Headache
Background: I am a 37 year old male without a history of headaches. I'm in good shape, take care of my body and eat well. About 4 months ago, I pulled a back muscle (lower) and had spasms because of this. This injury took a month to heal from. About three weeks ago, I had what I thought was an earache. It last a day, but went away. Two days later, I started getting headaches. The head pain was in the back. It felt tight, with a lot of pressure. And, my ears felt off like I had a cold. Well, the headache got worse, so I went to the DR. She said I had tension/stress headaches, which I believed because my job as a psychotherapist is very stressful. About a month prior to my headaches, I was working 50-60 hour weeks, enough to give anyone stress. I started using OTC, and ice daily. The intensity is less, but my headache is lingering, still in the back but slightly toward the top. Overall, I've had this headache for three weeks. Any thoughts? I appreciate it, thank you!
Hi Michael12,
Thank you for reaching out to us and being part of the Migraine.com discussion forum!!
It makes sense to take something to help relieve head pain. But we can run into something called rebound headache if we take pain relievers and/or migraine medications, whether they are over-the-counter or prescription, more than two to three days a week, we can increase our risk of rebound headache. If we are in a rebound cycle, we can end up in a daily cycle of pain.
The thing about tension-type headache is it can trigger a migraine a migraine attack. I'm not suggesting you have migraine disease. Let me share our information on tension-type headache here; https://migraine.com/?s=tension&submit=Go.
Keeping a regular sleep schedule, staying hydrated and not skipping meals may also be helpful.
I hope you are feeling better soon,
Nancy
