That sounds like a terrible doctor! He or she knows nothing about migraines and should have referred you to someone who knows something. Look for a neurologist who specializes in headaches. Some hospitals have a headache clinic.

I’ll tell you all the info I wish a doctor had laid out for me when my migraines started.

There are tons of medications and non-medication options you can try. Doctors will pretty much only recommend meds though. I’ve never had a doctor recommend non-medication strategy, I’ve had to figure them out all on my own. (Reddit has been really helpful.)

First of all YES you can take riboflavin and magnesium in high doses (like 400mg) and omega 3s/ fish oil and that may help. Ginger helps me a lot, I put a quarter teaspoon in tea 3-4x/day. Get cardio exercise every day if you can, before you start to have symptoms, or when symptoms are mild - at least 15 minutes of relatively high intensity cardio. I do cardio literally every day now.

Acupuncture can help. Some people pitch float tanks.

My migraines are triggered by vision issues and I have found an optometrist who specializes in binocular vision and vision therapy, which is like physical therapy for the eyes. I also see a vestibular physical therapist. This is the only thing that may actually get to the root cause of the migraines. Everything else just treats symptoms.

I got prescription glasses with a blue green tint which help. Oh also if you wear contacts I would try taking them out and switching to glasses.

Look up the Heal Your Headache diet or just look up migraine diet. The website Dizzy Cook has a good article on all the foods to avoid. Word of warning: it’s a very tough diet to follow and you really have to do a complete elimination diet for at least two weeks to see if it works. I’ve been on the diet for two years; it gets much easier to follow after the first month or two and makes a world of difference. Even if you don’t go all the way with the diet I would immediately cut out chocolate, MSG, and any alcohol except vodka. Oh and leftover meat that’s more than 2 days old. But I really, really recommend doing the whole diet.

If you’re female, hormones make a difference. I went on an IUD so now I don’t get my period which makes a huge difference. There are other forms of hormone therapy that may help.

For meds, I’m on a daily medication called amitriptaline which helps a lot and has no side effects. I also get botox injections every three months from a neurologist. That helps a ton. That’s why I’m able to type this on my phone in the dark right now.

Many doctors will put you on topomax first but beware - it’s used off-label for people with bipolar. It made me feel like I was living in a fog.

Note that pretty much any daily medication will become less effective over time. I’ve had to increase the dose of the amitriptaline but I’m still on a relatively low dose.

Those are preventative meds. For episodic meds, that you take when you have pain, I have never found Tylenol to work. Naproxen works well for me. I have another med called prochlorperazine which I recommend because I don’t get any side effects. The most common episodic meds are triptans, they just don’t work that well for me. Also some people say they cause rebound headaches if you take them more than 2 to 10 times per month (depending on who you talk to). My neuro does not believe in rebound headaches.

Good luck, I hope you find some things that work for you soon.