What can you do to reduce headaches and migraines?
1. Identify your triggers. A psychologist can help you to recognise the situations, emotions and thoughts that can trigger a headache.
2. Change your habits. Learn how to change habits that may increase your vulnerability to headaches such as diet, exercise, relaxation and sleep habits.
3. Reduce the impact of triggers. You can eliminate, reduce and desensitise to triggers and stresses. This can include cognitive or behavioural techniques that help remove or diminish the impact of the identified trigger.
4. Stop dwelling. Excessive amounts of rumination and dwelling can result in headaches from emotional stress. Mindfulness skills can help you gain control of your attention see the smilingmind app.
5. Learn to relax. People who suffer from headaches and migraines often have difficulty slowing down to relax. You may even be unaware of tension as you have become so accustomed to the feeling. A psychologist can teach many forms of relaxation, from breathing exercises to mindfulness meditation, imagery, and others.
6. Control the migraine cycle. Simply having chronic migraines or headaches brings up issues of its own. There may be frustration or fear about suffering from migraines, these emotions can possibly lead to triggering a cycle of migraines.
7. Change the way you think. There are connections between thoughts, beliefs, feelings, behaviour, and pain. A psychologist can assist you to develop positive coping thoughts to combat negative thinking and reduce the strength of emotions and also brain based strategies to influence pain messages.
8. Intervene early. Develop a plan to intervene early at the first sign of a headache as treatment is less effective once a headache is full-blown.
Obviously, it’s important to rule out any underlying medical issues with your doctor before calling a psychologist for migraine-based therapy.
Want some more information about migraine-based therapy? Please contact us we also recommend this book.
Don't miss our blog Help with headaches and migraines! part one
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