Using a Behavioral Approach for Headache Relief

Are you one of those people whose chronic headaches have not respond well to medications? Or if you do, they work for awhile and then you must switch to something else? Do you feel that "YOU" are the problem instead of the headaches you are experiencing?

Medications will work for some people and for some types of headaches, but they are not the 'silver bullet' cure for everyone. What they are best at is relieving the pain ONCE it has started. The problem for most chronic headache sufferers, is that there are triggers for their headaches that they are unaware of, so how to PREVENT them is the real mystery.

One of the benefits of a behavioral approach is that it deals with the physical triggers to headaches thereby removing the major causes of not only tension headaches but often to migraines as well. It also puts the control in your hands which means you have access to it all the time.
    
Physical Triggers to Headaches
What are physical triggers? Well they refer to bad posture habits like believe it or not 'stand up straight, shoulders back, chin up'. Your basic military posture many of us were taught as kids. Other habits like clenching your teeth, carrying your shoulders 'up around your ears'. These ongoing, often unconscious habits create real physiological changes in your muscles which can then trigger headaches. We know they are unconscious, because MOST people initially deny they have any of the above habits. But after paying attention to themselves for a week they are quick to realize that is not the case.

Frequent Headaches Can be a Plus in Getting Rid of Them
Bet you never thought you would hear that. It is actually the frequency of your headaches that will tell you how effective a behavioral approach can be. If your headaches (tension or migraine) occur more frequently than once a month you are the best candidate for a self-managment behavioral approach. It means there are certain habits you have and even ingrained responses of how you cope with life's ups and downs that are contributing to your frequent headaches.

Here is the best part. Once you can identify what those unconscious areas are you can change them. One of the best training methods in becoming aware of unconscious habits is biofeedback. The simplest definition is: a process of monitoring a biological process and observing the information or 'feedback' from the monitoring and using it to help identify the changes you need to make in your body.

Biofeedback is officially done with electronic instrumentation but your own powers of observation can be trained to provide you with information you need about your body to make the changes necessary to alter your headache pattern. Try this simple exercise in observation and awareness for one week and see what you notice. Simply check in with yourself as many times a day as you can and drop your shoulders. If they don't feel as if they 'go anywhere' it is probably because the muscles are not stretched out enough. Do it anyway. You can even try shrugging them intentionally and then just let them drop.

Use your powers of observation. If you stick with this you will notice several things:
1) That no matter how often you check in the beginning, your shoulders seem to be 'up'
2) That you are unaware that most of the time your shoulders are 'up' or tense and not relaxed
3) It may feel more uncomfortable for your shoulders to drop down
4) If your practice is consistent during the week, by the end you will have some awareness of the position of your shoulders that you were unaware of before.

Making changes in your physical body requires some effort on your part but it is well worth it not to spend your life as a victim to your headache pain.