How To Soothe An Ocular Migraine
Ocular migraines are a typically painless but annoying type of migraine that affects your vision. They are related to the painful headaches people usually associate with migraines; however, not only are ocular migraines free of that pain, they also disappear rather quickly, usually within a half hour or so. However, once you're in the middle of one, even a minute seems like forever because the flashes and patterns you see often obscure your vision. So, getting the migraine to end quickly becomes your main goal for the next several minutes to half hour. While you might not be able to suddenly switch them off, you can take some steps to really make them a lot easier to deal with.
Close Your Eyes as Much as Possible
Trying to see through the ocular migraine patterns will only make it more frustrating to see. Close your eyes as much as possible. If you're doing something like driving, and you think you're starting to see the patterns, pull into a parking spot as quickly and safely as you can and wait this out. Closing your eyes relieves some of the visual stress that can often exacerbate the migraine. Shade your eyes if you're outside so that the sunlight doesn't make your closed eyes seem ineffective.
Talk Yourself Down
Stress is often a factor for forming ocular migraines, and if that's the case for you, start talking yourself down. Don't berate or shame yourself; just remind yourself that the migraine is just due to stress, and there is always a way to resolve whatever is going on. Even if you're in a bleak situation, you have to step back mentally so that the stress eases and the migraine dies down.
Medication
Sometimes over-the-counter medication like ibuprofen can help; this is something you have to test out yourself. If you have already tried it before and didn't think it helped, though, there's no sense in taking it again. You can also ask about prescription medications meant for regular migraines to see if they'll help ocular ones. However, if your ocular migraines don't occur that often, you may want to avoid bringing medication into the situation.
Medical Intervention
If your ocular migraine does occur with pain, or if it leads into head pain, see a neurologist to confirm whether you have migraine aura, which is also related to regular migraines. If your vision actually fades so that you can't see during the migraine (not even patterns), though, contact a neurologist to check for something called retinal migraines. These are sometimes also called ocular migraines, but they're actually different (and rare).
If you're still not sure that what you have is an ocular migraine, a neurologist can help diagnose what's going on. Ocular migraines might be one of the milder migraine-related problems you could have, but that doesn't mean there's no help available. Check out sites like http://www.billingsclinic.com for more information.