Tension headaches?

Question

i'm a 23 year old woman who is constantly suffering from tension headaches. i've been taking Excedrin tencion headache, which does seem to help. my doc has also oput me on a medication. here's my question. these headaches are being everyday, almost constant. how can i get rid of them. i'm also real tired and don't have as much energy due to the headaches. doc says reduce stress-which i can only do so much of. i mean, i'm a single mom, full time college student, and hold down a full time job. it's stressfull-but i've gotten used to it and stress doesn'rt bother me as much. so, how can i stop mthese headaches and whats causing them? any suggestions?
BTW- my doc did say i was missing a certain hormone in my body, but it's not affcting the headcaches or creating them. i mjust want the pain to go away and get on with my life.

Answer 1

According to the British Medical Journal, the treatments likely to be beneicial are Amitryptaline (at a small dose daily), and Maitarzapine.

They also thought that a type of counselling known as cognitive behavioural therapy is likely to be beneficial. This may be the clue to how to reduce stress like your doctor has said.

The thing you need to work on, is not the stress (cos you said you can't change what happens), only your response to the situation. THe tension headaches are a responce to the way you deal with stress, so if you can change your rensponse, then you can change the headaches.

Answer 2

You say you're a full time college student and are full time employed. So I think it's simple, you're spending way too much time in front of the computer. It's hurting your eyes and causing headaches.

If you can put a screen up on the monitor that reduces the radiation hitting your eyes. Or better yet switch to working on a laptop. When I graduated from college and began working full time I began to get severe headaches. So severe that I thought my career would be over. But other people in my office were having problems with the monitors and so I switched to a laptop and 4 years later I haven't had any problems. Also my eye doctor confirmed that the glare from the monitor was likely causing my headaches. I hope this helps. I know a lot of people who seemed to have problems bc of the radiation from their monitors.

Answer 3

Headache is a pain in the head, scalp or neck. Headaches can be
caused by minor problems like eyestrain, lack of coffee or more
serious reasons like head injury, brain tumors, encephalitis and
meningitis. Taking painkillers continuously can have harmful side
effects, so it is better to modify your lifestyle. More information
available at http://tinyurl.com/q8696

Answer 4

You could be having "rebound headaches" which can be caused by overuse of headache medicine. I know it sounds hard, but try cutting down or cutting out the Excedrin.

Answer 5

if you are taking exedrin every day then stop. you could be getting rebound headaches from the medecine. certain drinks and foods can trigger headaches. limit caffine, alchohol, processed meats (lunch meat, hot dogs, etc). avoid diet drinks also.
regular exercise may help.