called for more to be done in terms of support for those who suffer with migraines.

“I thought it would be helpful to share my experience to give a sense of how they impact on me. Thankfully I don’t get them anywhere near as often as I had previously. When I do, I have to take myself off. As recognition of that we need to do more to support people because it isn’t just a headache, certainly not in my case.”

WATCH BELOW: Claire speaks about her experience with migraine

For more information on migraines visit here