Chronic Tension Headaches

There are so many types of headache and headaches are so common, that there is a very good chance that everyone you know has had them or still gets them. The reasons why people get headaches are just as varied. It could be stress, over-medication, migraine, lack of calories or tension. One of the worst types is chronic tension headaches.

A normal tension headache feels as if a belt is being done up tightly around your forehead, but they do not tend to last very long and they are infrequent. A chronic tension headache is the same, but it may come every day or even several times a day. A headache is classified as a chronic tension headache if you get a tension headache for than fifteen times a month for several successive months.

Therefore, if you suspect that you are suffering from this type of headache, start to make notes in a diary. When? Where? How severe? How long it lasted? And anything else that you think may be relevant, like what you have eaten or drunken that day and the day before. You may notice a connection to work or diet.

Some sufferers describe the pain as like having a very tight belt wrapped around their head, others say the feeling of constriction goes down as far as their shoulders.

In general, sufferers of tension and chronic tension headaches agree, that the pain is strongest in the forehead, then along the sides of the head and sometimes at the back too.

They say that the typical level of pain is a dull ache which can be mild to moderate in intensity. It is more of a nagging, always-on pain than a sharp, distracting pain.

Chronic tension headaches seem to be early risers, that is, some people wake up with them and others say that they start just after they get up in the morning. It is as if the thought of the day ahead is almost too much too bear. The pain can intensify at certain periods of the day, or it can just slowly slip away almost unnoticed.

Chronic tension headaches are nowhere near as common as normal tension headaches, but they are twice as common in women as in men.

The main problem with these headaches, besides the pain itself, is that they become a regular occurrence. You wait for it to happen, you are that sure that will accompany you throughout the day as normal. The pain can just become one continuous drag on your life.

For this reason, sufferers of CTH are often susceptible to depression and anxiety and it is hard to know which came first, the CTH or the depression / anxiety and which is causing which. If you think this might be your problem, do not try to treat the headaches yourself, go to see a doctor about the depression or anxiety, get that sorted out and the chronic tension headaches may disappear too without any further medication.