Headaches, Migraines, Head Tension – anxiety symptoms

Treatment

Other factors

When headaches are caused or aggravated by other factors, addressing those factors can reduce and eliminate these symptoms.

Active Stress Response

When headaches are caused by anxious behavior and active stress response, calming yourself will end the stress response and its changes. As your body recovers from the active stress response, this anxiety symptom will subside.

Keep in mind it can take up to 20 minutes or more for the body to recover from a major stress response. But this is normal and needn’t be a cause for concern.

Hyperstimulation

When headaches are caused by hyperstimulation, eliminating hyperstimulation will cause headaches to subside.

You can reduce and eliminate hyperstimulation by:

• Containing anxious behavior.
• Reducing stress.
• Regular deep relaxation.
• Relaxed diaphragmatic breathing.
• Regular light to moderate exercise.
• Getting regular good sleep.
• Eating a healthy diet of whole and natural foods.
• Avoiding stimulants.
• Passively-accepting your symptoms until they subside.
• Being patient as your body recovers.

Visit our “60 Natural Ways To Reduce Stress” article for more ways to reduce stress.

Recovery Support members can read chapters 5,6, 7, and 14 for more ways to reduce stress.

As the body recovers from hyperstimulation, it stops sending symptoms of hyperstimulation, including headaches.

However, eliminating hyperstimulation can take much longer than most people think, causing symptoms to linger longer than expected.

As long as the body is hyperstimulated, even slightly, it can present symptoms, including this one.

Since worrying and becoming upset about anxiety symptoms stress the body, these behaviors can interfere with and stall recovery.

Passively accepting your symptoms – allowing them to persist without reacting to, resisting, worrying about, or fighting them – while doing your recovery work will cause their cessation in time.

Acceptance, practice, and patience are key to recovery.

Since the body can take a long time to recover from hyperstimulation, it's best to faithfully work at your recovery despite the lack of apparent progress. If you persevere with your recovery work, you will succeed.

You also have to do your recovery work FIRST before your body can recover. The cumulative effects of your recovery work will produce results down the road. And hyperstimulation has to diminish before symptoms can subside.

Eliminating hyperstimulation will bring results in time!

Short-term remedies:

Even though eliminating hyperstimulation will eliminate this symptom, reducing the body’s stress can bring short-term relief for some people.

Keep in mind, however, that each person can have a unique symptom experience. What might work for one person might not for another:

Warm bath – can relax the body and nervous system, which can help reduce muscle tension-related symptoms.

Warm compress on the neck – can relieve tight neck muscles and relieve tension headaches.

A cold cloth on the forehead – can reduce and relieve tension and migraine headaches.

Deep relaxation/meditate – Regular deep relaxation soothes the nervous system, stimulates the vagus nerve, and relaxes muscles, all of which can relieve headaches.

Massage – can help the body and nervous system relax, which can help muscles release and relax.

Listen to soothing music – can help the mind, body, nervous system, and muscles relax.

Leisure walk - can help the body, nervous system, and muscles relax.

Leisure swim - can help the body, nervous system, and muscles relax. Many people find water therapy helps reduce stress and its symptoms.

Float on a water device – lying down on an inflatable water raft can be soothing and relaxing, and so can leisurely floating in a boat. Some people find the gentle rocking of the waves enjoyable and relaxing.

Muscle relaxants – can help tense and spasming muscles release and relax.

Pain management – if the pain has become great, which can further stress the body and aggravate pain, over-the-counter pain medication can be helpful.

Tens machine – if you have a specific muscle or muscle group causing persistent pain or pressure, using a Tens machine can help reduce muscle-related pain and pressure. It can also help diffuse the pain and pressure, so the nervous system stops engaging them. A Tens machine used on the shoulders or upper back can relieve headaches.

Any type of stress reduction strategy – can reduce nervous system reactivity and muscle-related symptoms.

Talk with your doctor – if your headaches become too painful, talk with your doctor about a prescription pain reliever or muscle relaxant to help ease these types of symptoms when they are strong or greatly debilitating.

I (Jim Folk) had numerous headaches, too, during my struggle with anxiety disorder. As I eliminated hyperstimulation, the frequency and intensity of my headaches diminished considerably.

I still get headaches from time to time, especially when I let my stress elevate, but they are nowhere near what they used to be during my struggle with anxiety disorder.

Therapy

Unidentified and unaddressed underlying factors cause issues with anxiety. As such, they are the primary reason why anxiety symptoms persist.

Addressing your underlying factors (Level Two recovery) is most important if you want lasting success.

Addressing Level Two recovery can help you:

• Contain anxious behavior.
• Become unafraid of anxiety symptoms and the strong feelings of anxiety.
• End anxiety symptoms.
• Successfully address the underlying factors that so often cause issues with anxiety.
• End what can feel like out-of-control worry.

All our recommended anxiety therapists have had anxiety disorder and overcame it. Their personal experience with anxiety disorder and their Master's Degree and above professional training give them insight other therapists don't have.

If you want to achieve lasting success over anxiety disorder, any one of our recommended therapists would be a good choice.

Working with an experienced anxiety disorder therapist is the most effective way to treat anxiety disorder, especially if you have persistent symptoms and difficulty containing anxious behavior, such as worry.[7][8][9]

In many cases, working with an experienced therapist is the only way to overcome stubborn anxiety.

Research has shown that therapy is the most effective treatment for anxiety disorder, and distance therapy (via phone or the Internet) is equally, if not more effective, than face-to-face in-person therapy.[10][11][12]