I have made a discovery for anyone who has migraines - a community of migraineurs describing how they feel in actual (not clinical) words:

What do migraines feel like?

Here is my contribution to the comments:

This is fantastic!  I'm so tired of clinical terms like "discomfort" and "tender"... I have a few different types of migraine attacks:

(1) My brain is a washcloth being wrung out
(2) My skull is in a vice - this is generally the more "mild" type where I can still do things, it just feels awful.
(3) My brain is suddenly claustrophobic and is trying to escape my skull
(4) My brain has been replaced by a ball that rolls back and forth whenever I move and somehow stabs the side of my head if I move too fast
(5) Ice Pick migraines - sudden and over quickly

I have issues with a lot of medication and get "rebound" migraines when I'm on something.  I can sometimes stop them with Advil gel caps (since I normally feel them coming on) but since I get several in a row, this only works for the first few.  Also, since there are liver issues in my family, I don't like taking medication.  If I don't "catch" a migraine before it gets worse, I get the usual light/noise sensitivity, exhaustion, dizziness, and nausea that many people mention - I also get a sort of numb pain down my arm.

Thank you for setting this blog up and giving us a space to share symptoms.  It often feels like I'm losing my mind when they get bad.