Case Summary  |  How I deal with my chronic headaches

I started getting chronic headaches when I was 16. It was miserable to be 16 in the middle of summer & all I wanted to do was hide in a dark room to make my head stop hurting.

I spent much of my summer at the doctor's office trying to find a "treatment" for my headaches. What finally worked for me was something really simple: exercise. I started doing some relaxation exercises along with some strength training exercises for my shoulders and neck.

To this day, I still spend a lot of time doing these same exercises. I still have headaches but have learned to add a few extra steps to combat them, including drinking a lot of water (min. 64 to 80 oz a day) and making sure I eat well. I know what triggers my personal headaches (stress, dehydration are the biggest factors) and I make sure to avoid them as much as possible & learned how to combat them.