Can tension headaches (not migraine) cause these dizzy and off-balance sensations? I’m a massively tense person.
It feels like a vice tightening around my neck and head. I get massive brain fog when the tension headache occurs. My symptoms are SIGNIFICANTLY worsened by complex visual environments, such as crowded stores.
I’ve always been an anxious personality. Has anyone experienced tension headache that causes extremely debilitating dizziness and off-balance sensations as a result of stress?
Massage seems to help temporarily alleviate my symptoms.
From my understanding it’s all the same thing. I too am very tense and anxious and had the pressure and tightening of what felt like stress headaches…then it developed into the off-balance lightheadedness feeling. I had this for 9 months straight. MY neurologist just says it’s migraine activity. Are you taking any medication? I’ve been taking Venlafaxine and am having good results from it.
The neurologists I have seen have said my headaches are tension headaches. However the first one pointed out that that doesn’t mean that the sufferer is tense as such, its just a description of the pain symptoms. My headaches only started several weeks after getting vertigo/dizziness. My anxiety only really started once I’d been in this state for a few months, before this I was a pretty relaxed person.
Having said that I do also get occasional classic migraine aura (zig zag lines in vision - had one this Saturday when I was perfectly relaxed after a nice day out) but was told that this was separate. In any case I am on Nortiptyline and Gabapentin which are also used for migraine prevention, so I think as dizzybee says its all the same thing really.
There’s no doubt now though that anxiety can trigger my headaches and in turn induce some of the dizziness, although I still get some dizziness in isolation with no other symptoms and when I’m perfectly relaxed, more BPPV like.
I also have neck physio which reduces some of the stiffness and headache which in turn also reduces the anxiety. I’m also working on the anxiety through regular exercise (pretty much daily) and relaxing activities such as kayaking and walking - I joined a countryside walking group.
It feels like a vice tightening around my neck and head. I get massive brain fog when the tension headache occurs. My symptoms are SIGNIFICANTLY worsened by complex visual environments, such as crowded stores.
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I was exactly the same way. Sometimes I’d have to leave a store because the pressure/lightheadedness got so bad. Are you in any kind of counseling for the stress? That, relaxation techniques and mild meds really can help this type of headache/migraine (or whatever it is )
It feels like a vice tightening around my neck and head. I get massive brain fog when the tension headache occurs. My symptoms are SIGNIFICANTLY worsened by complex visual environments, such as crowded stores.
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I was exactly the same way. Sometimes I’d have to leave a store because the pressure/lightheadedness got so bad. Are you in any kind of counseling for the stress? That, relaxation techniques and mild meds really can help this type of headache/migraine (or whatever it is )
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I’ve seen multiple specialists, so far they’ve all been unable to diagnose me. I had one doc tell me it could be chronic subjective dizziness. The doctors were hesitant to diagnose me with vestibular migraine due to me having no history of headache. I’m seeing a neuro next week and demanding migraine medication. I’m 90% certain my symptoms are related to head tension/migraine. The fact that Advil, massage, and muscle relaxers help, lead me to believe it’s a tension issue.
Migraine is usually misdiagnosed as tension headache. Have a listen to this presentation by James U Adleman from the Headache and Wellness Centre in North Carolina. He discusses this.
I’m seeing a neuro next week and demanding migraine medication. I’m 90% certain my symptoms are related to head tension/migraine. The fact that Advil, massage, and muscle relaxers help, lead me to believe it’s a tension issue.
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Ha! Tell them you’re depressed or anxious - they’ll throw a million meds at you…lol!!
If you are having migraine aura (which I do too), then you have the migraine mechanism at work within your brain, and you definitely can’t rule out MAV, nor the fact that your “tension headaches” could actually be migraines (as Scott pointed out) – that’s my understanding anyway. You should read the link Joan posted today on chronic subjective dizziness and migraine. You probably have both going on, as with dizzybee and me too, I suspect. I’ll re-post the link here:
If you are having migraine aura (which I do too), then you have the migraine mechanism at work within your brain, and you definitely can’t rule out MAV, nor the fact that your “tension headaches” could actually be migraines (as Scott pointed out) – that’s my understanding anyway. You should read the link Joan posted today on chronic subjective dizziness and migraine. You probably have both going on, as with dizzybee and me too, I suspect. I’ll re-post the link here:
Yes also agreeing that tension headaches are actually migraine. I was told that tension headaches don’t actually exsist it’s just mild migraine headache. Probably like most differnt illness there are varying degress of intensity of different symptoms from mild to severe.
Tension headaches might very well be just a subtype of migraine but they are actually not really treated the same way. As far as I know beta-blockers and other preventive migraine meds are rarely prescribed against tension type headaches, no? I think amitriptyline is one of the favored drugs for that.
But on the other hand, the nsaids work against both, relaxation techniques too…
Tension headaches might very well be just a subtype of migraine but they are actually not really treated the same way. As far as I know beta-blockers and other preventive migraine meds are rarely prescribed against tension type headaches, no? I think amitriptyline is one of the favored drugs for that.
But on the other hand, the nsaids work against both, relaxation techniques too…
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The problem I have is that standard anti-inflammatories like Ibuprofen (an nsaid) has minimal impact on my headaches and as I have the headaches every day I’d need to take them everyday which isn’t a good idea anyway - long term ibuprofen use can cause stomach ulcers etc. If my head is particularly painful I will take a 600mg ibuprofen but it will only help my headache by about 20%.
I have the same problem as you. Iuprofen or paracetamol doesn’t touch the headaches. Asa helps much better for me but I can not take them constantly. I guess the only salvation then is to get a good preventive treatment.
I think ibuprofen is pretty safe by the way. The other nsaid are much much worse when it comes to side effects.
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