About Stress Headaches
I know we all realize what stress is like and how we react during a stressful time. Some people can cope very well with the pressures that problems bring with them. Other people are overwhelmed by the great pressure that they are under. In many people this pressure manifests itself in the form of stress headaches.
Stress-related headaches are usually a result of excessive amounts of stressful situations; ie more than anyone would normally find themselves involved with. The ability to deal with these situations gradually diminishes and so stress begins to work on them and a stress headache can develop.
In other cases, having different kinds of headache can cause stress headaches just because we have to deal with the headache and get on with our daily life. As the pain from the headache seems to take over our life, we start to feel stressed and unable to cope. All of these headaches (including stress headaches) can be treated safely and, in some cases, prevented from recurring with the right medicine.
There are other methods of dealing with stress headaches apart from using drugs. These methods include cognitive therapy, behavioral therapy and physical therapy.
Cognitive therapy seeks to ‘redirect’ a stress headache. In this method, the person is taught to realize what starts the stress symptoms and how they can affect their response to these conditions.
Behavioural therapy is the next method of treating a stress headache. When people become overwhelmed by a situation, they try dealing with their headache by taking drugs, alcohol, prescription tranquilizers, pain medications and some people also take illicit drugs. Since taking these substances will only offer temporary help, it is better to provide the tools to build a healthy lifestyle, which can help that person to cope better with their stress headaches.
Physical therapy attempts to use biofeedback responses. Individuals, who experience stress headaches, are taught to recognize and reduce the amount of physical tension in their bodies. The treatments that are employed for this method are muscle relaxation, deep breathing, yoga and other self-relaxation techniques. It is easy to understand what effect these measures have on patients of stress headaches, as these techniques relax and calm the body.
The different techniques of therapy that were mentioned above are all interrelated. Using all three of these therapies, including headache medication, will provide the sufferer with a type of relief that will help them for the rest of their lives and not just the short time when they are undergoing a stress headache.