Stress & Headaches: Causes, Symptoms, and Strategies for Relief
- Victoria Wermers, RN,MSN,FNP, PMHNP
- Oct 1, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 29
STRESS AND TENSION AS A CAUSE OF HEADACHES
Stress is one of the most common causes of a headache. A stress, or tension headache, can be related to mental strain or, occasionally, physical stress. Anxiety, tension, and, sometimes, depression can play a part as well.
When a person is stressed, strain on the neck and scalp muscles can occur. This results in muscle contractions that irritate local nerve fibers, which can result in a headache. Stressful situations and anxiety-provoking events can also cause a drop in serotonin levels, which can also cause a headache. Other triggers of a headache include mood-related behaviors, like poor sleep, jaw-clenching or tooth grinding, dehydration, and other factors that can cause stress headaches.
Muscle contractions typically cause a dull ache radiating from the back of the neck and head to both sides of the head and extending, often, to the forehead. It is described as "bandlike."
Tension headaches can last anywhere from several minutes to several days.
Treating the Potential Cause: See "anxiety" and "depression."
General Approaches to Stress and Tension Headaches
Heat or cold to the neck or shoulder area, or a wet washcloth applied to the forehead, will be helpful.
Over-the-Counter Medicines for Headaches
NSAIDS: Ibuprofen (common: Advil, Motrin), naproxen sodium (common: Aleve, Naprosyn), and the combination of caffeine, acetaminophen, and aspirin (common: Excedrin Migraine, Goody’s Powder). These are probably the best choices for headaches. Try to take NSAIDs with a little bit of food (as simple as a cracker) to avoid stomach irritation. If your headache is minor, take the lowest dose. If it is moderate, take the higher recommended dose.
Acetaminophen (common: Tylenol).
Take as directed over-the-counter if there are no contraindications.
Considered Natural Approaches and Remedies (Primarily Teas)
Caffeine may help, but it has been known to trigger headaches.
There are plenty of approaches and techniques to reduce the stress and tension that lead to headaches:
Rest
Relaxation and meditation techniques
Deep breathing exercises - This helps release endorphins in your brain, which are "feel good" hormones. This technique is practiced by taking a deep breath through your mouth using your diaphragm muscle located just beneath your lower ribs (instead of using neck, shoulder and upper chest muscles), pausing, and then releasing the breath through the mouth. Repeat this several times.
-Guided Imagery - Think of a relaxing situation or a place you have been and focus on only that - focusing on texture, smells and visuals.
-Use Mindfulness - This is when a person focuses on the present moment, feeling and experiencing the moment with awareness and acceptance, not judgment. This reportedly helps the fronto-limbic area of the brain, which is, in good part, responsible for emotional regulation and processing, as evidenced by MRIs.
-Try Progressive Muscle Relaxation Exercises: This is done by tightening muscle groups for eight seconds then relaxing them for several seconds: Begin with facial muscles, with the face, moving to the scalp - tighten muscles eight seconds, then relax; then the neck, doing with each muscle group of the chest, back, pelvis, extremities and so on. This releases some tension and stress. If you do not have time to move through all of your muscle groups, do this with those muscles you believe have the most tension.
-Analytical Meditation - This meditation involves focusing on an object or a concept and attending to only that.
-Body Scanning-Focus on a part of your body and feel relaxation, warmth, and the release of tension.
Massage as well as self-massage techniques.
Some people who have frequent tension headaches use special approaches like biofeedback, acupuncture, and even CBT. These are just a few approaches.
Prescription Medications
Some of the more common prescriptions for this include muscle relaxers, such as Flexeril, Robaxin, and Skelaxin. Sometimes, if chronic/recurrent tension headaches occur, a provider might prescribe beta-blockers, gabapentin, topiramate, tricyclic antidepressants; they rarely prescribe opioid painkillers because of the addictive potential.
