Headache or Migraine

Headache specialists divide headache into primary and secondary headache. Secondary headache means that there is a specific cause for the pain, such as a brain tumor, an infection, an inflammatory condition, sinus, or dental problems. These conditions need to be treated medically.

Primary headaches have no identifiable cause after a routine medical evaluation. Migraine is a type of primary headache of varying intensity, often accompanied by nausea and sensitivity to light, sound or smells and sometimes preceded by warning symptoms. Triggers include hormonal changes, certain foods and drinks (including alcohol), lack of sleep, stress, and exercise. For migraine and other primary headaches, it is most likely that the brain is involved in generating or contributing to the symptoms. 

Why would the brain do this? Nearly always, one or more types of stress is involved even if this is not fully recognized at first.  These include:

1. Adverse Childhood Experiences and their long-term impact including:

   a. Stressful personality traits such as focusing too much on the needs of others, excessive self-criticism, perfectionism, lack of assertiveness and many others.

   b. Unrecognized negative emotions such as anger, fear, shame, grief, or guilt.

   c. Triggers including people, situations or events that remind you of stressful situations.

   Current life stresses

2. Depression, Anxiety or Post-Traumatic Stress

The good news is that all these sources of stress can be successfully diagnosed and treated.

To learn more about whether you might have these issues, try taking the self-diagnostic quiz below. It has 12 ‘Yes or No’ questions. The more questions to which you answer ‘Yes’, the more likely it is that the resources on this website will help you.