Head Veins and Stress.. Please Help

[patient49]

Among all the other problems I have I am experiencing severe head stress. I have been under a lot of stress for over a year now and I have developed this thing where the veins in the sides of my temple and forehead swell and I can feel them, they are really tight, and I can see them clearly. I have them worse now then ever, on both sides of my head. This isn't new though, and they can persist for a couple days at a time, and then subside. And though they subside (seemingly go away), they really concern me because they were never here before a year ago and I am 28 now.  They go and they come back, and they are, when severe, accompanied with a headache that feels like my head is about to throb, but worse.  It's like an ongoing tension and my brain feels a lot of stress!! But it seems that this is worst after doing physical exercise. It almost seems that because I am stressing so bad mentally, with or even without physical exertion my brain undergoes very bad stress and these veins appear to prove it. Sometimes it makes me feel like my brain "clenches" and it becomes hard for me to swallow, and I feel like I am going to drop dead, literally. I know that difficulty swallowing is anxiety attack, and I am not denying that, but can anyone please help me explain the stress that my brain undergoes, please?

[patient49]

oh, thanks. And thanks for responding!

[M4Y0U]

When applying pressure at the base of my skull and various trigger points I can feel the nerves.

[patient49]

ok, well thank you!! Can you feel the nerves or is this the understood physiological process? Thanks again!

[M4Y0U]

Yes,

due to extremely stressful events that happened lately and happening recently I'm dealing with tension headaches everyday on top of my occipital neuralgia.

As soon as I wake up I experience sub-occipital and splenius spasms. This is compressing against some nerves in the back on my head and cause pressure pain sensation from the back of my head, scalp, forehead and ending on the bridge of my nose.

My stress is very subconsious in nature so I'm stressed even when I think I am not due to my medical condition that I still need to see a neurologist. Dealing with subconsious stress is kinda difficult because even when I think I'm relaxing in fact I'm not. I might need counseling to deal with this. I suggest it to you too because stress can do damage and counseling is the less invasive and might keep you drug free.

M4

[patient49]

Hey, Thanks for the information, it's helpful! Have you ever experienced this kind of thing yourself? Thanks again

[M4Y0U]

When under a lot of stress, even subconscious stress, the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is more active promoting the ''fight of flight'' response. This can cause a lot of symptoms depending on the level of stress.

An overactive SNS have a wide variety of symptoms such as increase heart rate, constricted blood vessels, tensions etc. We earned the ''fight of flight'' response thru evolutionary process when at a time it was useful to (and still can be useful) to almost shut down the parasympathetic nervous system and give maximum energy to the SNS to help you run away from a tiger for example. Our brain can be under a lot of stress and chronic stress can have significant impacts on your nervous system.

There are several ways to help your situation ranging from relaxation techniques to counseling. Stress management is essential and at least your know you are stressed so work on stress management.

M4