Brief Answer:
In part may be due to anxiety but also medication effects

Detailed Answer:
Good morning. My name's Dr. Saghafi and I'm an adult neurologist as well as headache specialist who says many cases such as yours at the VA Medical Center and so I'd like to recommend both similar treatments as well as advice that I pass on to all of patients and especially those with symptoms such as yours. The type of headache you have can be a couple different types...and perhaps, you even have at least 2 different types anyways. But whatever the case what you should not do anymore for any reason is have a chiropractor manipulate your neck. This is a dangerous procedure and one which can leave you quite disabled or worse. I've witnessed 3 women during my training who had all visited the chiropractor within 2 hrs. of being brought to the ER for major complications of stroke after having their necks "adjusted" and 2 of them had serious strokes which resulted in permanent disabilities and one died after several days. She was in a coma from a blood clot that wiped out her brainstem and we had to pull life support off....entirely unnecessary consequences in my opinion. I regularly tell people of the dangers of this procedure and urge them to do their reading on the subject on the Internet before making a decision. Hopefully, people are making better decisions now compared to a few years ago since the rate at which people were flocking to chiropractors for something was so high that it was getting ridiculous.

After reading your first paragraph with all the changes and rapid cycling you have of medications for these headaches/head pains I also believe you may be suffering the effects of polypharmacy which means, "too many damned drugs." There is something called MEDICATION OVERUSE SYNDROME....and while your situation is not exactly the same as classic MOH; it certainly could be a reasonable variant. In other words, a lot of medications which are prescription as well as over the counter substances are being thrown at you without:

1. Having a clear cut and unified diagnosis (though the neurologist seems to think you've got OCCIPITAL NEURALGIA)
2. Giving your body a chance to really wash out of 1 set of drugs before starting another.

Therefore, I think your body may be suffering from a possible baseline headache condition with MULTIPLE CAUSES (etiologies)which could be mild migraine types (don't have to be SEVERE, SEVERE but they can have many of the symptoms you've described) along with Tension Type, medication induced polypharmacy sequelae, possibly Occipital Neuralgia although your current symptoms are a bit sketchy for that diagnosis, and last but not least headaches tied together with your issues of depression, anxiety, and perhaps some of your own medical problems.

You mentioned about your headaches getting worse when the temperature gets hot. Did you know that for every 7 degrees F that the outside (or inside) temperature rises above 72 degrees F that approximately 20-30% more individuals with predisposition to headaches will have worsened headaches. In your little blurb you mentioned how your headaches seemed to come back around the time things got really hot.

I hope these answers address the question sufficiently and if so would appreciate your considering rating this interaction as a high star event with some brief written feedback. Also, in view of end of the month tallies and credits I'd very much appreciate if you'd CLOSE THE QUERY at this time (assuming I've provided with you enough information to get things well under way). We can always have more discussions under a separate thread at a later date if you so desire.

BTW, you're NOT losing your mind but your anxiety levels certainly can be contributing to the baseline headaches. It would be to your benefit (though you may be having a little bit of trouble believing it) to stop all the medications being given to you for any acute pain or headache relief as well as start keeping track of the headaches with detailed descriptions of what their symptoms, duration, and other odd feelings may be that should be documented.

With several weeks of good coherent data keeping with the logs we can have these diagnosed in no time (if you go to a headache specialist) and then, be on better footing as well as what type of treatments would be best in your case.

Please send me your future questions to: bit.ly/drdariushsaghafi

It would be honor to answer your questions quickly and comprehensively.

This query has required a total of 20 minutes of physician specific time to read, research, and compile a return envoy to the patient.

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