This strange head pressure is common in patients with Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder as well. First, as far as we know, you can not feel pain or physical sensations in your brain (it just processes this information and pain receptor cells do not exist in the brain, however pain processing cells do exist). Despite it being full of neurons, there are no sensory neurons that would allow you to feel pain. Pain receptive neurons are all over the outside of your skull however, and unusual pain around these areas could be a leading factor to whey we feel "head pressure". Try massaging your neck when you feel this pain and see if you feel the tingling sensation all over the side of your head. The stress of pain on your neck will pull the "leathery" like structure that overlaps your skull and that is full of neurons.
Another idea, must more interesting, is the idea of "Phantom Pain". This is very similar to the case where a person still feel pain in the area where a limb was amputated. For example, someone has their left arm amputated, however still feel pain where their hand "would" be. Similarly, the neurons in your head, which translate the pain experience to the "You who feels", could also be missfiring in such a way that it feels as though you have a pain in your head even when that pain does not really exist.
This is not to downplay the experience as not real, because we do feel it. I take Klonopin daily to manage pain problems that I have, which were caused from substance use. I feel strongly that there is an association of pain/somataform problems and HPPD/DP/DR (I am not sure about drug versus non-drug in this case). This is not to say the pain is not real, because your experience is a real feeling, it is just that the experience of the pain may not have a beginning with a pain sensory nerve (Nociceptors), but are happening at the point in the brain where pain is "experienced".
Discovering the point in the brain that really translates the electrochemical reactions of over/under active nerve cells to your Human Experience of Pain... this is an entirely different story, and perhaps better suited for philosophers at this point.
Another idea, must more interesting, is the idea of "Phantom Pain". This is very similar to the case where a person still feel pain in the area where a limb was amputated. For example, someone has their left arm amputated, however still feel pain where their hand "would" be. Similarly, the neurons in your head, which translate the pain experience to the "You who feels", could also be missfiring in such a way that it feels as though you have a pain in your head even when that pain does not really exist.
This is not to downplay the experience as not real, because we do feel it. I take Klonopin daily to manage pain problems that I have, which were caused from substance use. I feel strongly that there is an association of pain/somataform problems and HPPD/DP/DR (I am not sure about drug versus non-drug in this case). This is not to say the pain is not real, because your experience is a real feeling, it is just that the experience of the pain may not have a beginning with a pain sensory nerve (Nociceptors), but are happening at the point in the brain where pain is "experienced".
Discovering the point in the brain that really translates the electrochemical reactions of over/under active nerve cells to your Human Experience of Pain... this is an entirely different story, and perhaps better suited for philosophers at this point.
