Aa
Had a happy day but a really bad headache/migraine
People have susjested that I get lots of headaches because of stress. If this is the case then why in the last week have got my worst headache's after being happy. On saturday my headache peaked after a funny relaxing movie and today my headache peaked after having a lot of fun with the people in my class. The only think both really have in commen with my other headache on other day's is photophobia. The TV might have set my pain off on sat and the bright lights of the computer room and computer's were the trigger for my pain peaking today.
Can you really have a tension/stress headache even when you feel happy cause that does not make sence to me.
Can you really have a tension/stress headache even when you feel happy cause that does not make sence to me.
Best Answer
Thank you I think your the frist person that understands what I'm going threw. Most people try to tell I'm wrong and that the headache have to be caused by negative stress. They can get there head around what I'm trying to say or something. It can be very confusing when people try to tell me that I must be feeling a negative emotion instead of positive emotion. I grew up with a mum that did this to me she could never accept what I told her she would tell me I was feeling something els or tell me it was due to something compleatly different than what I was trying to tell her.
When I first started seeing a phycologist I did not even know if I could trust my own thoughts and feeling. I still really dont know if I truly do understand what it means to be happy or in love. I become even more confused when people try tell me the headache are caused by me some how either because I want a headache or because I'm stressed out.
I also find that the more I lift my arms above my shoulder hight the more headaches I get and the more intence they are. The same goes for carrying things on my shoulder's like a bag. I even get more headches when I wear heavier clothing like during winter. The worst one is jumpers or any clothing really that is to close to my neck. This is proberly a sensory thing like my children have which cause me to stress out which causes the headache. But no matter what the reason I wish I could just get over it and just be normal. I wear tank tops most of the years and a jacket because at least with a jacket I can control how far I zip it up and jackets are not really close to my neck. I often have to buy men's jackets because womens clothing is way to tight and would frustrate me big time.
I try to wear normal t shirts when i feel I'm having a good day but almost every time I still end up with a headache that is way worse then headaches I get when I wear tank tops. I dont know if it's this is because of negative stress over the feeling of being strangled some times by the shirt or because it's phycological effect. I have wondered if its a sensory intergration problem like my 5y son was diagnoised with, but if it is sensory then I'm problerly still getting stressed over the feeling but I cant seem to figure out how desensatize my self. I've wondered about so many things but in the end I wish i could find a way to help reduce the pain and frequency of the pain in my head.
My phycologist has told me I need to learn to breath threw nose and out my mouth. This is hard since I have extreamly bad sinus problems I have never naturally been able to do it. I'm on a waiting list to finally see a ENT but it in the end nothing can found that releaives my pain I dont know what els to try. I've already spent to many years of my life avoiding life and fun to reduce my headache's. I never wanted to use to pain killer's much. Untill recently I have just use over the counter the pain med's that really dont do a very good job at making the pain go away and still allowing me to continue having fun. So I finally asked my new Dr if I could have stonger pain med's she did end up letting me have them after my partner came with me to also talk about how often I'm in pain and how it effects my day and life. The stronger pain med's do allow me to continue with what I'm doing but I'm really worried about getting use to them over time and having to use more and more so if I could find a way to have my life and not addicted to pain med's like my mum and sis I want that. I want that soooooooooooooooo badddddddddddddddddd I just want a life i dont want pain holding me back I just want a life. I feel like I've got my mental health back on a really great road and now that I do my physical health got worse I have been sick heaps in the last year and I even recently got diagnoised with inappropriate sinus tachycardia and put on med's to help. It took over 6mth to diagnoise after I first discovered that was what was causing my symptoms and at least a 1y of intense fatiuge and pain in my legs and other strange symptom's. Been on med's for just over a 1mth and been getting my energy back ever since the leg pains are prety much compleatly gone and yesterday I even ran down the stairs at school and my heart rate was only 105 I was sooooooooooooooooooo happy. I even ran up and down the stairs and fue other times and I did not get fatiuged at all.
When I first started seeing a phycologist I did not even know if I could trust my own thoughts and feeling. I still really dont know if I truly do understand what it means to be happy or in love. I become even more confused when people try tell me the headache are caused by me some how either because I want a headache or because I'm stressed out.
I also find that the more I lift my arms above my shoulder hight the more headaches I get and the more intence they are. The same goes for carrying things on my shoulder's like a bag. I even get more headches when I wear heavier clothing like during winter. The worst one is jumpers or any clothing really that is to close to my neck. This is proberly a sensory thing like my children have which cause me to stress out which causes the headache. But no matter what the reason I wish I could just get over it and just be normal. I wear tank tops most of the years and a jacket because at least with a jacket I can control how far I zip it up and jackets are not really close to my neck. I often have to buy men's jackets because womens clothing is way to tight and would frustrate me big time.
I try to wear normal t shirts when i feel I'm having a good day but almost every time I still end up with a headache that is way worse then headaches I get when I wear tank tops. I dont know if it's this is because of negative stress over the feeling of being strangled some times by the shirt or because it's phycological effect. I have wondered if its a sensory intergration problem like my 5y son was diagnoised with, but if it is sensory then I'm problerly still getting stressed over the feeling but I cant seem to figure out how desensatize my self. I've wondered about so many things but in the end I wish i could find a way to help reduce the pain and frequency of the pain in my head.
My phycologist has told me I need to learn to breath threw nose and out my mouth. This is hard since I have extreamly bad sinus problems I have never naturally been able to do it. I'm on a waiting list to finally see a ENT but it in the end nothing can found that releaives my pain I dont know what els to try. I've already spent to many years of my life avoiding life and fun to reduce my headache's. I never wanted to use to pain killer's much. Untill recently I have just use over the counter the pain med's that really dont do a very good job at making the pain go away and still allowing me to continue having fun. So I finally asked my new Dr if I could have stonger pain med's she did end up letting me have them after my partner came with me to also talk about how often I'm in pain and how it effects my day and life. The stronger pain med's do allow me to continue with what I'm doing but I'm really worried about getting use to them over time and having to use more and more so if I could find a way to have my life and not addicted to pain med's like my mum and sis I want that. I want that soooooooooooooooo badddddddddddddddddd I just want a life i dont want pain holding me back I just want a life. I feel like I've got my mental health back on a really great road and now that I do my physical health got worse I have been sick heaps in the last year and I even recently got diagnoised with inappropriate sinus tachycardia and put on med's to help. It took over 6mth to diagnoise after I first discovered that was what was causing my symptoms and at least a 1y of intense fatiuge and pain in my legs and other strange symptom's. Been on med's for just over a 1mth and been getting my energy back ever since the leg pains are prety much compleatly gone and yesterday I even ran down the stairs at school and my heart rate was only 105 I was sooooooooooooooooooo happy. I even ran up and down the stairs and fue other times and I did not get fatiuged at all.
Yes, it's VERY frustrating that a good day can trigger a bad spell. I had a huge problem accepting that, and was in a bad spot for a long time because of it.
As for getting "in shape" so that you can deal with more happy stuff, I try to do that by just doing something simple that's fun every day. Often times it's just dancing (kinda) to a song on the radio, or watching an episode of Abbot and Costello or something like that. I also like to talk to my friends online, so that I can get some social interaction even on the days that I'm alone in the house. It's easy to go from 0 to 60 when it comes to fun stuff, especially when your head hurts so much. It's natural that you don't want to do stuff when your head's killing you. That's why for a while, my mom *forced* me (I fought tooth and nail) to get out of the house once a week. This was when I was at my worst, but the same idea applies now. If you just maintain a low level of fun things that you can do, it won't be as much of a shock to your system when you have a good day and can do lots of fun stuff.
And, as my therapist drills into me every time I see her, the key to staying stable is titration, where you DON'T do the 0 to 60. Instead, she encourages me to chose ONE fun thing to do, and then take a break and just rest for a bit. Then I can go and do ONE more thing for fun, and then another breather. When I'm out having fun, I'll do something like excuse myself to the bathroom for just a minute, or suddenly really need to get something to drink, and just slow things down for a bit.
The anxiety that something else will come up and ruin your day is probably very real. I have it myself. That's part of the reason that I'm on clonazepam 3x/day. It keeps me on an even keel. I also have Xanax for when things get a little bit overwhelming.
~Dame
As for getting "in shape" so that you can deal with more happy stuff, I try to do that by just doing something simple that's fun every day. Often times it's just dancing (kinda) to a song on the radio, or watching an episode of Abbot and Costello or something like that. I also like to talk to my friends online, so that I can get some social interaction even on the days that I'm alone in the house. It's easy to go from 0 to 60 when it comes to fun stuff, especially when your head hurts so much. It's natural that you don't want to do stuff when your head's killing you. That's why for a while, my mom *forced* me (I fought tooth and nail) to get out of the house once a week. This was when I was at my worst, but the same idea applies now. If you just maintain a low level of fun things that you can do, it won't be as much of a shock to your system when you have a good day and can do lots of fun stuff.
And, as my therapist drills into me every time I see her, the key to staying stable is titration, where you DON'T do the 0 to 60. Instead, she encourages me to chose ONE fun thing to do, and then take a break and just rest for a bit. Then I can go and do ONE more thing for fun, and then another breather. When I'm out having fun, I'll do something like excuse myself to the bathroom for just a minute, or suddenly really need to get something to drink, and just slow things down for a bit.
The anxiety that something else will come up and ruin your day is probably very real. I have it myself. That's part of the reason that I'm on clonazepam 3x/day. It keeps me on an even keel. I also have Xanax for when things get a little bit overwhelming.
~Dame
That makes a lot of sence thanks.
In saying that it is kinda frustrating to get headachs on a good day when I'm having fun. It seem very unfair. It seems like my body hates me.
Is there any way to make my body cope better with all kinds of stress. When you unfit and you exercise you can become much more fit and healthy. Can you do anything other than reducing my FUN activities to help my body cope. These FUN headach happen all the time and have for most of my life and there very frustrating. I also have OCD, anxiety, depression and use to obsess about and use to get very angry at my body and sometime even self harm like punishment when my body would give me a headache for doing any thing fun. I'm alot better these day but it still gets to me a little. I'm trying to be nice to my self but it can be hard when you feel like your being punished for having fun.
My phycologist keeps saying that I'm proberly anxiety deep down or something els negative but I really cant make him understand that I truly feel like I'm relaxed alot of the time when this happens. A relaxing bath is what most people tell you to do when you have a headach, but when I seem to finally relax my body because I feel like I'm about to get a headache really bad if I dont, that seems to be when the pain get worse. It recently made me think of compartment syndrome where when a part of the body is traped and builds up toxins and then when released the toxin will make you very sick or worse unless something is done to prevent it. Not that I think I compartment syndrome lol but I do wonder it maybe some times the tension in my shoulders is reducing the blood flow in some way and maybe when I relax compleatly it rushes back to my head and the rush of pulsating blood is maybe some how causeing the headache to PEAK.
In saying that it is kinda frustrating to get headachs on a good day when I'm having fun. It seem very unfair. It seems like my body hates me.
Is there any way to make my body cope better with all kinds of stress. When you unfit and you exercise you can become much more fit and healthy. Can you do anything other than reducing my FUN activities to help my body cope. These FUN headach happen all the time and have for most of my life and there very frustrating. I also have OCD, anxiety, depression and use to obsess about and use to get very angry at my body and sometime even self harm like punishment when my body would give me a headache for doing any thing fun. I'm alot better these day but it still gets to me a little. I'm trying to be nice to my self but it can be hard when you feel like your being punished for having fun.
My phycologist keeps saying that I'm proberly anxiety deep down or something els negative but I really cant make him understand that I truly feel like I'm relaxed alot of the time when this happens. A relaxing bath is what most people tell you to do when you have a headach, but when I seem to finally relax my body because I feel like I'm about to get a headache really bad if I dont, that seems to be when the pain get worse. It recently made me think of compartment syndrome where when a part of the body is traped and builds up toxins and then when released the toxin will make you very sick or worse unless something is done to prevent it. Not that I think I compartment syndrome lol but I do wonder it maybe some times the tension in my shoulders is reducing the blood flow in some way and maybe when I relax compleatly it rushes back to my head and the rush of pulsating blood is maybe some how causeing the headache to PEAK.
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What I've found is that if I moderate how much fun I have, and then go calm myself down to a kinda boring baseline, I don't get triggered as much. Then after a break, I can go back to having fun.
Hope this helps,
~Dame