Suffering from Tension Headaches? Read This Now

We live in a world wrought with tension and stress. Between demanding jobs, mounting financial obligations, and other personal issues, there are few people in America who can say they make it through the day without feeling a bit overwhelmed. One of the most common results of this stress is the tension headache, a headache of moderate pain that causes the head to feel like a tight band is being pulled around it. If you know this feeling well, there are steps you can take to alleviate your pain in the future.

Signs of a Tension Headache

There are many types of headaches that can form based on their instigators. Tension headaches in particular cause a dull, aching head pain accompanied by a sensation of tight pressure across the forehead or sides and back of the head. Some people also experience tension headaches with extra neck, scalp, and shoulder tenderness.

Your own tension headaches could be episodic or chronic. Episodic tension headaches occur a few days a month, while chronic tension headaches occur 15 or more days a month for hours or days at a time. Long-lasting tension headaches are very similar to migraines, but they do not cause visual problems and vomiting like migraines often do.

How to Alleviate Your Tension Headaches

Medicine is not always the best way to immediately treat a tension headache. First, drink at least half a liter of water and wait about an hour to see if your headache was a result of dehydration. If that doesn’t work, you can try taking a shower, resting in a quiet room, and draping a cool cloth over your forehead. Still no luck? An over-the-counter pain reliever like Tylenol will help temporarily, but don’t rely on this method too much or you’ll risk suffering from overuse headaches instead.

It’s most important to find the root cause, or trigger, of your tension headache. Do you grind your teeth and clench your jaw at night? Do you slouch a lot and cause your muscles to tense up constantly? If you can identify the cause of your headaches, you can begin to reduce their frequency without any reliance on medicine at all!