View Full Version : I'm waking up with headaches every morning...
This is really stressing me out. Every morning pretty much I wake with a headache. Not a pounding, typical headache, but more of like a sore head, similar to when you have a cold of flu. It feels better when I get up but is still there throughout the day.
I had multiple brain MRIs last year so I definitely don't have a brain tumour... I have reported enlarged optic disks for which they found no explanation and have had an ophthalmologist tell me they are enlarged, but a neurologist tell me they aren't. I don't know who to believe. Is the pressure in my skull increasing?
I just feel groggy all day and it's really getting me down :(
MyNameIsTerry
22-04-15, 12:15
That question is really one for a second opinion, I guess.
What I can say is that I have spates of this too. I had about 3 months of it towards the end of 2013. I found that eating mature cheese with ham was causing some of the ones I experienced later in the day and eliminating that resolved them. The others just seemed to go on their own but I still have many days where this happens.
Maybe its a sensitivity issue? I know food can effect me and headaches or funny swimming heads are on way.
Could it be medication?
Do you get enough water?
Do you need to adjust your diet? (I think I noticed you saying you were into bodybuilding on another thread but were injured)
Well I usually don't eat dairy or gluten and I have been lately a bit (I'm not hugely intolerant to them but I feel better when I avoid them)... but I dunno... I don't feel it's related to that to be honest. Even sitting here now my head is hurting and it has been for days now. And I just feel generally run down and unwell. I'm not ill as I've just had a cold 2 weeks ago and gotten over it. Although I've had about 4 colds in the last 5 months. I don't know what's going on. I went to my GP yesterday for blood tests to check everything.
MyNameIsTerry
22-04-15, 12:32
Anxiety gives the immune system a battering and I've seen others on here experience a lot of colds.
Dairy at night seems unlikely, the whole cheese=bad dreams thing got debunked ages ago. We do seem more sensitive to issues of diet when we are going through anxiety so there is always the possibility I guess but wouldn't it manifest itself in more digestion and bowel issues?
Perhaps giving your immune system a boost could help? Maybe doing something for brain health could help such as Omega 3's?
Not sure. I've never got to the bottom of mine really but I have found I go through stages in my anxiety where some symptoms are more prevalent and others disappear.
How exactly were your headaches? Did you wake up with them? How long did that last?
MyNameIsTerry
22-04-15, 13:13
I would wake up with them and they would last most of the day.
They would feel like a hangover but perhaps not banging more pressure like my head was full.
The ones I suffered due to meals were a bit different because my head would be more like a swimming feeling. More unpleasant than painful, a bit of a weird feeling really.
The waking ones lasted a solid 3 months once but other than that it had been more a matter of days and then it would go away. The 3 month period included the issue wit cheese and ham together so eliminating that did reduce it overall but if still took a while before it reduced back to the on/off cycle again.
Hmm... yeah mine sound very similar. I am going to start being very strict with dairy and gluten again and hope that it improves....
I had headaches morning, noon & night for about 3 months and it was the worst time. Convinced I had some kind of tumour I went to the doctor who told me I was very 'tight' around my upper back, neck & shoulders. I was also quite anxious at the time & frowning alot which didn't help!! To me I felt like there was so much pressure in my head, it felt like it was going to implode!! I did review my diet but there was no pattern to it. Neglecting certain foods didn't help & eating healthier foods didn't either. I put mine down to feeling under the weather, bad posture & a bit of anxiety. Hope you feel better soon. xx
feelthelove
22-04-15, 18:37
you may be grinding your teeth in your sleep i have a special shield i sleep in which stops it i don't use it all the time only during high anxiety times .
Also i had four colds the flu and bronchitis since last November , i have had a lot of anxiety and stress and the doctor said this is why as it lowers the immune system .
I just feel so crap lately.
I keep getting these waves of nausea/ill feeling that come over me during the day. I'll be feeling fine, and then it comes and I suddenly feel as if I have the flu, but then 20 minutes later it will pass and I feel fine again, I really don't understand what's going on and it's scaring me.
MyNameIsTerry
23-04-15, 05:07
you may be grinding your teeth in your sleep i have a special shield i sleep in which stops it i don't use it all the time only during high anxiety times .
Also i had four colds the flu and bronchitis since last November , i have had a lot of anxiety and stress and the doctor said this is why as it lowers the immune system .
Thats a good call. I forgot about that.
I was grinding in my sleep and it gave me a lot of headaches.
Steve - have you got any jaw ache by any chance? Nausea is common with these ongoing headaches as they just knock you sick after a while. Have you checked the different forms of headaches out to see if things fit?
I do have jaw ache but it actually feels more like the glands around my jaw are hurting. At the sides under my ears and in front of my ears, and also under my jaw towards my throat. But the thing is I don't have a cold or flu. I HAD a cold 3 weeks ago. I don't any more but I always feel as if I'm about to come down with something and then I don't. I just always have the feeling as if I am.
I believe I do actually grind my teeth to be fair... Can that really be causing all of this?
MyNameIsTerry
23-04-15, 10:52
Possibly.
When I was going through the worst of it I developed jaw ache. This started to cause me a lot of headaches. Some people also report neck pain but I didn't have any of that from what I can remember. It was always worse when I woke up, got a bit better later in the day and sometimes would worsen again. It was always worse on the right side (right sided muscle pain seems to be how it goes with me!) although I would get it to a lesser extent on the left. I also felt like I couldn't fully open my mouth as if someone was pushing back and fully clamping my teeth together seemed to be more of an effort than it should.
After a couple of months I was due a dental check up so I asked my dentist. He said he could see signs of grinding on my wisdom teeth and my muscles where enlarged. He has taken an x-ray a few months before when I was there for something else. He asked when the pain was worse and when I said the morning he said I was grinding my teeth in my sleep. I had no idea and since I wasn't researching my disorders back then or on and only relied on my GP, I didn't know much about any of this to make the link.
So, bruxism it was. I asked my GP too as I was due a follow up and he said facial myopathy is very common with anxiety.
My dentist was much better than my GP (GP only said what it was and wouldn't say how to treat it despite asking twice! "its just something you can get with anxiety" was the answer).
My dentist told me to eat soft foods for a while and to perform an exercise:
1. Open mouth wide.
2. Touch tongue to roof of mouth.
3, Keep repeating for a minute or two.
He said to do this at bedtime and it will help to relax the muscles. Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) which CBT therapists advise us to use can help with this too when it incorporates the face, there are some sheets out there with that in but mine didn't have it.
This did help. It didn't make it go though, only easied it. I did that exercise in the day too incase it helped and it could if my jaw was feeling stiff.
He also wanted to construct a nightguard but I wasn't keen on this due to cost and how they can be a pain to learn to sleep in and I had enough issues with anxiety already without adding sleeping problems to it!
It lasted 6 months but it was much better for the last couple. In the end, a combination of this exercise and taking 2 paracetamol before bedtime seemed to do the trick.
I was also starting to improve with my anxiety which will play its part in it.
Some medications also cause bruxism including antidepressants (most likely due to extra anxiety).
So, if that a possibility, a dentist could check.
What I can also say is that its not just your jaw and headache. If you clench your jaw you will feel the muscles around your temples also contract. This is why you get all the headaches with it as its a muscular pain there too.
Its something to consider I guess, rule it out if nothing else.
I now I definitely grind my teeth so I'm sure it's a contributing factor... funnily enough I haven't woken up with the headaches today but that happened on Saturday also and then it came back again so I dunno....
I feel almost as if I've been poisoned on some days. I just feel so sick but without actually being sick :(
MyNameIsTerry
23-04-15, 11:14
Thats the nausea most likely. It can make you feel really off until it clears. I know if I'm having a lot of really bad headaches, I get that briefly.
If its contributing factor, see if you can work on it and it might ease this even if it doesn't get rid of it.
I know it's completely irrational but I can't help fearing I have something like leukaemia. Just because I've had so many colds recently and constantly feeling like crap... I just can't shake that fear out of my head. Although my last blood test at the end of Feb was normal... Waiting on another one now...
MyNameIsTerry
23-04-15, 12:09
Its good that you see that as irrational. It's just the nagging doubt, what ifs, catastrophizing, etc. As always you have to remember that there are other possibilities.
I know someone else on here who gets a lot of colds and she doesn't question if because she knows best anxiety can effect her immune system. She doesn't have HA hence sure doesn't consider more serious possibilities.
Sometimes we can very reoccurring infections that seem to go and keep coming back so there is always a possibility there but it's one for your GP.
I mentioned my worry to the GP and her reaction was sorta, "Hmm.. well let's get some blood tests done to rule it out"...
I haven't googled the symptoms of it or anything but I already know enough about it to know that some of what I'm experiencing lines up with it. It's stressing me out beyond belief.
But surely my blood test in Feb would have picked something up??
Yes it probably would have, at the very least there would have been some abnormalities worth following up. Having lots of colds etc is not necessarily a sign of a weak immune system, fatigue and stress can lower your resistance to many small bugs and viruses also.
I'm trying to stay positive, it's just very strange how it goes up and down throughout the day.
One minute I'll feel great, then suddenly this wave of an ill feeling comes over me and I feel almost like I have the flu. Then it passes and an hour later I feel fine again. Never felt like this before...
Could it be pollen? X been waking up with them too and it's coincided with all the flowers coming out and such.
I get hay fever but this doesn't feel like hay fever at all... This feels like I'm actually sick...
Hmm I go through spells of waking up with headaches that turn into migraines. It goes back a good few years now. In the last few years Ive discovered the problem. Its my sleeping position. If my neck is on slightly the wrong angle, Ill get a mutha of a migraine that will last practically the whole day. You can tell if its a neck issue or a head one by feeling and pushing on the muscles at the back and sides of your nexk. If you hit a tender spot, then its likely a neck headache and you need to sort your pillow situation out as it may be your pillows are too high, too low or one of them is slipping out of position putting your neck on an angle. x
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