How Do You Relieve A Stress Headache
Try some of the following:Manage your stress level. One way to help reduce stress is by planning ahead and organizing your day. … Go hot or cold. Applying heat or ice whichever you prefer to sore muscles may ease a tension headache. … Perfect your posture. Good posture can help keep your muscles from tensing.1
That Magical Mystery Chemical Serotonin
Serotonin is a workhorse hormone that regulates moods and impacts processes throughout the body. Low levels of serotonin are associated with depression, anxiety, suicidal behavior and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Fluctuating serotonin levels can cause blood vessels to constrict and muscles to tighten, triggering both migraines and tension headaches.
Symptoms Of A Tension Headache
Symptoms of a tension headache include:
- dull head pain
- pressure around the forehead
- tenderness around the forehead and scalp
The pain is usually mild or moderate, but it can also be intense. In this case, you might confuse your tension headache with a migraine. This is a type of headache that causes throbbing pain on one or both sides of your head.
However, tension headaches dont have all the symptoms of migraines, such as nausea and vomiting. In rare cases, a tension headache can lead to sensitivity to light and loud noise, similar to migraines.
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Make Sure That Your Headaches Arent A Sign Of A Serious Illness
Headaches can be a symptom of stress. Or they may be a sign of a serious physical problem. For example, a headache may be a symptom of a tumor in your brain, or of an infection of your brain or the coverings of your brain. Or of any number of serious health problems.
This means that if you have chronic headaches, the first thing to do is to go see your doctor to make sure that your headaches arent being caused by a physical illness.
You want to be sure to go see your doctor if you have a headache with any of the following qualities:
- Your headache comes on abruptly and is severe
- Your headache is accompanied by fever, a stiff neck, confusion, double vision or difficulty in speaking.
- You have a headache after a head injury.
Your doctor will take a history, do a physical examination and if necessary do blood tests and imaging studies.
If your doctor doesnt find any physical cause for your tension headaches, then you can pretty much assume that they are probably caused by stress and/or anxiety. And then you can treat them accordingly.
You can confirm for yourself that your tension headaches are probably caused by stress and/or anxiety if they have the following qualities:
- Your headaches tend to occur during periods of feeling stressed/anxious.
- Your headaches tend to occur along with other symptoms of stress or anxiety.
- Your headaches tend to come and go depending on your level of anxiety/stress.
What Exactly Is A Stress Headache
You have likely experienced many different types of headaches which can range from sinus to migraines. So, how can you tell if your headache may be caused by stress? Tension or stress headache symptoms tend to follow a certain pattern.iii
- A stress headache will normally be a mild or moderately painful dull ache.
- Stress headache pain will often feel like a tight band around your head front, sides and back.
- Your scalp, neck and shoulders may also feel sore or tender.
- Stress headaches can be either episodic or chronic .
- Unlike migraines, stress headaches arent typically aggravated by light, sound or physical activity.
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How Long Does A Tension
That depends. A tension-type headache may last for 30 minutes or months. In general, episodic tension headache symptoms tend to come on slowly and end sooner. They often happen in the middle of the day. Episodic headaches usually dont last longer than a week.
People with chronic tension-type headaches can have symptoms that last for months at a time. Pain may stay at the same level of discomfort for days. While uncommon, these headaches can take a toll on your quality of life.
Ways To Tame Tension Headaches
If you ever had a tension headache, you know it can put a damper on your day. This kind of headache usually develops in the afternoon, causing mild or moderate pain that may feel like dull tightness or a band of pressure. Tension headaches occur when neck, shoulder, and scalp muscles become tense. Some people experience tension headaches from time to time others get them more often. While a tension headache is rarely debilitating, it can certainly make life miserable.
If you have frequent tension headaches , here are some strategies that can show you how to get rid of a headache.
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What Are Some Triggers That May Bring On Tension
You may be more likely to have tension headaches if you have:
- Eye strain, such as from staring at a computer screen for a long time.
- Pain in other parts of your head and neck caused by problems such as temporomandibular disorders.
- Problems sleeping, such as insomnia.
- Stress related to family, work or life challenges, such as starting or losing a job or juggling too many commitments.
How Do You Deal With Exam Stress
So, you have an exam coming up for school, college, university or even home study? The last thing you would want is to start feeling the exam stress as it can hinder your ability to focus and to study! When we talk about exams such as A Levels online, it becomes a lot more important to find different ways to deal with exam stress.
Without wasting any more time, lets look at different ways to deal with exam stress:
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Treating Tension Headaches Related To Mood
If your headaches are related to anxiety or depressed mood, your doctor may suggest taking an antidepressant, most commonly a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor . This medicine works by stabilizing levels of the neurotransmitter, serotonin, in the brain. Stress management classes, biofeedback, and cognitive behavioral therapy can also help relieve and manage stress, which can ease and prevent headaches caused by your mood.
How Do You Get Rid Of A Tension Headache
Tension headaches do not usually require medical treatment, and you do not need to see your doctor if you only get occasional headaches. However you should visit your GP if you experience headaches several times a week and your pain is so severe that you cannot carry out daily tasks. Theyll be able to offer advice as well as investigate what is causing your headaches.
You can also use over the counter pain relief to ease the pain caused by tension headaches these treatments include paracetamol or ibuprofen.
Remember to always read the label and follow the enclosed patient leaflet, this will inform you about dosages and guidelines you should follow. It is not recommended that you take stronger pain medication such as co-codamol, unless a doctor has told you too, as it can cause drowsiness or in some cases headaches.
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Tension Headache Risk Factors
Up to 80% of adults in the U.S. get them from time to time. About 3% have chronic daily tension headaches. Women are twice as likely to get them as men.
Most people with episodic tension headaches have them no more than once or twice a month, but they can happen more often.
Many people with the chronic type have usually had them for more than 60 to 90 days.
Prescription Medicines To Prevent Headaches
Your doctor may recommend that you take a prescription medicine every day to prevent headaches. You may want to try a prescription medicine to prevent a headache if:
- You are using over-the-counter medicines to stop headaches more than 3 times a week.
- Over-the-counter medicines to stop headaches aren’t working well for you.
Your doctor may have you try one or more medicines, such as an antidepressant or a medicine that prevents seizures. These medicines can help prevent headaches even if you don’t have depression or seizures.
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What Causes Chronic Tension Headache
This condition tends to develop in people who start off with having tension headaches with increasing frequency, until they occur on most days. However, the cause of the tension headaches is not always clear, and may be more than one thing. They may be due to tension in the muscles at the back of the head and neck, but it is now clear that this is not always the cause. Other causes reported by patients include stress, tiredness, hunger and eye strain. Many chronic tension headaches develop for no apparent reason. Working long hours bent over a computer may trigger them.
Some people get tension headaches if they drink too much caffeine or alcohol, if they don’t drink enough water or if they go for a long time between meals and become tired and hungry. Occasionally, tension headaches can be caused by poor vision, particularly if reading in low light for long periods. Some may be triggered by environmental discomforts such as heat, cold, brightness or wind.
Some research suggests that your genetic make-up may be a factor. This means that some people may inherit a tendency to be more prone to develop tension headaches than others when stressed or anxious.
Note: medication-overuse headache can be similar to chronic tension headache.
Medication-overuse headache is caused by taking painkillers too often for tension headaches or migraine attacks. See the separate leaflet called Medication-overuse Headache .
What Is A Stress Headache
Stress headaches arent an official classification of headaches in the International Classification of Headache Disorders , but are more accurately known as tension-type or tension headaches, Ellen Drexler, MD, a board-certified neurologist based in New York, tells Health.
Tension-type headaches are defined by the absence of migraine features, so they tend to appear on both sides of the head, feeling like a pressure pain, without the usual migraine accompaniments of nausea, sensitivity to light and sound, and worsened by head movement, says Dr. Drexler. They’d be the sort of run-of-the-mill pressure in the front of your head kind of headache of mild to moderate severity.
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According to the US National Library of Medicine’s MedlinePlus database, tension headaches are the most common type of headache and are described as pain or discomfort in the head, scalp, or neck, often associated with muscle tightness. Tension headaches affect roughly 70% of people, and can last for 30 minutes to 72 hours, Susan Broner, MD, assistant professor of clinical neurology at Weill Cornell Medical College, tells Health, and in order to be properly diagnosed with tension headaches, you need to have a history of them. To make the diagnosis, you’ve had to have had at least 10 of these ,” Dr. Broner says.
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What Is A Tension Headache
Most headaches are tension headaches. These headaches tend to happen again and again, especially if you are under stress. They are not usually a sign of something serious. But they can be very painful and hard to live with.
Tension headaches can last from 30 minutes to 7 days.
If you have a headache on 15 or more days each month over a 3-month period, you may have chronic tension headaches. This type of headache can lead to stress and depression, which in turn can lead to more headaches.
Tension headaches are very common. Symptoms can start in childhood, but they are more likely to occur during middle age.
Some people have both tension headaches and migraine headaches.
What Is A ‘stress’ Headache And How Can You Treat It
It’s the most common type of headache you can getbut the term “stress” headache isn’t entirely accurate.
Right now, stress feels like the new normaland more stress in your life can lead to changes in your health.
Headaches in particular are often brought about by increased stress levels, but while “stress headaches” may be a good description of what’s going on in your body, it’s not an entirely accurate diagnosis. Here’s what you need to know about headaches triggered by stress, and how to help relieve the pain.
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What Are The Symptoms Of Each Tension Headache
- Tension headaches are usually felt as a band or across the forehead. They can be uncomfortable and tiring, but they do not usually disturb sleep. Some people feel a squeezing or pressure on their head.
- It usually occurs on both sides, and often spreads down your neck, or seems to come from your neck. Sometimes it is just on one side.
- The pain is usually moderate or mild. Tension headaches can interrupt concentration but are usually not bad enough to send you to bed. Most people can work through a tension headache if they really need to.
- A tension headache can last from 30 minutes to seven days. Most last a few hours.
- Tension headaches tend to become worse as the day goes on and are often mildest in the morning. They are not usually made worse by physical activity.
- An exception to this would be a headache caused by sleeping in an awkward position, causing a sore neck, or an ache in the face and jaw due to tooth grinding.
- There are usually no other symptoms.
Sometimes migraines are mistaken for chronic tension headaches. Some people don’t like bright lights or loud noises, and don’t feel like eating much when they have a tension headache. However, marked dislike of light or loud noise, and visual disturbances, like zigzag lines, are more suggestive of migraine. A mild feeling of sickness can occur, especially if you are using a lot of painkillers. However, marked nausea is, again, more a feature of migraine.
Headache And Pounding Heart
- Medical Author: Melinda Ratini, DO
Reviewed on 6/15/2020
If you are under a lot of stress or having a panic attack, you may feel your heart pounding. Stress can also bring on a tension headache or trigger a migraine. Get medical help if you are having any new palpitations, including a racing or irregular heartbeat.
While the list below can be considered as a guide to educate yourself about these conditions, this is not a substitute for a diagnosis from a health care provider. There are many other medical conditions that also can be associated with your symptoms and signs. Here are a number of those from MedicineNet:
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If The Pain Is In Your Neck
Neck pain may not be the first thing you think about when it comes to migraines, but they are a common feature of the condition.
About 75% of people with migraines get neck pain, which is something many people dont realize, says Dr. Green.
Some people can avoid migraine attacks by staying away from triggers. Although these vary from person to person, common migraine triggers include stress, alcohol, and certain foods. Medications approved for other conditions like beta blockers, antidepressants, and antiseizure drugs may help prevent migraines. Last year, the FDA approved the first-ever migraine prevention drug: Aimovig .
If youre prone to migraine, prevention is probably the most attractive option. If you only get them once in a while, there are several medications you can turn to for treatment, including over-the-counter pain relievers like ibuprofen to triptans and other prescription drugs.
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The Root Of All Evil: Stress
Regular life can feel like running around to put out fires without a cooling-off period in between. Trying to function with a headache on top of it is even more stressful.
The American Migraine Foundation says almost 70 percent of people with migraine are triggered by stress. They recommend making a list of known stressors and making a plan to reduce their impact on your daily life.
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Treatment If Headaches Get Worse
If you continue to have tension headaches while you are getting treatment, you and your doctor may want to try another treatment.
You may have to try different drugs or doses. If you have already tried several medicines, your doctor may order tests to find out if a health problem is causing your headaches.
How Are They Diagnosed
A doctor can usually diagnose tension headaches by doing a physical exam and asking questions about how often the headaches happen, what the symptoms are, and about your overall health and lifestyle. In some cases, imaging and other tests may be done to rule out other health problems. But this isn’t common.
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