Managing headaches!

Headache disorders are a pandemic. They are the most common disorders of the nervous system, with tension type headaches and migraines being the most prevalent. It has been documented by the World Health Organisation that in developed countries, tension type headaches affect two thirds of adult males and more than 80% of females. They cause personal suffering, impaired quality of life and a significant financial cost. Coping with chronic headache disorder long term may also predispose individuals to other illnesses. For example, depression is three times more common in headache sufferers and research shows that comorbidity exists between anxiety disorders and headaches. Many factors can trigger and aggravate headaches, including stress and negative emotional states, sensory triggers, hunger, lack of sleep, food or drink, alcohol, menstruation and weather. Standard clinical advice is to avoid all trigger factors, but it’s almost impossible to do this and attempts to do so may prove stressful and restrictive. Moreover, some sufferers are not even aware of their triggers!

Lifestyle factors such as relationship or family problems, and worry over exams or work can also be triggers. But, these situations or events do not actually cause the headaches. Our individual reactions to them do. For example, not everyone develops a headache when worrying over an exam or a problem at work. Pre-dispositional factors relating to headaches are not yet well understood. However there is a tendency for them to ‘run’ in families and there can be a genetic component. And while some personality characteristics may also pre-dispose people to certain types of headaches, it’s not inevitable they will experience them. With respect to consequences, the way one responds to a headache will affect the headache experience and the likelihood of them re-occurring. For example, becoming tense, anxious and frustrated in response to a stress-induced headache is a natural reaction, but it does aggravate the problem.

The treatment by our psychologists at the Positive Psychology Centre involves educating headache sufferers around headaches, improving depression and lifestyle modification; identifying and managing headache triggers; mindfulness based strategies; stress management; cognitive training; assertiveness training; problem solving; pain management and relapse prevention.

Written by Peter Kyriakoulis
Director of Positive Psychology Centre