40% of fibromyalgia patients experience headaches. Fibromyalgia headache is another debilitating symptom of the chronic pain syndrome which prevents patients from leading a normal life. The most common types of fibromyalgia headaches are muscle tension headache, migraine and combination of both.
What Does Fibromyalgia Headaches Feel Like?
Every individual experiences fibromyalgia headaches differently. Fibromyalgia headaches can surface as:
- sharp, pulsing pain
- pain on one side of the head
- pain that spreads to the neck and shoulders
- pain at the back of head and nape, near the tender points
- giddiness or nausea
- sensitivity to light, sound or smell
The difference in how fibromyalgia headaches surface in different people can be due to the varied causes of the symptom.
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I’d like to add another horrible headache feeling to the list. Sometimes my head & back of the neck will feel like all the nerves are just alive & “screaming”. It can envelop my head, and when it goes across my forehead, that’s when I can no longer really think well and don’t want to move. I get very quiet if I try to speak at all. I would try and rest through it, except that closing my eyes makes the pain worse, as if just the muscles of the eyelid are enough to pull at the pain in the forehead, it’s horrible.