When Headaches Become Unbearable

What causes headaches, we may never know. What we do know, however, is that they are painful often unwelcome invasions into our everyday lives. That being said, what can we do about headaches when they decide to pop up out of nowhere?

There are many remedies for the common headache. Most people don t even waste any time anymore; instead they race right to the medicine cabinet or dig out a bottle of aspirin from their bags. Just be thankful that you re not one of the relatively small number of people who suffer from migraine headaches. I can still remember when I was in the fifth grade. A girl in my class suddenly got the attention of my teacher because she was holding her head in her hands. She was making a face as if she was crying (or wanted to); however, nothing came out. She was escorted down to the nurse by one of my other classmates. She missed the rest of the week of school. It turns out (as we would find out later) that she was suffering from a migraine headache. I still remember thinking, “What s the big deal? Why does she get to miss school just for having a headache?” I was furious. I also had no idea what the true definition of a migraine is.

Some people who suffer migraines describe it as the worse kind of pain that there is. My own father has suffered from migraines his entire life. My grandmother still re tells stories of how when my father was a child, he would get awful migraines for no apparent reason. The symptoms were horrible. Often times, he would be vomiting or rolling on the floor in pain. My grandmother and grandfather brought him to several different specialists, but none could figure out what was causing these migraines. Indeed, much of what is still known and/or understood about migraines remains much of a mystery today. We know that they are extremely painful and often debilitating. Today, my father is able to manage his headaches due to the advance of modern medicine. In a lot of ways, we should be increasingly grateful for such advances. Who would ve thought that we d reach a point where all we would have to do is pop a couple of pills and say goodbye to tension headaches within a matter of minutes?!

Some other remedies for dealing with less severe headaches include: sitting or laying in a dark room, getting a cold compress to put over our foreheads, massages or some light exercise (to take the attention off of the pain). More often than not, however, we opt for the two aspirin. While you shouldn t rely solely on medication to get you through a headache episode, you should also consider what it is that is causing your headache. Sometimes stress causes headaches. However, there also may be other links such as what you eat or what kinds of chemicals you are exposed to. For example, the chemicals found in cigarette smoke almost instantly makes my head spin, making me slightly nauseous. Then there are some people, who when they smell gasoline at a gas station will get headaches as a result.