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HEADACHE PREVENTION
I am in my 30’s and I get bad headaches during the week and I take a pain reliever to get rid of them. I work at a bank and use my eyes a lot and my patience dealing with the public. Do you think that my headaches could be from stress and how do you think I can reduce them without making a big change in my work.
Dear Asker,
I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV, so you might want to see a healthcare provider to rule out conditions that can cause or contribute to headaches such as high blood pressure, allergies, fluctuations in hormone levels around menstruation and dehydration. There are also loads of other head pain promoters like vision irregularities, caffeine and sugar, hunger, dental problems, pulled or strained muscles, chemical fumes and medications.
To answer your question, yes, your number crunching and customer service stressors can definitely trigger headaches. According to MayoClinic.com, half of those with what are commonly called "tension headaches" say they were stressed or hungry before getting a headache. It’s also interesting that you report headaches only during the week when you probably do most of your work.
There's debate among researchers about the exact causes of headaches, but most agree that stress is often a factor because of its impact on muscle tension and blood flow. Frustration, anger, impatience, and the suppression of these emotions that are common among customer servers, can spark the stress response. So can eye strain from constant and careful reading that’s essential in banking, law and editing, for example. Throw in poor lighting and reading from computer monitors, and you may very well be paving the way for your headaches.
Here's the good news: stress-triggered headaches tend to build over time. This is important because it means that you may indeed be able to prevent your headaches or reduce their severity. This prevention requires awareness and action, both of which can integrate with your work with little or no interference.
Awareness
During your workday, periodically check in with yourself to see how you are feeling. During each self-scan, focus on your frustration factor, anger level and other emotional indicators. Then, concentrate on the state of your muscles, paying careful attention to your back, shoulders, neck and eyes. If you are feeling any symptoms such as anger, a rapid heart and breathing rate, sweating, slight muscle tightness and dry eyes—all of which suggest the seeds of a headache have been planted--take actions detailed in step #2.
Action
So, you detect some of those or other pre-headache signals. Here are some quick steps you can take to prevent those headache seeds from sprouting:
In response to emotional upset warning signs:
- Do a minute or two of deep breathing, either using the Quick Calm stream on the homepage of this site, or on your own.
- Take a break from what you’re doing: go in the back, go to the bathroom, or go to lunch.
- Think about some of the benefits of your job or other people, places and things that make you happy: your friends, your bed, your music
- Look at something on your desk that makes you feel good; no, not your stapler, but a photo from your last vacation, your dog, etc.
In response to muscular tension warning signals:
- Do a section or two of The Tranquilizer stream on the homepage of this site; focus on the areas of your body where you feel some tension
- Self-massage tense body areas including around your eyes (gently use your clean palms around your eyes)
- Adjust your chair, keyboard, lighting and other work tools to maximize your comfort
- Take a break from what you’re doing: go in the back, go to the bathroom, or go to lunch.
Most of us just plow through our workdays without ever taking a minute here and there to “listen” to our bodies, a stress management strategy called biofeedback. As a result, many of us wind up tense, pooped or in some sort of discomfort by the end of the day--a fact not lost on drug companies that advertise heavily during evening news programs. Deliberately stopping to scan and relax yourself may feel strange at first, but making this investment early on can yield stress preventing dividends all day long.
Les
6/08
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