Migraine is a neurological disorder that has become quite common in contemporary times. It is accompanied by headache, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, visual and sensory distortions. A migraine attack begins and proceeds in various phases. There are various migraine symptoms that enable you to differentiate this disorder from other ailments it is often mistaken for such as stroke.

Migraine symptoms and phases:

The symptoms of a migraine vary from patient to patient. But the basic symptoms remain the same. Broadly migraine is divided into four phases:

The prodrome phase: This phase of the migraine headache begins hours or days before the onset of the headache. The various migraine symptoms observed during this phase are irritability, mood swings, depression or ecstasy, fatigue, feeling excessively sleepy, craving for foods like chocolate, stiff muscles especially those of the neck, bad bowel movement causing constipation or diarrhea and increase in the amount of urine produced by the body.

The aura phase: This phase is observed immediately before the headache. The common symptoms of this phase of migraine are visual, sensory and motor in nature like seeing flickering spots or star like objects and bright floating lines in a zigzag pattern, loss of vision in one eye, blurred vision, black outs and numbness. Certain parts of the body also experience a tingling or prickling sensation, dizziness and garbled speech.

The pain phase: This is the phase where a full blast migraine headache is experienced. The common symptoms of this phase are pulsating pain experienced on one side of the head, photophobia, phonophobia, osmophobia, blurred vision, stuffy nose, diarrhea, pallor, excessive sweating, mood swings and impairment of concentration.

Postdrome phase: This is the final phase of migraine which occurs after the migraine attack is over. The common symptoms of this phase are pain in the head, feeling exhausted, mood swings, loss of appetite and weakness. After the patient gets over the migraine headache he/she is likely to experience two extremities, either that of feeling depressed and dull or that of feeling excited and jovial.

In case you experience any of the above symptoms it is essential for you to consult a doctor and get yourself examined. Your doctor will prescribe various tests and medications based on the migraine symptoms in order to help you deal with the pain.