UHAM077

60 * UNDERSTANDING HEADACHES AND M IG RAI N ES

troublesome. Most people who suffer from headaches will say that they make them anxious and worried, and this is when long-term psychological factors can become problematic. Anxiety is something that psychologists take very seriously. Over the months and years, your levels of anxiety can increase, creating further problems. You can become morę and morę worried about your health and the worry creates stress. Stress can directly affect your health. It can cause skin conditions like eczema, or it can bring on headaches. A negative cycle is thus established, which can really only bebroken by changing your views about things, and learning to relax - something with which a psychologist can help.

To avoid the stress-headache cycle, you must take steps to relax whenever you can, which will also help to reduce the freąuency of your headaches.

Another important issue is that of ‘social support’. This is a fancy term used by psychologists to describe the help we get in life from friends and family. Having a shoulder to ery on, or someone to baby-sit now and then so that we can have a night out, are important to us. Of course, headaches and migraines are very much a solitary activity. The morę of them we

Stress-anxiety-headache cycle.