Stress headaches are caused by stress or tension, which is like a termite that slowly eats off a person. Mostly it gets diagnosed when it is too late. In order to get rid of tension headaches, one must know what exactly they are.
What are stress headaches?
As the name indicates, stress headaches are something that a person suffering from stress turmoil faces.
Moreover, it is better to understand stress headaches when things are still in hand so that you can take some suitable action if it remains persistent for long. It may lead to multiple health issues.
What causes stress headaches?
As a matter of fact, stress headaches are the most common among the different types of headaches. Depending upon their intensity, they can be of various degrees, ranging from very mild to pounding headaches. You can feel them at the temples, between the eyes, forehead, and back of the head.
Sometimes, it feels like someone has squeezed the head from the back and he also experiences muscle tightness. Furthermore, women are more prone to tension headaches than men.
Type of Stress Headaches
1. Episodic Stress Headaches
2. Chronic Stress Headaches
Episodic Tension Headaches
- Normally, happens less than fifteen days a month.
- People of all ages experience them.
- Common for both genders.
- Feels like the tight muscles around the neck and scalp.
- Episodic stress headache duration may be from half an hour to a week.
- Recurrent episodic stress headaches may change to chronic tension headaches.
Chronic Tension Headaches
- Usually Happens more than fifteen days a month for three months.
- They exhaust the person suffering from them.
- Moreover, they are quite depressing.
- Chronic stress headaches’ duration may be from a few hours and is constant.
What triggers stress headaches?
- Wrong sleeping posture.
- Placing the neck in one position for longer durations.
- Jaw gnashing, or teeth grinding.
- Over smoking.
- Over exhaustion.
- Sinusitis, cold, or flu.
- Mental or physical strain.
Symptoms of Stress Headaches
- Anxiety attacks
- Depression
- Feeling a loss of energy
- Feeling unproductive
- Mild, Moderate, or Pounding Headaches at all or different parts of the head
- Mood Swings
- Muscle Pains
- Sleeplessness
- Uneasiness by light and sound
Best painkillers for headaches
In particular, ibuprofen and paracetamol are among the best painkillers for headaches. Aspirin also sometimes proves effective. One must strictly take painkillers on a doctor’s prescription, although they are present over the counter. Comparatively, liquid painkillers are better than solid pills as they are more rapidly absorbed by the body.
Emotional stress headaches
Evidently, emotional stress may result in migraine headaches. It stimulates the release of some chemicals which bring about certain vascular changes leading to migraine headaches.
How to relieve tension headaches naturally?
- Do not put a strain on your eyes for long.
- Do not hunch, as posture plays an important role in getting tension headaches.
- Do not remain dehydrated for long.
- Plan and organize your day beforehand so that you do not feel stressed, triggering tension headaches.
- Take a relaxing hot water bath for relaxing tense muscles.
- A quiet room with soothing music can play wonders for you to ease the stress headaches.
- Try to find out if your headache is because of a tight ponytail, scarf, hat, sunglasses, or bandana. If you find out that it is because of these, then tone it down.
- Massage helps a lot in relieving tension headaches, and we have seen that the frequency of tension headaches gradually declines with regular massages.
- You can do it yourself with or without oil, or ask a family member or a friend to do it for you.
- You can also go to a masseuse who is an expert when it comes to a massage for tension headaches.
- Moreover, massage the pain gently in small circular motions around the forehead, temples, and back for the neck.
- Use alternate cold and hot pain management starting from 5 minutes and increasing the time duration later on.
- Limit your alcohol intake.
- Take relaxing tea.
- Take caffeine in the form of coffee, tea, or any other drink having caffeine, but do not overdo it because if you get hooked to it then this will, in turn, lead to caffeine withdrawal headaches.
- Use aromatherapy to relieve tension headaches.
Pressure Point for Stress Headaches
Hegu, the pressure point LI-4 is present between the base of the index finger and thumb. Do acupuncture on it to get rid of tension headaches.
Sleeping over stress headaches
Since this question keeps on popping up while suffering from tension headaches. Which position to lie on during sleep? It is better to lie either on your back or side and keep a body pillow along. Keep your neck in a neutral position.
Yoga for tension headaches
Yoga is really helpful when it comes to relieving tension headaches.
- It helps in relaxing the neck, head, and back muscles.
- It enhances the circulation of blood to the upper body and brain.
- It helps with regaining posture.
- On the first sign of tension headaches, go for yoga to get faster results.
- Instead of getting hooked on painkillers, treat your tension headaches the natural way through yoga.
9 Best yoga moves to get rid of tension headaches
- Anahatasana or melting heart pose.
- Uttanasana or Wide-leg standing forward fold.
- Garudasana or Eagle pose.
- Gomukhasana or Cow face pose.
- Urdhva Baddanguliyasana or Upward salute with interlocked fingers.
- Tadasana or Moutain pose
- Parsvottanasana or Opening the chest
- Sehtu Bandha or Bridge pose
- Balasana or Child’s pose
Interested in Yoga? Also, Read 9 Health Benefits of Yoga
Take away
Summing it up, stress headaches are something that anybody can experience irrespective of gender. It can either be acute or chronic. Consequently, once a person gets hit by tension headaches, he becomes unproductive and every task seems to be difficult for him. It is better to get to the root cause of the problem and treat it naturally, but if the problem persists, then go to the doctor right away. To conclude, never ever prescribe medicines on your own.