Did you know that there is a strong relationship between anxiety and headaches? Both are unpleasant sensations that we experience when going through a situation that causes us tension, fear or worry.
How does anxiety affect the head? What are anxiety headaches like? What part of the head hurts due to anxiety? We will answer these and other questions in this Psychology-Online article. Keep reading to understand better the relationship between anxiety and headaches and how to calm them.
Can anxiety cause pressure in the head?
Yes, anxiety can cause many symptoms, including: headache, which is quite common. Anxiety can cause some physical changes in our body, such as a feeling of pressure in the head.
In addition to pressure in the head, anxiety can cause other symptoms, such as discomfort, cold sweat, shortness of breath, increased heart rate and other unpleasant symptoms.
Why does anxiety give you a headache?
How does anxiety affect the head? The head is one of the most sensitive parts of the body and affected by anxiety, due to its large number of muscles and nerves. Frequently, spending a lot of time with tension in these muscle fibers can trigger headaches called tension headaches.
When an individual becomes anxious, muscle fibers receive stimulation from the nervous system that keeps those fibers tenseIn this way, anxiety is responsible for producing a considerable amount of tension in the body. This feeling may occur because anxiety causes the body’s muscles to stretch and causes the hormone cortisol to increase.
It is known as the stress hormone, since our body activates it in situations of fight, flight and tension. When an individual suffers a stressful situation, cortisol is responsible for preparing the body for a flight response. This long-term stress response increases the risks of suffering from some health problems.
What are anxiety headaches like?
Tension headaches are caused by excess muscle tension. It is characterized by pain throughout the head and spreading through the neck and shoulders. Muscle tension can even be responsible for causing contractures and nodules. The muscles of the neck, head and even the eyes become tense due to a stressful situation and in response to this, headaches arise.
Tension headache is a typical pain of individuals who are exposed to stressful situations or people who worry a lot about everything and cannot stop thinking. These people accumulate tension throughout the day and as a result these headaches appear.
Therefore, it is understood that Tension headache has to do with an emotional tension somatized in that headache.
How long does an anxiety headache last?
Even if the situations that cause stress to the individual are reduced, tension headaches show resistance to disappearTherefore, one way to solve it is to look for multidisciplinary work from psychologists, psychiatrists and physiotherapists.
Is tension headache dangerous?
It is important to mention that tension headache is not seriousunlike migraine, which causes the individual little or no tolerance to light, sounds or smells, vomiting or nausea.
On the other hand, a headache should receive more attention when it is sudden and intense, when it causes stiffness in the neck, when it is accompanied by fever, and when it causes the individual to become disoriented and have difficulty speaking.
How to calm anxiety and headaches?
Currently, the routine of most people is full of worries, obligations and, with that, stress arises. As a consequence of stress or even situations that generate fear, worry and other symptoms particular to each individual, anxiety appears. Therefore, it is important to take measures that contribute to the reduction of stress and anxiety.
What should we do to calm anxiety?
What should we do to relieve a headache?
- Close the eyes
- Massage the side parts of the head
- Take a warm shower
- Sleep enough hours
- Receive a massage (including tension areas: neck and shoulders)
- Drinking water
- Eat quality foods (that contain vitamins)
Remember that it is impossible to avoid stress every day, but with some changes in attitude you can improve the way you deal with adversity.
The sensations caused by anxiety often harm day-to-day life, resulting in difficulties in leading one’s life. Therefore, it is interesting to do a self-assessment about the need to go to the psychiatrist to prescribe an anxiolytic. Good as understand and recognize the importance of going to a psychologist to improve the symptoms and causes of anxiety.
Below you will find a video to start practicing relaxation.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to Anxiety and headache: relationship between them and how to calm themwe recommend that you enter our category.
Bibliography
- American Psychiatric Association. (2014). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-5. Porto Alegre: Artmed.
- Jensen, R.H. (2018). Tension-type headache – the normal and most prevalent headache. Headache; 58(2): pp. 339 – 345.
- Mayo Clinic. (2021). Headache: reduces stress to prevent pain. Retrieved from: https://www.mayoclinic.org/es-es/diseases-conditions/tension-headache/in-depth/headaches/art-20046707