Anxiety is the type of condition that changes your body chemistry dramatically. Those changes can have a very real effect on the way that you feel, and one common problem is some type of headache.
Headache can refer to any type of discomfort – from typical headaches to unusual sensations in the head – and a variety of them can be related to anxiety.
Causes of Anxiety Headache
Pain in the head and neck is a very real problem when you're suffering from anxiety, and there are actually many different reasons for them.
There are several potential causes for headaches. Just a few include:
- Triggered Migraines Stress and anxiety are known to trigger migraine headaches, and they can be quite severe. Migraines can be extremely problematic with anxiety because they have a tendency to lead to further problems with concentration, vision, and more, all of which may increase further anxiety.
- Tension Headaches Stress also creates tension headaches. Tension headaches are headaches caused by tensing of the muscles in the face and neck as well as teeth clenching. Tension headaches tend to be in the temples, but can be in other parts of the head as well.
- Sensitivity to Lighter Pain Some mild headaches happen surprisingly often, but they go unnoticed because they're mild enough to be ignored. But when you have anxiety, you can become oversensitive to these types of sensations in a way that makes the pain amplified.
Headache is very common, and it comes in all forms. Some people report shooting pains. Others report dull pains. Others report a feeling as though a bubble is in the back of your head.
Secrets to Overcoming Anxiety Headache
Most discomfort in the head caused by anxiety is treated as though the person didn't have anxiety. For example, migraines respond well to migraine medications, even though the migraine itself was due to your anxiety. Treating headaches as a separate issue is usually enough to find relief from the pain.
You should make sure that you're eating the right foods (try to add magnesium into your diet if you're low) and that you're drinking a great deal of water, sleeping roughly 7 to 9 hours (no more), using glasses if you need them and walking around as much as possible as well. That's because these are issues that can occasionally lead to mild headaches, and since mild headaches are often amplified with anxiety, it's important to decrease the frequency of these mild headaches in order to find relief.
But all of these are only strategies to help decrease the severity of the head pain when you experience it. You'll still need to cure your anxiety if you want the discomforts to go away forever.
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