The headache itself lasts most of a day, then the next day I have no pain at all but I am foggy, clumsy, and words come out wrong. I feel like I am moving through porridge. It is almost as disruptive as the headache but I never see anyone mention it. Do other people get this, and does it shorten over time?
Very normal. The part nobody tells you is that the day after is when you are most likely to overcommit, because the pain is gone and you feel guilty about yesterday. That is how I used to set up the next one.
Block the recovery morning in your calendar in advance. It is far easier to protect a slot that already exists.
This is exactly my cycle. Lose a day, panic, do everything on the recovery day, pay for it on Thursday.
Mine lasts about 18 hours and has for years. What changed was that I stopped scheduling anything the day after and stopped treating it as a personal failing.
If you log, log the postdrome separately from the pain. Two of my patterns only became visible once I counted those days as affected rather than as normal days.
Useful at work too. 'I will be at reduced capacity tomorrow' lands much better than disappearing for two days with no framing.
@wonder_why_wren · 4w ago · 4 replies
Yes, this is very common and it has a name - the postdrome, sometimes called the migraine hangover. It is a recognised phase, not you recovering badly.
What it looks like for most people I know: fog, word finding trouble, feeling physically bruised or hollow, occasionally a strange flat euphoria, lasting from a few hours to a full day. The clumsiness is a common one that people rarely say out loud.
What helped me manage it, rather than shorten it:
Whether it shortens varies. Mine got shorter as the attacks themselves got better managed, which suggests it scales with how rough the attack was. Worth raising by name with your doctor - it is a real part of the burden and it very often goes unreported.
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@thebigwhy · 4w ago
The word finding thing is what unsettles me most. Good to know it is a documented phase rather than something new going wrong.
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@wonder_why_wren · 4w ago
It threw me too the first time. Naming it made it much less frightening.
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@barre_chord_blues · 4w ago
Mention it by name at your next appointment. It is taken seriously and it can change what gets suggested.
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