anxiety and headaches

[crazycow]

hello all,

just wondering, does anyone here suffer with chronic headaches due to their anxiety?

i have very painful shoulders,neck and upper back so im guessing im suffering with a tension headache. its just, i have headaches almost every day now, any advice??

thanks

[blackbeauty33]

yes i have migraines almost every day and i see a neurologist for them and so far she has been unable to free me of them, their really bad when my day is full of anxiety and panic. do you see a psych or neurologist/headache doctor. all the worrying we do we bring about headaches which in turn  can trigger tension headache just from the stress of worrying. my suggest would be to see both a psych and neurologist/headache doctor.
which ever you can see the soonest.

[crazycow]

neurologist!!!! that sounds a bit serious!!!

[crazycow]

anyone else suffer with these headaches?

[morbidlyeuphoric]

yep...I've had headaches everyday since I was 11. I didn't start getting full blown migraines until I was in my late teens, though. I was going through, oh I dunno, 6 excedrin migraine pills a day, I was immune to Tylenol because I had taken so much of it as a kid, and nothing else worked. Sooo, finally my neurologist had me try Topamax and it worked out rather lovey. I've been on it for about 3-4 months now and I think I've had maybe 3 headaches since then. The first day I didn't have one I thought something was wrong with me:p Getting through all of the side effects was a bit weird, but worth it for me. I haven't had  SINGLE migraine since I started it, when I used to get about 3 a week. It doesn't take them away completely though. It's supposed to lessen the severity and frequency of them.

[Paxiled]

Used to get migraines, but not every day.  Migraines are a very particular form of vascular headache, so they're very different than tension headaches.  Usually accompanied by nausea and preceded by blurred vision.  Mine were cured years ago when a doctor recommended I do Transcendental Meditation.  Was pretty dubious, but I did it and it worked.  Didn't prevent me from getting anxiety disease, but it has helped with the physiological part of it.  You might try it.  But I had neck and back pain for years and attributed it to my anxiety, turned out it was from an old auto accident that had caused my cervical discs to deteriorate over time.  So don't dismiss the physiological.  And don't be afraid of the name neurologist, they're just nerve and brain doctors.  Headaches are in the head, so they're the ones they send you to if you have enduring headaches.  On the other hand, there are doctors that specialize in headaches, a branch within neurology.  And to see if it's the discs, you have to see an orthopedist.  It's all so confusing.