Is Occipital Neuralgia TMS?

So a couple nights ago I was severely depressed and decided to drink heavily. I don’t drink very often, but when I do, I go all out. I’ve been facing some really big life changing issues lately that have been stressing me out to no end. I just need an escape sometimes.

That night I started having a pounding headache, typical for me after drinking. So I took some rizatriptan to knock it out and go to sleep. So I woke up the next day, and I started having the most excruciating pain on the back right side of my head. It felt like a knife stabbing into my head or an electric shock of some kind. Will last a few seconds than disappear and come back every minute or so without any warning. Nothing particular triggers it. Absolutely the most horrific pain when it happens. These are nothing like the migraines I am use to getting. I tried taking migraine medication and over the counter excedrin, which almost always knocks out my migraines. None of this did a thing to lesson the pain at all. I did some research and my symptoms fit the description of something called Occipital Neuralgia, which is NOT migraines but are common in those who get migraines. My doctor confirmed it is probably occipital neuralgia and that I might have to see the neurologist.

I keep trying to tell myself it is very likely just another TMS symptom but I can’t stop myself from panicking. I keep reading people’s stories online on how this condition is long term and not much can be done about it. Apparently most of occipital neuralgia is due to a pressed or pinched nerve that goes from the neck up the back of the head and usually it occurs when someone has experienced head trauma of some sort. I can’t figure out if this is really TMS or if I did something to my neck in my sleep or if it was triggered by my drinking. I always get horrible hangovers after I drink, particularly headaches, but I’ve not experienced anything like this.

I’ve been suffering from migraines for years, even though I know it’s TMS I’ve never been able to quite get rid of them. Is this just another TMS manifestation?

 

Hi Davideus,

I had similar experiences with the occipital nerves on my left side, but more a constant burning pain which moved between the ear (lesser occipital nerve) and the back of my head (greater occipital nerve). In my case I felt that it was clearly caused by muscular tension of the small deep neck muscles and partly the Digastricus muscle. I also had a lump in my throat feeling from that on my left side.

I think the causal chain for me was like:
Stress/anger/anxiety —> muscle tension —> nerve pain

I was lucky that the tension and pain was mostly during working hours and disappeared always in the evening. And it disappeared when I went on vacations (however not on weekends), which makes TMS quite probable for me. But also an osteopath specialized in the cervical spine helped me with that. When the occipital neuralgia disappeared after one year, it was unfortunately replaced by other pain syndromes in my case, which makes TMS even more probable for me…

I would recommend an osteopath for short term, and work on stress/anger/anxiety for long term!