General guide I use for relieving headaches beyond just “take meds” as someone who has chronic headaches
Is there something on your head? (Headband, hat, scarf, etc) loosen it, it’s probably putting more pressure on your head than you think
If you have long hair is it up? Is it in a ponytail or bun? Loosen it or change it to a braid or something gentle that doesn’t tug your hair at all, such as a low ponytail or a loose braid
If you have earbuds in try to switch to headphones or playing your audio out loud
If you can stand it, keep a low level of noise playing at all times, sudden loud noises are less of a sharp jab if you aren’t laying in complete silence (I also have tinnitus so I cannot ever achieve complete silence so that’s part of the reason I do this)
Keep it dim if you can, wear sunglasses inside if you’re in a public place that’s brightly lit
If you have ear protection (ear plugs, sound cancellers, etc) use them, you’ll usually be able to hear people talking to you, you just won’t be quite as aggressively assaulted by all the background noise
Try and sit with decent posture, or lay in a way that helps your body untense, take time to relax different parts of your body. It’s okay if you have to repeatedly relax yourself, it’s good that you’re doing it. It’s not uncommon to tense up bc of pain, untensing at the very least helps prevent other pains in addition to the headache
Do your best to drink water (or a drink that has a lot of water as part of it) any gentle liquid will be helpful, it’s better than dehydration
Try and eat safe foods, preferably soft ones that won’t crunch when you bite them and that don’t take too much jaw strength to chew, this will help keep your jaw relaxed
If you keep tending your jaw, chew some gum, try out different flavors and kinds, it should distract your muscles from tensing too much in your jaw
Give yourself a neck or shoulder massage, or ask someone too, at worst case it’ll just relax you muscles there and you won’t add pressure to the pain. At best case it’ll relieve the headache itself if the headache is bc of tenseness
Try different temperatures if you can, but slowly and gently, sometimes headaches come from shifts in weather and other things in the air, gentle attempts to shift back to what your body is used to, or to make the shift into the new weather more gradual, may help
This is not a perfect list but these are some of the things I do to manage my headache pain, feel free to add on things you might do and spread it! Personally I add medicine to it, but I know that’s not an option for everyone.
I also would recommend informing your dr if you need to be taking meds for headaches daily and get frequent migraines.
If you don’t think a dr will do much, track your daily habits best you can for at least a couple weeks, to a month or two, and take it to your dr so they can see how your habits affect your headaches and maybe spot a pattern you don’t!
I’m currently tracking my daily habits and health, so if anyone wants to see how I’m doing that I can make a post!
