Constant Head Pressure

I'm new to this forum. Has anyone had constant head pressure ? Like your head is going to explode ? I've had this for a couple years now. I am going to a Neurologist now and he says it will take a long time, that my blood vessels in my head are inflammed. I am on several medications, which has helped, but I still feel the pressure daily, but not as intense now.

I was just wondering if anyone else has had this and what you are doing for / about it. It also makes me feel faint ( sometimes ).

Any ideas or help ?

Thank you very much,

Tulip

Post Edited (Tulip) : 10/6/2005 10:38:51 PM (GMT-6)

 

Hi Tulip i have had contant head pressure for 5 years now, i've not really took any meds for it, it took ages to get diagnosed the neurologist said its chronic daily headache something to do with the muscle, i think its something to do with my blood vessels either contricting or imflamed or something,, did the neurologist do any test to see that they are inflammed or is he guessing????

Would like to keep intouch! Rob

i'm exact the same as you its like a vice do u have a tight chest all the time aswell, i've just seen my doc today i am on adalat and propranolol he things something is inflammed, what meds are you taking? how long have you been taking meds for it?, i've only just started about 4 weeks ago.

Rob

When i saw a neurologist he gave me neurotin (gabapentin) it doesn't do beans my new doctor says this aswell hes never know it to work, he gave it me 2 relax muscle tension cause he seems to think its muscle causing the pressure, its not a drug for inflammed blood vessels???

I've had depokot aswell when i had a psychosis i got fat and i'm still fat now made me very depressed aswell.

them 2 drugs are very strange for inflammed blood vessels they should have no effect, i don't know about your other drug i'll have a read about it,,,,are u fatigued all the time and do you work?  i'm 2 fatigued and i don't work now.

Rob

Rob,

I don't know if it could be muscle or not, several docs opinions are that it is vessels.

I have gained a lot of weight since being put on the Depakote ER, in fact the doc is taking me off it little by little for that reason. I am fatiqued, but figure a lot of that is the medications. I'm just hoping in time that all this will go away. I have appt. with Neuro. this coming friday. I'm anxious to see what he says / does.

What's your age ? If you don't mind me asking.

Tulip

I'm 26, do you goto work?

Been like this since i was 21 i'm not the same person don't feel happy no more feel bad everyday its so depressing, thing is i don't see it going away and being like this forever and the thought of feeling like this forever is just pointless eventually i think i will just stop eating and go into eternal life.

I live with parents no1 else in my life can't go and socialize. I'm like when there dead what do i just hang around on my own with this disease. Does your head shake when u talk to people at the back?

Rob

Rob,

I am 31.

I have been getting migraines since I was 9 years old. I am originally from Australia, now living in NYC. When I was younger i used to have a doctor come to my house to give me injections for my migraines...they were soooooo bad.

I have always had the aura, hallucinations, nausea, vomiting..etc....from my childhood till about my early 20's the migraines were severe and i had them atleast once or twice a week..with a day or two afterwards to recover.

In my late 20's until now, I still got migraines...but no where near as dramatic. i would know the migraine was coming on..and it would and i would be down for a day or two...but this was only happening maybe twice a month.

Since September, I have been having these horrific migraines...which have now been diagnosed as Basilar Artery Migraines. I understand your frustration. I am just taking it one day at a time. taking each day as a new day to heal and maybe achieve a headache free day!

I try to get the right amount of sleep, I have stopped drinking, changed my diet to a trigger free diet, taken up yoga...when I can....taking my medications and doing my best to cope with a situation that SUX!!

Hang in there Rob, Just do the best that you can do each day, that is all you can hope for...

I feel for you.


Natchie

I can't work i'm so exhausted i wish i was gets abit boring sitting about all day.

Have u guys got a family?

My problem is my crap mood day in day out of having my head squeezed.

Tulip did u have flu before this head pressure came on i did.

How did u feel not going to work natch sorry to hear u have no family if that was me i wouldn't carry on, i guess u have hope of meeting someone.

Hey all,
This may help, probly won't, but I'll tell you anyway. I am 26yrs old and have had migraines since I was about 11, with chronic daily headaches starting about five yrs ago. I've been to many doctors, tried many meds and alternative therapies, pretty much anything I can get my hands on. And nothing has worked. It was making my life soooo hard and I was definitely miserable a lot. Then I started a job working as a filed biologist (I was completely afraid of failure due to missing days because of head pain, but I did it anyway), and for the first time, my headaches were much much better. I went from having daily 2-4 headaches and a weekly 9-10, to daily 1-2 and only two 9-10 migraines in four months! After I left, the headaches went right back to what they were before. The difference in my life there was that I was getting more excersise (non-cardio) then I have ever gotten. The excersise was walking through water 7hrs a day for the first 2 months and the just walking 7hrs a day for the last two months. The only other thing that was different was that I was taking wellbutrin to quit smoking, but I stopped taking that before the field season was over. With my job now there's no way I can get that kind of exercise, so I have to wait until the next field job to see if tons of exercise really was what did it! It also made me really happy (although maybe that was because my head felt so much better and I was on anti-depressants!)

Hi Tulip,

I can empathize with the exhausted feeling. I had 11 migraines during the month of October and a tension type headache every other day. I did my best but by the end of the month I was exhausted and ended up in tears several times.

I do my best to exercise and reduce my calories. I gained 100 lbs over the last 13 years during the time that my headaches worsened. I have lost 30 lbs but its been very slow and I have had to be very patient with myself.

I also realize that when my headaches are as persistent as they've been I can't bounce back like I used to be able to. It sucks but I try hard not to beat myself up over it.

Be kind to yourself. Exercise as much as you can. When you feel like it walk to the end of the block and back. Then the next time two blocks. Take baby steps and soon you'll be doing it several days a week and walking 15 - 30 minutes. If you're anything like me you want to walk several miles every day of the week and get overwhelmed at the thought. You'd be surprised at what a difference a short walk can make.

Take care.

Hey Tulip,
I know whacha mean about the exhaustion factor! Are you still on Depakote? I tried it about a year ago, and it made me into a total mess! I would come home from work and lie on the floor and stare at the ceiling.......I had no desire to do anything, not even watch TV. It was like the life had been sucked out of me! Maybe that was a side effect that would have gone away eventually, but it wasn't helping my head anyway, so i stopped taking it.
For the exersise thing, I am no one to talk, but I have read a lot about it and my intuition says that it is enormously important for overall health and headaches. There's something called the Egoscue Method that I've been getting into that talks about how out bodies are meant to be moving in all kinds of ways a lot, and when they don't everything becomes misaligned and can cause all kinds of pain. Check it out on the web, I've been doing the exercises (very simple yogalike) and so far it had helped with my shoulder and back pain. Anyway, for the exersise, I would find a way to have something force you to exercise, like a friend that stops by to walk with you everyday. That's the only way i can keep it up, and the wierd thing is afetr you do it for a couple weeks, it seems that the more u exercise the more energy you have.
:)

Hello all,

Hope it's ok that I'm posting the same message in two topics, but I hadn't yet found the "constant head pressure" topic before.  I'm new here, my name is Laura and I'm really writing on behalf of my husband.  Back in July he was taken to the e.r. because he was having lunch with a friend when suddenly felt like he was going to pass out.  He felt dizzy, heart palpitations, and they didn't pass.  He was admitted to hospital because of a high heart rate and they kept him there for about 8 hours, until they got his resting heart rate down to just under 100.  They said it was likely dehydration but to go to his doctor as a follow up.

To make a long story short, he went to his doctor who was pretty convinced this was anxiety, he went to a cardiologist, went to a therapist for a couple months...and during all this time, tried a few different medicines, including betablockers.  One thing that has been constant this whole time tho', is he has constant head pressure, pretty much 24/7.  He feels that any anxiety he feels is *because* of the head pressure, not the other way around.  The only thing that seems to give him some relief sometimes is working out.  Occasionally he gets some, tho' not total, relief from taking a half an Ativan.  We thought for quite a while that the head pressure was a side effect of the betablockers, but he's not on those anymore.  His heart rate seems to stay under 100 now without them, tho' it's still on the high side, high 80s to 90s at rest.

Everything we've read about panic/anxiety, seems to be more episodic.  Migraines seem to have different symptoms.  Has anyone had constant head pressure like this?  And constant elevated heart rate?  He 's also now on a diuretic for high blood pressure, but just started that recently.

He just got a head CT scan, and has an appointment with a neurologist, so we're trying to pursue all avenues...figuring an E.N.T. and endocrinologist might also be called for, if that leads us nowhere.  

He was fine before all this, and we're going nuts trying to figure out what to do next.  Any suggestions?

Thanks for any help.

Laura