UHAM041

24 * UNDERSTANDING HEADACHES AND M IG RAI N ES is in intensity rather than quality. In all of the talk about how terrible migraine can be, it is easy to forget the suffering that tension-type headacłies, especially chronię ones, can bring.

^{6 6} The worst thing about tension headaches is that other people don't always have sympathy because they just think I am having norma!, everyday headaches. It's true, I am, but I don't just get headaches Like anyone else. I think they are worse, if only because I have them quite regularly.

I have headaches 10 to 20 times a month. What's morę worrying is that I have had them foryears and years at this level. They are a duli pain, and they just don't go away. They are worse when I move my head. Sometimes I feel sick, but not always, and once I also had blurred vision. At first I thought I had migraines, but the doctor ruled that out. When I get them, they can last two or three days, and I stop being able to concentrate on things because the constant pain just gets me down. Of late, the doctor has been suggesting that I might be depressed. The trouble is, he's right, but it's not that simple because I think that anyone who had had these headaches for so long would start to get depressed anyway. What I mean is that depressed people hate getting up in the morning, and so do I, but in my case it is often because I have gone to bed with a headache and woken up with a headache and know that l'm going to have a headache all day unless I am lucky and painkillers get rid of it, which they do sometimes but not always.

I have tried lots of things to deal with them, and painkillers seem to be the best, but I don't want to use them very often because I know they are not good for me in the long run. If my husband massages myshoulders I very often get relief, but it doesn't always last, and the headache can come back an hour after he stops. I have also tried Indian head massage, and that works too, but I can't get someone to do that to me at three in the morning when I can't sleep and my head feels li ke it is in a vice.

Anyone who has headaches li ke minę has a job on their hands. Sometimes, I wish I had migraines instead, because I know that they hurt morę, but from what I have heard they don't take up as much of your time. The problem with chrome headaches is that it's hard to get anything done when half of your Life is spent with pain in the head. • •

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