My 20 year old sons ongoing headache

Help. my 20 year old son is constantly complaining of a headache, which when he  describes  the symptoms he appears to be a classic stress headache.  Despite taking him to A & E and the doctors on several occasions where no red flags were noted he is convinced he has something worse such as a thunderclap headache.  He has stopped going to college, seeing his friends, going to clubs and even moved out and staying with my parents as he fancies a change of scenery. He spends time just laying on his bed or floor stirring at the ceiling.  I do however manage to get him out once a day even it that's just for a coffee. He is too scarred to think because he is too scarred his brain will bleed.  Yesterday whilst in the cafe he started to ask me if his hot chocolate was boiling and he thought he had scalded himself and can not feel the pain.  I convinced him that was not the case and told him the drink was just warm and he calmed down.  The doctors told him to take ibuprofen for a week but then he got destressed that he could not feel the pain anymore so he did not know when to rest his brain as if he was using the headache as a marker to when to stop.

The doctor has referred him to neurology and also back to adult autism and adhd mental health. But i am stuck to know how to deal with this situation.  I am so worried so please any advise would be great.

Parents
  • You know I used to have very bad headaches as a kid. And you know what in retrospect I believe they were caused by boredom. I don't mean idleness. I mean mind numbing boredom. I was being home schooled, High IQ. studying ahead, but my parents couldn't keep my brain fed with interesting material. This was pre internet. You couldn’t just go on the internet and look up quantum physics or complex maths. You needed to get books. You try finding a good book on quantum theory in your local library. Boredom was actually stressing me out. Maybe those were stress headaches but they felt awful. Nothing my parents found interesting engaged my mind. Walking, exercise, the great outdoors, fine art. Only science / tech, and I’d read everything we had.



    So what I'll say is stress comes in a variety of forms and inactivity isn't always helpful. Laying in the attic with my headache probably didn't make them better. I should probably have gone and played video games instead. In fact in retrospect they did seem to get better around when we got our first games console.


    Not medical advice just a life skill for managing stress / boredom.

Reply
  • You know I used to have very bad headaches as a kid. And you know what in retrospect I believe they were caused by boredom. I don't mean idleness. I mean mind numbing boredom. I was being home schooled, High IQ. studying ahead, but my parents couldn't keep my brain fed with interesting material. This was pre internet. You couldn’t just go on the internet and look up quantum physics or complex maths. You needed to get books. You try finding a good book on quantum theory in your local library. Boredom was actually stressing me out. Maybe those were stress headaches but they felt awful. Nothing my parents found interesting engaged my mind. Walking, exercise, the great outdoors, fine art. Only science / tech, and I’d read everything we had.



    So what I'll say is stress comes in a variety of forms and inactivity isn't always helpful. Laying in the attic with my headache probably didn't make them better. I should probably have gone and played video games instead. In fact in retrospect they did seem to get better around when we got our first games console.


    Not medical advice just a life skill for managing stress / boredom.

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