Headache and Migraines Forum - Am I Having a Tension Headache Or Is It More Serious?

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How can you tell if a headache is serious, or not? What types of headaches are there? Get started learning the facts about headache here....

Q: Am I Having a Tension Headache Or Is It More Serious?

asked by: Kansas on August 18th, 2005

Experienced User

For about a month now I have been experiancing headaches that I have never had before. When they first started it scared me because I had never had this type of headache before. I went to the dr and they did a ct scan and said there was nothing really bad si he said it was a tension headache and that stress would bring them on more. At the time I was really stressed but I am not that stressed anymore and I still have them. Here are my symptoms

pain in my forehaed
pain that gpes under my eyes and makes my eyes hurt
pain across my nose
pain in my temples
pain above my ears
bad pain on the back of my head (feels like someone wacked me with a bat)
sometimes the pain radiates to my jaw

this pain is there every morning when I wake up and continues throughout the day. Sometimes tylenol helps but not too often. I am on a few medications and thought maybe it was a side effect but I dont know. I am sure it is not a sinus headache because I have no conjestion and no mucus.
I really hope its just a tension headache and not something more serious.
Does excedren tension headache medicane work?

Tia
pain in the back of my neck

Replies(1)

cloversea

replied on August 18th, 2005

New User

Tia,

to soothe your fears some, fewer than 10% of headaches are caused by something scary, like a tumor or infection. Mri or ct scans are used to detect those. Spinal taps are sometimes used, but brain imaging can show the same problems.

Ache (the american council for headache education) has a page describing the different types of headache, with a focus on the similarities and differences between tension headaches and migraines: http://www.Achenet.Org/understanding/diffe r.Php.

It's certainly worth trying different otc meds. People with headache respond to different meds differently, whether they are painkillers, migraine abortives or preventives. For example, advil helps my headaches, but tylenol doesn't.

It's great that your doctor did a ct scan, but there are treatments for tension headache other than "relax." the mayo clinic has fantastic info on tension headache and possible treatments at http://www.Mayoclinic.Com/invoke.Cfm?Id=ds 00304. Ask your doctor to consider some of the medications on the list. If you can't get him or her to consider medications for your headache, I recommend seeing a neurologist or a primary care doc with experience with headache patients.

Good luck.

-kerrie

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