Migraines are intense, painful headaches that can cause nausea, confusion and changes in your vision. Migraines can result from different triggers, including depression, stress and exhaustion. A stressor triggers a migraine headache by causing changes in the brain chemical serotonin, causing swelling of the blood vessels that can lead to troublesome symptoms. To reduce the incidence of migraine headaches related to stress, you must prevent becoming too stressed in the first place.
Step 1
Keep a journal to record your migraine triggers. After experiencing a migraine, write down your emotions at the time of your migraine attack. If you felt stress over work, a family matter or relationship, describe when you began feeling this and any symptoms you noted as you developed a migraine headache. This helps you identify stressful situations to avoid in the future.
Step 2
Identify ways to avoid stressful situations. If you find your stress is due to disorganization in your life, purchase a planner, spend a day organizing your files or cancel appointments you know you cannot reliably keep. Be realistic about what you can accomplish in a day and establish honest expectations of what it will take to reduce migraine stress triggers.
Step 3
Select a positive affirmation you can repeat to yourself if you find your stress levels increase. Examples include "my body will heal quickly" or "I am happy and at peace." Repeating these affirmations regularly helps to reduce oncoming stress and changes your mindset.
Step 4
Engage in stress-relieving exercise regularly. Good examples including walking, taking a yoga class, bicycling or swimming. Very intense, high-impact exercise like sprinting or vigorous aerobics may be too stressful on your body. Moderate aerobic exercise, however, helps to relieve stress and muscle tension that could lead to a migraine's onset.
Step 5
Practice progressive muscle relaxation techniques regularly to relieve tension in the body. To perform this technique, sit or lie down in a quiet room. Imagine each muscle, from your head to your toe, relaxing and reducing tension. Picture your forehead, neck, shoulders, right and left arms, all the way down to your toes, becoming relaxed. Take deep breaths as you work toward completing the exercise.
Step 6
Make sleep a priority. Not sleeping enough can lead to inflammation and make switching to stress mode easier. Even adding 30 minutes to one extra hour of sleep per night can help you reduce stress triggers.
Tips and Warnings
- Consider alternative or complementary medicine techniques like acupuncture, biofeedback or herbal treatments. According to "Health" magazine, these techniques may help some migraine sufferers find relief.
Things You'll Need
- Journal
