What can you do to relieve tension-type headaches?
What can you do to relieve tension-type headaches?
What can you do to relieve tension-type headaches?
Tension-type headaches and migraines must be treated differently!
So pay attention: Here are tips for dealing with tension-type headaches!
Remember!
Tension-type headaches don’t protect against migraines! It’s possible that you have both types of headaches.
If you’re unsure whether you have a tension-type headache or a migraine, the overview of headache types and the bounce test can help!
What can I do if I have a tension-type headache right now?
If your tension-type headache is only mild, you’re probably already automatically doing what experts recommend: just keep doing what you are doing. Don’t even think about it and after a while the headache will be gone. You won’t even know when it stopped.
But if your tension-type headaches are severe, you may have thoughts like “this headache is really annoying”, “I can’t concentrate” or “this headache really needs to stop now”.
Check out the tips below.
What can you do for tension-type headaches…?
Active distraction and more!
Check out what you can do…
Continue!
- Keep going to school and participating in your classes.
- Try to stay active with sports or other recreational activities – even if it’s difficult at first.
Distraction!
- Chat with your friends
- Listen to your favourite playlist
- Focus on something interesting
This is how you draw attention away from the pain and towards beautiful things.
Get moving!
- Take a stroll around the block
- Run up and down the stairs
Find more ideas here:
Take a deep breath!
- Inhale deeply through the nose and slowly exhale through the mouth
- This is especially good in fresh air or at an open window
- Go and check out some breathing exercises
What can you do for tension-type headaches…?
Active distraction and more!
Check out what you can do…
Continue!
- Keep going to school and participating in your classes.
- Try to stay active with sports or other recreational activities – even if it’s difficult at first.
Distraction!
- Chat with your friends
- Listen to your favourite playlist
- Focus on something interesting
This is how you draw attention away from the pain and towards beautiful things.
Take a deep breath!
- Inhale deeply through the nose and slowly exhale through the mouth
- This is especially good in fresh air or at an open window
- Go and check out some breathing exercises
If possible, don’t take any pain medication!
- You can reduce your tension-type headaches through active distraction and exercise. Studies have shown that pain medications are not more effective than exercise.
- In fact, taking too many painkillers can lead to more headaches. Also, too many painkillers are not good for your body. You can find more information here:
What the experts say about medications
Isn’t that weird? “Taking too many painkillers can lead to more headaches.” Why is that?
Scientists have found that people who take pain medication very frequently develop headaches that don’t go away. This kind of headache is often mistaken for a regular headache. That’s why many people continue taking their pills and the headache that was caused by too much medication can’t get better. So the headache pills cause a persistent headache! This kind of headache is also called “a medication-induced headache”.
What’s the solution? There’s only one thing that can help: stop taking painkillers altogether until everything is okay again. Most children and adolescents need support from experts for this.
That’s why it’s so important that you don’t take medication for tension-type headaches. Unfortunately no one knows how many painkillers are too many and would make your headaches worse. It’s probably different for each person! Experts have determined that taking pills 15 days a month is too much. But this is only a guideline and this amount can be much lower, especially for children.
On the page “Click here to get help!” you will find tips on preparing for doctors appointments as well as contacts of child pain experts.
How can distraction help with tension-type headaches?
The perception of pain takes place in the brain and can be changed. When attention is shifted away from pain, the pain intensity decreases. This means that when you are distracted, you feel less pain. The reason for this is that the pain center is not activated as much when you focus on a distraction.
Move the knob to see what happens in the brain when your attention is focused on the pain and what happens when you distract yourself!
Can you see the difference? You can see how active the pain center is by the size and color of the glowing area. The bigger the area and the more it glows (highest activity is red), the more active the pain center is and so, pain is experienced more strongly.
Graphic: APPLAUS-Project
What the experts say about the pain center
Without our brain we can’t perceive pain!
The pain center is a part of the cerebral cortex called the primary somatosensory cortex. This brain region is responsible for processing sensory impressions such as touch, pressure, temperature, and pain.
One study showed that the pain center of the brain is less active when people distract themselves. As a result, pain is perceived less intensely.
In the study, the scientists recorded the brains of 2 groups of people. In the first group, the participants touched something hot. In the second group, the participants were asked to touch something hot but think of a pleasant memory to distract themselves. Both groups were given the same pain stimulus, but the distracted group felt the pain only half as strong!
You can see this effect in the two pictures with the knob: When attention is focused on the pain, the pain center becomes highly activated. Yet with a distraction, the pain center gets activated only a little bit.
Source: Bushnell et al., 1999
How do you distract yourself?
Looking for good ideas to distract yourself from the pain? Then press the start button and get inspired!
If you have frequent tension-type headaches…
…you should try to reduce your stress. On top of that, exercise and sufficient sleep can help so that your tension-type headaches occur less often and are not as strong!
You can find more details at…
You’ve learned quite a bit about tension-type headaches. Now put your knowledge to the test with this fun quiz!
How does a tension-type headache develop?
Go back to read about what causes tension-type headaches.