Migraines and anxiety or depression often happen together.
These problems show up together more than you’d think. The same things happening in your brain that cause migraines can also affect your mood.
It becomes a cycle where anxiety is aggravated by migraine, and stress leads to more headaches.
This is where frustration comes in. Many individuals just keep using one drug to treat headaches and a brand new one to treat anxiety or depression.
More pills mean more side effects, and sometimes the medications don’t even play well together in the first place.
There is an easier way to go about this.
The Problem with Taking Too Many Medications
When you’re on separate treatments for migraines and mental health, you’re dealing with more than just keeping track of different pill bottles. You’re also facing:
- More side effects because multiple drugs can clash with each other
- More pills to remember throughout your day
- Higher costs when you’re filling multiple prescriptions every month
- The chance that one medication might actually make the other one less effective
It can make everything harder to manage.
Why Some Antidepressants Help Migraines and Others Don’t
Here’s something important: not all antidepressants do the same thing for headaches.
Medications like Cymbalta and Effexor can actually prevent migraines while treating anxiety and depression at the same time. They work on parts of your brain that affect both conditions.
Other common antidepressants like Zoloft and Prozac can help your mood, but they won’t touch your migraines. They just don’t work that way.
This matters a lot. If you need help with both issues, picking the right medication from the start means you might only need one prescription instead of two.
How We Do Things at The Neuro Well
We think about medications differently. Every prescription should be doing as much work as possible for you.
Our patients take the smallest number of medications that cover the most symptoms. That’s the whole point.
When we’re choosing a treatment, we look at everything you’re dealing with.
If you have migraines and you’re also struggling with anxiety or depression, we can pick a medication that helps both problems right away.
There’s no reason to add a second drug if one good choice can handle it.
Related: Why the Neuro Mental Health Model Finally Gives You Answers
Which Medication Might Work for You
Cymbalta could be a good fit if:
- You have anxiety or depression plus regular migraines
- Your anxiety shows up in your body, like shoulder tension or back pain
- You deal with pain in other places, not just your head
- You have digestive problems like belly aches or nausea pretty often
Cymbalta works well for people whose mental health issues create physical symptoms.
If your anxiety makes your whole body feel bad, not just your mind, this medication can help with all of it at once.
Effexor might be better if:
- Migraines are your main physical problem
- You don’t have pain in a lot of other areas
- Your anxiety or depression is more about your mood and headaches, without a ton of other body symptoms
Effexor helps prevent migraines and treats mood problems, but it’s usually the right choice when you’re not dealing with pain all over.
What This Means for You
Taking care of your health should not entail taking a bunch of pills and fretting over whether they are working against one another.
Most people can manage, with carefully selected medications, both migraine and mood issues, using one single prescription that is that good a match for their situation.
That’s what we focus on at The Neuro Well. Fewer medications that work harder for you are chosen based on your body’s needs.
