Headaches
Once you have identified the things that
trigger your headaches, it's time to change your life-style.
Altering your daily routine is one of the best ways to
control your head pain.
Most important, don't think of yourself
as “stuck” with headaches or as “an emotional
basket case.” Headaches are a medical condition, just
like diabetes or high blood pressure. As with these other
conditions, some relatively simple tactics are often enough
to keep the problem under control. And, luckily, we know a
lot more about headache prevention and treatment than we did
in the past.
You can control your headaches in many
ways—some easier than others. Here are a few suggestions
that have worked for others:
For Emotional Triggers
...
•Laugh. Laughter is the best
medicine for almost any ailment. It makes the arms and legs
relax by reducing muscle tension. Laughing also causes
beneficial reactions in the brain's anti-pain
centers.
•Get short-term or long-term
counseling. A trained professional can teach you how to
express anger or how to cope with stress and negative
thoughts and feelings.
•Let your family know what triggers
your headaches.
•Write a letter to someone who has
made you angry. You don't have to mail it. Simply venting
your feelings could relieve your stress.
•Relax. That's not as simple as it
sounds, but it is a skill you learn by practice. Migraine and
tension headaches involve tension in the head and neck
muscles, as well as difficulties with blood flow. Relaxation
(as well as massage and biofeedback) will decrease muscle
tension and increase the dilation of blood vessels, thereby
increasing the flow of blood.
•Investigate biofeedback therapy.
Biofeedback is a technique for learning to relax and control
emotional triggers such as stress and anger. It often
involves placing electrodes on the skin over specific muscles
or slipping a device over the finger to detect changes in
body temperature. The goal of this therapy is to teach you
how to release tension and increase blood flow on your own
without using the machine.
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