Try This Quick Quiz to Diagnose Your Headache Type
Choose the best answer for the following four questions.
1. How would you describe the pain?
a) Pressing or tightening, mild to moderate
b) Throbbing
c) Radiating pain
2. Where is your pain located?
a) Both sides of the head
b) One-sided
c) Behind one eye or it’s region
3. What are your headache’s triggers?
a) Anxiety or depression
b) Diet, stress, environment, perfumes, medications and/or hormone changes (seems to be everything!)
c) Alcohol and/or smoking, but only when I am regularly getting them, which is often in the spring or fall
4. What other symptoms do you have?
a) Sleep changes, guilt, weight loss, dizziness, poor concentration, chronic tiredness and nausea
b) Nausea, light and sound sensitivity
c) My eyelid sometimes droops and my sinus on the affected side is congested
If you answered mostly As, you’re likely suffering from tension-type headaches. As the name suggests, you may be under physical or emotional stress due to anxiety and/or depression. Please consider speaking to a professional about ways to relieve this.
If you answered mostly Bs, you seem to be having migraines. Medications and alternative therapies may be prescribed if you seek medical attention.
If you’ve answered mostly Cs, you’re likely having cluster headaches. These are named for their attack-nature - they tend to be several grouped headaches for many weeks and/or months, to be followed by a headache-free period, also possibly months or years.
If you’re experiencing headaches 15 or more days per month, you fit the classification for a chronic sufferer. All three type of headaches have chronic sub-types. Tension headaches tend to be chronic only during the time of stress, migraines sometimes evolve from episodic to chronic and cluster headaches are by definition chronic for a period of time before going into remission.
One more point to consider: though men and women get all three types of headaches, men suffer from 90% of the cluster headaches and women are three times more likely to suffer from migraines.
headache, chronic, cluster, episodic, migraine, tension headache
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