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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards | negrogesic

Misc Medication overuse headache (tylenol in this instance)

BourbonMac

BourbonMac

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Jan 14, 2022
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My doctor, and I, both agree that I've been taking way too much tylenol and it's causing me rebound headache/worsening headache. I would like to know if others have had the same experience with this or other NSAIDS (no opioids)

There is SO much conflicting information online about whether or not this is real. Many anecdotal experiences point to it being real, but I'd like to hear about others opinions. Reddit seems to believe it's all BS, but that's reddit.
 
Rebound headache is the least of your worries with that rat poison ...

I had a pain specialist trying to pawn off the "4000 mg of acetaminophin a dose is fine" bullshit on myself in the past

Most Dr.s will spew almost anything rather than prescribe even a schedule III pain med anymore

what are his/her options?
 
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They only suggested to stop the tylenol or try other pain relievers that my stomach can't handle (naproxen, ibuprofen, aspirin). These work, they really do, but my stomach seriously gets fucked by them. And with longer term use that wouldn't be good. But yeah, tylenol is horrible. I only hit 4,000mg in a day once, I was usually taking 2,000mg. I told this to him several times and for whatever reason he didn't say anything about it until after I suggested tylenol with codeine. Legit a straight opioid would probably be better (as needed) for when my pain gets this bad. I already use kratom in the mornings when my headaches tend to be worse from laying down all night, and it helps a lot, but obviously it's not the most potent pain med and oftentimes once I eat, it will lose effectiveness (not fully, I'll still feel it but the pain relief dies down a lot). I know with real opiates, eating often makes them work better.

My headache has improved but I never know if it will last. I only took one tylenol earlier today which is why I was wondering about MOH. Meanwhile my anxiety is horrible because he's not wanting to just put me on valium 10mg. Started at 2mg (lol), upped to 5mg, slightly better, but I'm going to run out of my script early at this rate unless I break them in half. The whole situation suuuucks. I don't even want to be on valium for more than like, a month or two until I get a lot of this pain shit figured out. Valium itself is quite good for my headaches, but it's mainly helped with my stomach aches from chronic stress.

I'm sure he'd up it to 10 if I ask him next time but I really don't know if he would, and I'm sure he would just limit the supply more. Like, how do people manage to get such large quantities from their doctors? I only got 30 tablets (actually 29 because the pharmacist "miscounted" awesome). I've never had more anxiety in my life than I have in the past month. I genuinely always avoided benzos but this is a time when, yeah, I kinda need them, and I really don't find them addicting in any way.

Sidenote, when I did track in high school (particularly my senior year, 10 years ago) I took ibuprofen like, 600mg 5 days a week. Never had a rebound headache, but heartburn all the time and I'd wake up with blood on my pillow, presumably from my gums. But I hardly cared because it let me keep doing something I loved, I was a very competitive runner.

An opioid pain reliever would just not have been viable in those days, though. I needed an anti-inflammatory because I had a bad case of tendonitus/shin splints, a problem with A) having large calves and B. our school was ghetto and we didn't have an indoor track, but our school was a circle so we just ran in the hallways. Everyone's legs/feet got destroyed by it.

Outdoor track was much better since we did have a track around the football field and would often run longer distances in the grass.
 
Wish I had a better answer for ya
but yeah acetaminophen is the one that fucks with my guts the most

I really feel aspirin is the the best otc nsaid if you only have to use one sporadically
but theyre all bad when used daily
I agree diazepam works way better for
muscle/tension and headache relief but most doctors would never admit that
 
Fire&Water said:
but yeah acetaminophen is the one that fucks with my guts the most

I really feel aspirin is the the best otc nsaid if you only have to use one sporadically
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Thats interesting. NSAIDs usually give me stomach aches, and tylenol is pretty easy on my stomach. I think that also concurs with the medical consensus.

My advice would be try to cycle the use of different medications, that way you could manage benzos/kratom longer term while delaying the inevitable tolerance and dependence.

Have you talked to your dr about calcium channel modulators like gabapentin? Also addictive, but less so than benzos or opiates, and correspondingly more readily prescribed. Tolerance builds up very fast though.
 
Certain antidepressants are good for headaches like SNRI's for example:. Duloxetine (Cymbalta) and TCA's like Amitriptyline.
 
Skorpio said:
Thats interesting. NSAIDs usually give me stomach aches, and tylenol is pretty easy on my stomach. I think that also concurs with the medical consensus.

My advice would be try to cycle the use of different medications, that way you could manage benzos/kratom longer term while delaying the inevitable tolerance and dependence.

Have you talked to your dr about calcium channel modulators like gabapentin? Also addictive, but less so than benzos or opiates, and correspondingly more readily prescribed. Tolerance builds up very fast though.
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I actually came in here with the intent to discuss similar points.

Tylenol is actually quite mild on the stomach but it wreaks havoc on the liver. As a recovering alcoholic with a small patch of cirrhosis on my liver I tend to avoid acetaminophen like the plague. Aspirin and NSAIDs like ibuprofen, naproxen etc are much more damaging to the stomach lining.

What is the origin of the head pain though? Sometimes I find that a combination of acetaminophen plus ibuprofen plus caffeine works wonders, ESPECIALLY for headaches, as they potentiate each other. But if it's more complex like a neuropathy then gabapentin might be better.
 
I do take gabapentin but I ran through my script a little quick lately trying to add to extra relief for the headaches. I have a refill but it would probably look sketchy to my doctor if I picked it up 2 weeks early, especially since I recently got a valium refill.

Origin is severe sinusitis, but it's looking like the actual forehead headaches were likely unrelated to the pain I tended to feel in my cheeks/jaw/upper teeth, which at times was EXTREMELY severe and could feel like someone was squeezing my eyeballs or hammering my teeth (I haven't been feeling this as much lately, fingers crossed). I will still more than likely need surgery to drain my maxillary sinuses because they have been so swollen and full of fluid. When I had a CT scan done, the radiologists visibly winced. They had almost never seen so much fluid trapped in someone's sinuses. If only the sham of an ENT I saw last July would've actually looked in my nose despite me repeatedly telling him I thought I had a sinus infection (I did-- infection gone, but fluid still trapped, so hardly a difference).

So the origin of the forehead tension headaches is likely from overusing tylenol. There's just so much conflicting information online about whether or not medication overuse/rebound headaches exist, particularly among migraine sufferers on reddit. My doctor simply suggested to me that I was taking way too much tylenol.

I haven't had one in over 24 hours and my tension headache is gone. So it's probably this, but I wanted to hear of others experiences. Before this, I'd actually been taking a tylenol after coming down off ritalin, so I suppose my use of tylenol has been regular for quite some time now... I'm off the ritalin pretty much even though it helps with my ADHD a lot. I've never been a fan of stimulants besides caffeine. I never had any sort of comedown from caffeine, but ritalin and adderall plenty. It really sucks that they haven't come up with a better stimulant without this side effect yet.

Fire&Water said:
Wish I had a better answer for ya
but yeah acetaminophen is the one that fucks with my guts the most

I really feel aspirin is the the best otc nsaid if you only have to use one sporadically
but theyre all bad when used daily
I agree diazepam works way better for
muscle/tension and headache relief but most doctors would never admit that
Click to expand...

That is very odd, tylenol is notoriously easy on the stomach and is the only one people with ulcers can use safely. Maybe you are thinking of tylenol with codeine, as the codeine would certainly depress your intestines. The other NSAIDS will lead to stomach ulcers or other issues with regular use. Otherwise you're the first person I've heard of who has had gut problems from tylenol. Aspirin is actually the toughest on the stomach so for that to not cause you problems makes you an anomaly indeed.
 
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Well, my tension headache returned today, so that probably rules out the whole tylenol overuse thing... shame.
No idea the culprit unless my frontal sinuses are now swelling/filling with fluid. They showed up clear on the CT last month but things can change.
Just been a miserable couple of months with sinus/head pain. Finally getting over my stomach issues but now that I'm going to be trying NSAIDS again, I don't know how long that will last.

Stupid ENTs just don't want to go right to surgery. I've been on their regimen for weeks with little to no improvement, why do I have to wait a month and a half for them to even DECIDE I need the very simple, non-invasive surgery? Which could end up delayed due to covid. F M L
 
n3ophy7e said:
I tend to avoid acetaminophen like the plague.
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I do the same. Had se serios sickness going on twice from the tylenol in oxys. Just too much. I didnt go to the doctor but knew the second time I was gonna die. Never been so sick in my life from anything.
Talking about headaches... adequate water intake (specially downing these doses of any substance) may help. I know I sound like a broken record on water but headache and chapped lips (in "normal" enviroent) are the first symptoms when I do get one.
Also, check humidity levels in the home or where ever these headaches occur. If thebair is too dry many issues can arise.
A quick ref
Other problems from dry environment from a google search
Screentime may be a cause
When was the last time an eye doctor was consulted? Glasses?
These are a few that I find can bring on or agitate a headache. Not saying any or all of this is the cause. Just puttin out some stuff that may not arise in the convo.
 
Lmao.. so I just realized something pretty big.
I had made a thread recently about sublingual benzo use.
Well, let's just say, I was a little too paranoid about doing it properly, and I was tensing up my jaw REALLY FUCKING BAD each time I did it, whilst holding up my head precisely as to not move the pill out of place. Daily. Multiple times a day. Only taking it orally in the morning on an empty stomach to guarantee it would work.

Well, I think I've found my problem. I was fine until I sublingual'd a dose before dinner. Totally fine, and then it got really bad.
That said, I'm still going to back off the tylenol because I can say it was becoming close to useless for pain due to tolerance. Coated aspirin seems cool with my stomach (that I know of, I took it ~2.5 hours ago and it takes a bit longer to release. Already feeling pain relief though so it must already have).
 
Fire&Water said:
The white text on black background helps tremendously
Click to expand...
Ya know, I just changed my search engine to dark. Never really cared for it but I think I kinda like it as it does seem easier on the eyes. I'mma change BL to dark too if the button can be found. There are memories of me bitching about it at the most inconvenient time cause it was hard to read... selfish me. What an ass. :cautious:
Cool,
Peace

.
 
6am-64-14m said:
Ya know, I just changed my search engine to dark. Never really cared for it but I think I kinda like it as it does seem easier on the eyes. I'mma change BL to dark too if the button can be found. There are memories of me bitching about it at the most inconvenient time cause it was hard to read... selfish me. What an ass. :cautious:
Cool,
Peace

.
Click to expand...
Yayuh
it works like a charm
especially during daylight hours
 
Fire&Water said:
it works like a charm
Click to expand...
Opted for the BL dark classic. The blacklight theme is still super hard for me to make out. Must be a vision thing been forever since I had an eye exam.
Thanks, the change of theme is definitively more better for me. ;)

Glad OP has found the culprit. That stiff necked pose brings back memories of snorting rails and holding my head just right and unconsciously holding my breath to ensure the best of buzzes. :shrug:
 
For those wondering, yeah I use low brightness settings/low white light. I tend to use the "Night Reader" extension on a lot of sites. On Bluelight is turns everything kinda brown/gold, is there an actual dark mode on here? Couldn't find it (nvm I'm dumb, in preferences)

No vision problems otherwise besides occasional floaters that date back to a bad concussion from years back, particularly noticeable when I look at the sky, it's like fireflies dancing around. Apparently most people have that normally though? I never did before this, and it only occurs during certain parts of the day depending on the exact blueness of the sky.
 
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