Pain stress and headache

The association between pain and stress is an old one, but still it is not really clear who comes first. Pain induces stress, and stress induces pain. Pain is part of our homeostatic system and in this way is an emotion, i.e., it tells us that something is out-of-order (control), and emotion drives our behavior and one behavior is stress response. Stress comes from ourselves: the imagination we have or would like to have of us, from the image others give of us, from the goals we assume it is necessary to reach for our well-being or the goals others want us to fulfill. Stress comes from our social condition and the condition we would like, stress comes from dangerous situations we cannot control. Headache easily fits in the picture