Suffering from intermittent or regular headaches can really dampen your mood, and sometimes it can be so bad it leaves you having to shut yourself away in a dark room for the day.
A particularly nasty type is the ‘ice pick’ headache, and while a lot of people seem to have been under the impression that it’s a rarity, it turns out it's far more common than you think.
When TikToker LuLu Bee decided to hop on the platform to explain what they feel like and how often she gets them, people suddenly felt seen.
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She explained that she had been having these headaches for her entire life and hadn’t ever met another person who suffers too.
What do 'ice pick headaches' feel like?
Describing them as feeling like there’s an ‘ice pick in your brain’, she shared how she became curious about them after getting those pains in her head for years.
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Because of her video, a community of ‘ice pick’ headache sufferers congregated in the comments to share their own pains and admit that they’ve also never known what it was called or other people who went through the same thing.
One person wrote: “Literally just had one and googled it. This is how I ended up here.”
Another commented: “I’ve been having this headache for 4 days now.. I want it to end so bad , it’s a quick jolt then disappears for a few mins and just comes back.”
Someone else shared: “I've been having these 2 years my doctor is clueless when I explain what I'm experiencing.”
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According to the Cleveland Clinic, an ‘ice pick headache’ or a ‘primary stabbing headache’ can feel like a ‘sudden, sharp and stabbing’ and is usually found in the ‘area behind your forehead and eyes (frontal area) or the side of your head near your ears’.
Is there any treatment for 'ice pick headaches'?
The organisation notes that researchers aren’t sure what causes the headaches because they are so difficult to treat as the pain lasts only a few seconds.
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However, it states that here are medications available to prevent future headaches.
Thankfully, they aren’t known to be dangerous or have any underlying causes, but it’s bad news for women.
Apparently, those who are born female are the unlucky sods who are more likely to suffer from them.
It’s not clear as to why this is, but it’s a pain in the ar*e, nonetheless.
What can you do to prevent 'ice pick headaches'?
According to Cleveland Clinic, there are several steps you can take to reduce your risk of developing the headache, with the advice also used for the likes of migraines and other types of headaches too.
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These include:
- Eating well-balanced meals.
- Getting enough sleep for your body.
- Limiting your caffeine and alcohol intake.
- Managing stress through exercise and relaxation techniques like yoga and meditation.
- Quitting smoking and using other tobacco products.
- Trying therapies like biofeedback or acupuncture.
How common are 'ice pick headaches'?
There have been some studies that suggest that only about two percent of people in the world experience these headaches, but a Norwegian study found that one in three people had ice pick headaches.
So, it’s not that uncommon after all.
Britt Jones