If you're in occassional discomfort and it's impacting your wellbeing having an aspirin once in a while is probably not a huge deal.
If you have recurring pain constantly or frequently then you need medical attention and you should follow that guidance, not what anybody says on the Internet.
Thank you. People with chronic headaches or migraines are the ones that should not follow this advice, as painkiller-induced headaches are a thing and only make matters worse. Just see a doc.
As for occasional headaches: It's going to be a lot easier fixing the issue that lead to a headache once you don't suffer.
I don't enjoy suffering a headache or think it's virtuous, but I was always taught that pain is your body sending a message. Usually, unless it's a proper migraine, I can figure out what the cause is and address it. Muscle tension, dehydration, low electrolytes, etc.
If it remains a puzzle, I'm not opposed to OTC analgesics. I just like to try to troubleshoot first (:
It's about becoming dependant on a crutch that may not always be there, or could have been the first step when the pain becomes TRULY unbearable instead of having to escalate to btc pharmaceuticals from there.
Once the pain sets in the meds won’t work as well/at all, depending on the type of pain and your particular body. Preemptive medication is more than just a crutch!
Yeaaahh buuut... as a person who used to have migraines developing tolerance is a thing a very much a problem. Luckly some tolerances the body seems to "unlearn them".
Man, this took me so long to get through my skull. I used to be a "I don't need the medicine, why self-medicate when I can just endure it and it will go away".
I got older, started having those little aches turn into ruin-your-day annoyances that only reset with a sleep overnight and now I mildly resent young me for being silly about it.
Well, to be fair Aspirin was a factor in nearly killing me, acetaminophen (Tylenol) now doesn't work since i took that too often, and now im stuck with ibuprofen which may, again, cause a leak in my stomach that could kill me.
Sooooooo... if you're not taking this medication regularly, by all means, if not just a word of caution from an old, apparently hard to kill, bastard.
Yeah, this seems like one of those things where people casually discussing the issue are talking about wildly different scales. I, to be clear, am talking about having a hangover or sleeping in a rough position and pinching my neck once in maybe two or three months and refusing to take an analgesic to get through it faster. I get the feeling that what you're describing is either on a way different level or a rarer interaction or side effect.
Which is why my other comment below still goes: if you need to deal with pain beyond sporadic usage to get through a one-off event, please go talk to a doctor and don't listen to me or anybody else on the Internet.
I used to have frequent headaches as a child.
Initially, I just took the medicine, but everytime, it returned with 2xamplitude after a day or so (probably when the effect wore off).
Stopped taking the medicine after a few years.
It was much later that I realised, headaches always have a root cause and the pain was just telling me - there's something much worse going on.
Pain is your friend. Tells you when there is a problem and sometimes, even helps you know where.
Had I taken painkillers for my broken toe, I probably would have broken it again... and again.