If you suffer frequent or debilitating headaches, you may be desperate to find the source of the pain and relieve it. To prevent and treat headaches, it's important to know what types of headaches you are suffering. If you have a pattern of headache behavior, doctors may be able to help cure your headaches or at least reduce their severity and frequency. Knowing all you can about your own headache patterns is an important first step toward diagnosis, but consulting with a doctor is critical for accurate diagnosis, as many patients inaccurately evaluate their own headaches.
Step 1
Start a journal and record your pain. Tension headaches can feel like pressure on both sides of the head or back of the neck. The pain is constant, but not sharp or throbbing. Cluster headaches are extremely intense, very severe, and last 30 to 45 minutes but occur several times a day. The pain can be piercing, usually on one side of the head and often around the eye.
Step 2
Note additional symptoms. With tension headaches, the eye can tear on the affected side and sinus congestion can occur. Hormone headaches and migraines, associated with women's menstrual cycles, can include sharp, throbbing pain on one side of the head. They are also often accompanied by nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to light, sound, and touch. Migraines can also include auras, such as seeing lines or spots, or motor or verbal disturbances. Sinus headaches may feature facial pain along with fever and green or yellowish nasal discharge.
Step 3
Assess possible triggers. Tension headaches triggers include stress, anxiety, fatigue or anger. Cluster headache triggers include smoking, alcohol or stressors. Hormone headaches are triggered by the menstrual cycle and may start before or during the period. Migraine triggers include red wine and foods with caffeine, monosodium glutamate, aspartame or nitrates; high humidity or changes in barometric pressure; menstrual cycles or birth control pills; skipping meals; and sleeping too much or not enough.
Step 4
Describe your headache history. Tension-type headaches, which are among the most common, can be "episodic" or occasional, or can occur every day. Cluster headaches occur more in men more than women and often recur, almost always on the same side, followed by a headache-free period. They often come with no warning. Migraines occur in women three times more than men, with risk factors being obesity, head trauma, stress, snoring and excessive caffeine use.
Step 5
Contact your doctor. Armed with your headache history journal, you are ready for a doctor's evaluation. It is important to describe your headaches and symptoms accurately and completely for diagnosis.
Tips and Warnings
- Do follow up with your doctor, as headache types are often misdiagnosed by patients. If you experience frequent tension headaches, a physician should rule out underlying factors.
- If the quality or type of headache symptoms change, don't go away or get worse over days, contact your doctor. Also, see a doctor immediately if headaches occur during physical activity including sex, while straining such as coughing or bowel movements, after injury or illness, or are accompanied by fever, stiff neck, weakness or numbness, seizures, or changes in vision. New headaches over age 50 are a cause of alarm, as is allodynia -- when normally comfortable activities are suddenly not, such as pulling your hair into ponytail or wearing a necklace. Rebound headaches can occur if you overuse pain medications for headaches, taking them two or more days a week.
Things You'll Need
- Journal
- Pen
- Doctor contact information
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