Wrap a blue-ice gel pack in a towel and place it on your head where it hurts the most. In general, both abortive and preventive strategies may be used. Once a headache begins, any course of action to curb it is considered abortive therapy. On the other hand, there may be ways to reduce the frequency and severity of your headaches through the use of preventive-type treatments. Preventives are not only more benign than the abortives, but you end up taking less medication with preventives than if you just chase the pain with abortives.
Genetic factors come into play as well.
When a tension headache begins to occur, the muscles in your head and neck contract while the blood vessels in this region may expand. More aggressive treatments to relieve the headache as well as preventive therapies may be needed. Other potentially habit forming drugs that may be used infrequently for a severe headache when the previously mentioned medications fail might include Fiorinal, Codeine, or other narcotics and muscle relaxants. These need to be limited to one or two days a week at most. When the above drugs don't work, your doctor may recommend that you take preventive medicines.