-- braincramp --

Herself has a migraine.  This one is not terribly horrid, as far as her migraines go - the floor is not spinning this time, and she is not (very) nauseated.  She's taken some appropriate drugs, and hopefully the ache will dissipate soon.

Because she has recently partaken of adult beverages in sufficient quantity to render her inebriated, Herself is currently mentally comparing a migraine state with a drunken state.  It's an interesting contrast, in that there are far more similarities than differences.  Both involve dizziness/a sensation that the environment is rapidly tilting, as well as a vague sense of nausea.  Both yield a need to lie down with eyes closed, moving as little as possible lest the room move as well.

The main difference lies in thought processes.  Herself was surprised to find that a state of inebriation did not appear to yield a significant change to any emotions -- there was no excessive desire to be silly, to cry, to dance on tabletops, or otherwise behave differently than she is accustomed to doing.  (She will admit that she might have been a wee bit more easily amused when under the influence of alcohol, and also, might have mentioned more than once that she had imbibed more than usual. She's sure that must have been a tad tiresome to her companions.)

With a migraine, though, emotions are more definitively affected.  Loud sounds (or even sounds of normal volume) seem particularly reverberant and dangerous, and irritate her almost immediately to the point of crankiness.  Also, feelings are more intense:  passion runs high, sad things seem particularly sorrowing, and annoying things more quickly yield indignation and hostility. She's more likely to speak aloud the thoughts that she would normally keep solely inside her head.  Processing time for thoughts is longer, and her mind tends to get temporarily stuck on each topic it encounters, rendering it difficult to move along without greater effort.  It's as though her higher brain functions are dampened, leaving her with solely the more primal needs -- for food, for safety, for physical touch -- in the forefront.  It's a cavewoman state. Reptilian brain. Difficult.

Migraine is more likely to yield a sensation of 'hangover' when it resolves, too.  That stage is a muffled cotton state, where sensations are muted and the intensity of emotions has evaporated, leaving a kind of exhausted peacefulness.  She's looking forward to that point right now.  Hopefully it will arrive soon.

This amusing graphic was found here.