Do you get tension headaches on the regular? I definitely do. Anytime anything stressful happens, my neck, shoulders and head muscles all seize up. Sometimes it tightens so much that I feel like I have a fever and sinus pain. Mine will come up over my scalp like a headband, across my forehead, throb at my temples, and even tighten the muscles so much behind my ears it will feel like I have an ear infection.
Recently, after a really awful week, I was experiencing this same thing again. My shoulder muscles were rock hard, and the muscle on the right side of my neck was so tight, that it was making my ear feel plugged and pressured. During all of this, the muscles in my forehead felt so tight, that the headache seemed to come from within my skull, and it also felt like I had a super tight headband on around my scalp.
Along with the pain, came a lot of heat, and I even took my temperature thinking I had a fever. When the reading came out normal, I knew what was actually going on. This was not a minor tension headache, this was a beast.
Determined to get rid of this stupid thing myself, I pulled up this great video below, and got to work. I went through each of his steps multiple times, until it felt like I could actually lift my eyebrows again, and the plugged feeling on my ear disappeared.
I even took it a step further, and had several icing sessions in different places. I definitely did the base of my skull like he recommends, and then I placed the icepack for a few minutes each on the side of my head, the top of my head, and my forehead.
45 minutes later, I had lots of movement in my muscles, and the headache had reduced to a very minor form of itself. I plan to work on it again later, and follow these methods for several days after in order to fully relieve the tension going on.
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