There is something utterly disturbing about certain kinds of headaches that most people will never know. For most, a headache is something that appears once in a while and subsides as soon as they drop a couple of paracetamols. However, for some folks, a headache is far more than a transient experience, and when it turns from an occasional occurrence into a chronic one, it's easy to become disheartened by your situation. Not only is it painful and upsetting, but it can severely disrupt your life and, in some severe instances, can lead to a serious depression that is difficult to emerge from. While most people will immediately reach for the pharmaceutical option, there are more holistic and natural techniques you could apply first that will avoid the usual symptoms that come with harsh drugs, which we will explore in this post. However, as with any sort of ailment, chronic or otherwise, it's always wise to seek medical attention before embarking on any form of program.
Discuss Your Problem With A Trained Specialist
Before you jump straight into any form of treatment, you really ought to seek advice from specialists trained in this particular ailment. When it comes to something like chronic headaches, you never truly know if there is an underlying issue that is causing this pain and that might need to be addressed before anything else. Once you have had the once over and are clear of the usual suspects, you can discuss with these professionals how to proceed and what actions you must take to reduce the pain and slowly remove the pain, or at the very least, learn how to deal with it. If you live in a larger urban area, you should be able to book an appointment with a doctor who deals specifically with headaches, but if not, then a visit to your local physician is just as good. It's essential to describe how you feel in as much detail as you can so they are able to correctly diagnose and issue a course of action.
Think About What Triggers Your Headaches And Learn To Avoid Them
While not all headaches of a chronic nature are triggered by anything in particular, some certainly will be. This could be bright lights, spending too long in front of a screen, or even something you might perceive to be unrelated, like your posture. Once you spend some time analyzing what sets off your headaches, you can begin steps to avoid or correct whatever it is that causes you pain. We know that this might be easier said than done in some cases (e.g., if your job requires you to sit at a computer all day), but there are always ways that you can change your lifestyle to help reduce the discomfort. For instance, if it happens to be your job, then you might consider investing in or asking your employer to invest in something like a standing desk that improves your posture while you work, as well as the chance to take regular breaks away from your screen.
Apply A Cold Compress To Your Forehead
Applying a cold compress is as old as it gets for reducing the impact of a headache, but it remains a great choice to start off with. If you have already tried this option to no avail, then you can skip to the other options in this post, but if not, it's worth soaking a towel in cool water and applying it to your forehead until the pain subsides and you feel better. However, even if this does work, it may only be a temporary solution at best, leading you to try other, more long-lasting strategies.
Practice Deep Breathing Exercises
Breathing exercises might only be a band-aid rather than a cure, but they have the potential to reduce the pain when it arrives and allow you to feel slightly better throughout the day. The first step is learning a few deep breathing exercises, many of which you can find online, and then using them as soon as you feel your headaches coming on. Even if deep breathing doesn't cure you, you can use it to help the pain to subside while you practice other techniques that may better result in a longer-term solution.
Consider Acupuncture And Other Alternative Techniques
Acupuncture and other alternative treatments have long been looked upon with some derision by medical professionals, but there is plenty of anecdotal evidence suggesting that they do have some impact on a variety of conditions. You can usually find a reputable practitioner by searching online for one in your local vicinity and booking an appointment with them. You can explain your issue and let them come up with a treatment based on the information you provide. Again, there is no guarantee that this will work for you personally, but if you have been suffering for a long time, there is no harm in trying and seeing if it works.
Practice Gentle Neck And Shoulder Stretches
Some headaches manifest as a result of stiff neck and shoulder muscles that cramp up and radiate the pain upward toward the head. You may never know it until you start a course of gentle stretching, but if this does happen to be the case, then you should find a slight alleviation of pain over several months of stretching.
Improve Your Posture
Similarly to the previous point, your posture could be the primary culprit causing you this chronic discomfort. Poor posture can lead to a large number of issues, from general musculoskeletal pain to the topic of this post, the infamous headache. Fortunately, this is a relatively straightforward fix, but it does require discipline and regular adherence to a stretching regime. You can find all sorts of unique ways to improve your posture by using YouTube and other online resources, but for the best results, it might be a good idea to join a yoga or pilates class and use what you've learned when at home.
Maintain A Consistent Sleep Schedule And Stick To It
Sleep is vital for a considerable number of health maladies, and it's possible that a lack of sleep is what's causing your chronic pain in the first place. Consequently, ensuring you create a sleep schedule and strictly adhere to it might just be the cure you've been searching for all this time.
Chronic pain can cause all kinds of horrible problems and massively disrupt your life if you allow it to fester. As with any issue, the cure tends to lie in combining multiple techniques, some of which are mentioned in this post.
