Chronic Tension Headache
March 23, 2011
Chronic Tension Headache
Most people get headaches from time to time. But if you have chronic tension headache, you have a headache most days.
Chronic is a word doctors use to describe any medical condition that people live with for a long time. It doesn’t mean that a condition is severe. In fact, tension headaches are usually fairly mild. They’re a problem only because they happen so often.
What is chronic tension headache?
Tension headaches happen when you’re feeling stressed, tired or angry. Many Health Practitioners think the pain is caused by tension in the muscles of your neck or your head. Poor posture regularly occurs when you hold yourself in poor alignment for long periods of time. Since most of us work at a desk or stand over clients or our work-spaces, we spend most of our waking hours in poor alignment.
If you have chronic tension headache, you get these headaches a lot. Doctors say you have chronic tension headache if you get tension headaches more than 15 days a month for at least three months. For some people, the pain never goes away completely. Tension headaches are different from migraines. Migraine headaches can make you sensitive to light or noise, and make you feel sick or dizzy.
What are the symptoms?
A tension headache usually feels like an ordinary headache. Some people say it’s as if a band is pressing on both sides of their head. Tension headaches don’t tend to get worse if you move around. So doing something like climbing stairs shouldn’t make you feel any worse.
What treatments work?
Things you can try yourself
People who regularly take gentle exercise are less likely to get tension headaches than people who don’t. You could try walking, swimming, jogging or cycling.
You could also keep a diary of your headaches. This can help you spot the things that trigger your headaches, so you can avoid them. Being hungry, using a computer screen or being hunched over a desk can trigger a headache for some people, mostly due to poor posture.
Treatments
Many people take painkillers to help with the occasional tension headache. That’s your choice, but people with chronic tension headache get headaches 15 days a month or more. I would question taking painkillers this often. Taking
painkillers more than two or three times a week can actually cause more headaches.
Massage Therapy is used regularly to reduce tension headaches from the root of the problem and not just to decrease the signs and symptoms that day. Decreasing the tension in ones neck can be dramatically changed in one session. However, it is the follow up and regular visits the keep them from returning.
What will happen to me?
Tension headaches are usually fairly mild. But if they happen a lot, they may interfere with your work or your social life. Getting treatment can help.
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This information however does not replace medical advice.
If you have a medical problem please see your doctor.
Gavin Featherstone, RMT