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Migraine and headaches
For anyone living with migraine or headaches that keep coming back, and the people beside them. This page passes on, by name, what the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) says: the signs that mean call or see a doctor right away, how the kinds of headache differ, the phases of a migraine, what can set one off, what to do during an attack, the medicines that treat and prevent them, and what helps without medicines. It builds the questions to ask at a visit and prints a card. Take only what you need today.
Call or see a doctor right away
- NINDS says right away for a sudden, severe headache, possibly with a stiff neck; a severe headache with fever, nausea or vomiting that is not related to another illness; or a “first” or “worst” headache with confusion, weakness, double vision or loss of consciousness.
- Also right away: a headache after a brain injury, a headache with loss of sensation or weakness in any part of the body (NINDS says this could be a sign of a stroke), or a headache with convulsions or trouble breathing. The full list is in “The warning signs” below.
- In an emergency, or if it may be a stroke, call 911.
- Thinking about ending your life? Call or text 988, at any hour.
More help
- Keeping track: Symptom diary, Sleep diary, Period diary and My medicines.
- Before a visit: Get ready for your appointment.
- When light and screens hurt: Easier to read and Too much: a quiet screen.
- Pain that stays: When pain doesn’t go away.
- If it might be something else: When it might be a stroke and After a hit to the head.
- How you feel: When the heaviness won’t lift and When the worry won’t switch off.
- No insurance, or a bill you can’t pay: When you need a doctor and can’t pay and When a medical bill is too much.
- All our free tools.
Other guides on this site that go with this page
Free to read. We chose these ourselves; no professional did. Each guide was written with AI and has not been reviewed by a professional. They are general information, not advice.
- When you want to quit smoking: quitting cigarettes: the free quitlines and text programs, quit-smoking medicines, cravings, and what to do after a slip.
This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). No doctor, nurse, pharmacist or headache specialist has reviewed it. The facts were read on October 7, 2026 on one government website: the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health (ninds.nih.gov), on its Headache page and its Migraine page, each in English and in Spanish. Neither page shows a review date. The page says when it is passing on NINDS, and what is marked “ours” is our own. The two languages of the Migraine page are not the same text. The Spanish one says some people have found certain supplements helpful, where the English one names none and gives a caution; and the Spanish one adds a line about preventive medicine for people who take headache medicine more than three times a week. We say so where it matters and do not settle it. What we left out or did not read: amounts of any medicine; how many days of pain relievers is too many (NINDS gives no number); statistics; what anything costs or what insurance, Medicaid or Medicare pays; which medicines are safe in pregnancy; the rarer kinds of headache NINDS describes; and the four organizations NINDS lists (we did not open their websites, so we do not link them or give their numbers). We also read MedlinePlus pages on migraine and headache and pass nothing on from them. We called no number. It saves nothing and loads no tracking.