Do you find that you are taking medication almost daily to stop the pain in your head or migraine so that you can go through your day? Do you need to rely too much on headache medicine?
To help you, you must first understand when there is too much good, that too much. Migraine and headache medications need to be treated with respect, because what can help you can also cause migraines or headaches. If you have an almost daily headache, and if you find that your head or migraine is back after your medication is erased, you may have a condition called “Backache Headache”.
The next question begins, so how much is too much? Generally speaking, if you take medicine for 10 days a month or more to stop the pain in a headache, you risk overuse of the medicine. This is a bit of generality; so let me be more specific. Symptomatic medications are medications that you take to stop the pain in a headache. These drugs consist of triptans, ergotamines, combination painkillers (that is, Tylenol 1,2, 3 or 4), Percocet, Excedrin, acetaminophen (Tylenol), NSAIDS (Advil, Motrin), etc. Below is an idea how You could abuse:
a) Triptans (i.e. Maxalt, Zomig, Amereg, Imitrex, Axert, Relpax, Zomig, Frova): If you take these medicines more than 10 days a month.
b) Ergotamines: (i.e. DHE (Dihydroergotamine or Migranal) and Cafergot): If you take these more than 10 days a month.
c) Combined painkillers (for example, Tylenol 1, 2, 3 or 4): If you take these more than 10 days a month.
d) Percocet (oxycodone-acetaminophen): If you are taking these more than 10 days a month.
e) Exceedrine: If you take more than 10 days a month.
f) NSAIDS / Acetaminophen (Advil, Motrin, Tylenol): If you take more than 15 days a month.
It is important to understand that you should never mix ergotamines with triptans, because they both cause vasoconstriction (your blood vessels narrow), and sharing them can cause serious medical problems.
The goal of using medication is to strive for at least 15 days a month if you did not take any medication to stop headache or migraines. Thus, you may need to choose which head or migraine you are treating. If you think you can be abused, be sure that you are not the only one, and it is easy to get to the hospital, taking more medication than you need to control your headaches. Excessive abuse is not addiction, it uses the drug more than appropriate, and the medicine is not as effective as it should be.
How to stop abusing? You can stop using three methods:
1) Stop all at once or cold turkey. It is normal if you abuse Actaminophen or NSAIDS, however, if you abuse any combination drug with codeine or triptan, it is best to consult your doctor. Discontinuation of treatment with codeine can cause anxiety, irritability, anxiety, insomnia, sweating, nausea, muscle pain and cramps. Your doctor has the means to help you with the combined withdrawal of the drug.
It is imperative to note that when excessive treatment is stopped, headaches usually worsen within a few days or within a few weeks. Do not give up! Things will start to slowly improve, and after a while you will have free days of a headache. Be patient, be persistent, ask for help and, above all, be kind to yourself. To your health!
