Tension Headache

Tension headaches are the most common type of all head pain syndromes. These headaches are a typical response to emotional stress. This stress can be conscious, based upon emotional issues existing in the present or subconscious, dealing with repressed emotions from the past or worries for the future. This painful condition is the most common of all psychosomatic pain syndromes affecting the human population almost universally.

Tension Headache

Causes of Tension Headache

There is ongoing debate about the exact causes and processes involved in the creation of tension-type headaches. Some doctors feel that muscular tension in the neck and face are the primary cause, although they are not sure why those neck and face muscles are tight to begin with. Other doctors blame teeth grinding and jaw clenching, which are certainly behaviors typical of many psychosomatic syndromes. Still other doctors place the causation of these head pain conditions on regional oxygen deprivation, creating ischemia-related pain. The one thing that seems to be a common idea among these many theories is that the emotional mind almost certainly has something to do with headache generation.

Symptoms of Tension-Type Headache

Besides the obvious unilateral or bilateral head pain, there are other distinguishing factors common to many tension-type headache conditions:

* Obvious muscle tension in the jaw, tongue, neck or face.
* Obvious conscious emotional stress.
* History of other chronic psychosomatic pain syndromes.
* Tightness or pressure in the skull.
* Pain behind the eyes.

Recommendation on Tension Headache

It is completely normal to get an occasional headache, especially when you are stressed out. This is the most commonly expressed type of psychosomatic pain in our species. I do not know anyone who has never experienced a headache at one time or another. For some patients, however, chronic tension-type headaches can ruin the quality of life and drastically reduce their overall functionality. These are the patients who truly need to use knowledge therapy to discover why they have such severe and frequent headaches. Luckily, this pain syndrome is relatively easy to cure without major medical treatments. The hardest part is acknowledging the emotional issues which are causing the physical pain. Once you can accomplish this, the rest of the cure is easy�

Tension Headache to Back Pain Home 3/19/08 Revised 7/28/08