So What Is Causing My Neck Pain
We know stress and anxiety can cause muscle tension in the upper body, leading to neck pain. But conditions of the spine can lead to pressure on nerves. The pressure can iritate the nerves and send excessive signals to other areas of the body. So, a disc or vertebrae issue in the neck can send signals to muscles in the shoulders and upper back. This can cause muscle spasms. Over time, the muscles can become fatigued and painful.
What does this all tell us? Yes, anxiety can cause muscle tension and neck pain. But, neck and muscle pain in the upper back and shoulder area can also be caused by a problem in the cervical spine. So, what should you do? Exercise is helpful for both spinal conditions and stress. Walking and neck stretches are a great way to start trying to relieve your neck pain. There are plenty of gentle exercises and strengthening neck exercises you can try at home. If your pain continues, it may be time to consult with a doctor for your neck pain. The doctors at Saratoga Spine are ready to help diagnose and treat your condition. Contact us if youre ready to schedule an appointment.
Stress Causes Emotional Issues
Experiencing constant stress is extremely unhealthy. It causes a variety of emotional and psychological issues that one may need assistance in dealing with. Stress if left untreated for too much time has been known to result in depression and other emotional disorders in those who suffer from it. Low self-esteem and low levels of endorphins as a result of stress causes psychological and emotional tension. These topics are often difficult to talk about, however, it is crucial that you seek assistance.
Causes Of Anxiety Related Back Pain
There are many different issues that can lead to back pain, and it is helpful to speak with a doctor to determine what your cause may be. When anxiety contributes to back pain, it is believed thatthe cause of back pain from anxiety is mostly secondary – meaning that anxiety isn’t literally causing back pain, but anxiety is causing behaviors that lead to back pain.
There are many theories that describe a situation where back pain may be directly caused by anxiety. The most common is theory is that anxiety, which causes muscle tension, may be tensing muscles in the upper or lower back, and that that muscle tension causes pain in anxiety sufferers.
Massage therapists will tell you that their most stressed clients often have knots in their muscles, especially in their shoulder and upper back, so anxiety-related back pain really does exist.
But anxiety may also be causing separate issues that simply lead to back pain. These include:
Anxiety isnt believed to cause severe back pain. But its also important to remember that there is often a back pain cycle. Those with greater perceived back pain are more likely to over-adjust in an attempt to avoid the pain. Chiropractors see this often. A patient with mild back pain will make their back pain worse because they’re constantly walking, sitting, or twisting in ways that are unnatural in an attempt to reduce that back pain.
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Easy Tips To Relieve Stress
Stress affects the body in a variety of ways,from mood swings and headaches to weight fluctuations. However, an often overlookedside effect of stress is neck and back pain. Over time, repetitive bouts ofstress can cause musculoskeletal issues in these regions of the body.
When we get stressed out, the body naturally releases certainhormones. Adrenaline is associated with the ancient fight or flight phenomenonthat heightens our blood pressure, increases our blood supply, and causes themuscles around our spine to tense and spasm in case we need to flee the sourceof the stress. Cortisol is known as the stress hormone it interferes with avariety of functions. Elevations in cortisol can lead to loss of muscle massand increases in fat accumulation.
“Stress affects the body in a variety of ways, from mood swings and headaches to weight fluctuations. However, an often-overlooked side effect of stress is neck and back pain. Over time, repetitive bouts of stress can cause musculoskeletal issues in these regions of the body.”
Kavita Trivedi, D.O.
Data suggest that adults know stress affects their spines. Online survey participants ranked the No. 1 perceived cause of their neck and back pain as follows:
- Stress: 29 percent
- Spinal disc herniation: 21 percent
- Sitting at a desk at work: 20 percent
Can Stress Cause Physical Pain In The Body And How To Identify The Stress
Posted by Shani Liyanage | Feb 13, 2020 | Mental Health, Pain | 0 |
The high-stress levels affect every person, and it can cause physical pain in the body.
Most of us may notice symptoms associated with stress in different situations. As a parent, you can be experienced while you try to discipline your children. The busy schedules at work may even lead to a stressful situation for many employees. Household financial management or coping with a challenging relationship can even lead to a stressful scenario for many people.
In short, stress is everywhere.
The little amount of stress is not a problem as it can also have a beneficial impact on many people. However, a high amount of stress can make wear down any person and can harm health. The person may even experience a physical impact on the body because of high-stress levels.
It is necessary to identify the symptoms of stress in the first step. It can help any individual in controlling stress. Though, sometimes the identification of stress symptoms can be hard for the people.
Most of the people are so much used to stressful situations. They are often not aware that they are stressed out until they experience a breaking point. It can be a dangerous situation, and maximum efforts are needed to control the overall stressful situation of any person.
Tip: If you have not read already, here are the links to the symptoms of stress in men, women and children. The symptoms depend on your sex and age.
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What Causes Back Pain
There are many possibilities, some more obvious than others. The most logical possibility is direct injury or trauma to your back, which can cause chronic pain. However, back pain can also be attributed to many other causes like muscle tears, ligament strains, ruptured disc, arthritis, muscle spasms, or hernias. Not to forget, activities that could seem harmless and repetitive. For example, lifting weights can strain your muscles and cause back pain.
The causes for back pain are also area-specific. For instance, pain in the lower right back could be caused by problems related to the kidney, such as kidney stones or even an infected or inflamed kidney, due to its proximity to the area. In the same manner, facet joint dysfunction, Spondylolisthesis, or such injuries to the spine could be what causes lower back pain.
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Ways To Get Rid Of Neck Pain Caused By Stress And Anxiety
Sleep Advisor , Expert Reviewed by Dr. Loy Anderson M.D. Disclaimer – Nothing on this website is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment… Read more here
Pain caused by stress or anxiety can be a pain in the neck . Since the average human head weighs about 15 pounds, the muscles in the neck are already strained on a regular basis. Add some physical or emotional stress to the mix, and you have the perfect recipe for chronic, unceasing neck pain. Luckily, there are a few simple things you can do to stop that from happening.
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How Does The Stress Response Work
A blend of physical and emotional components that have a part in pushing your body to take action whenever you are faced with danger is known as a stress response. Many hormones, such as cortisol, adrenaline, and others are released by the body whenever the brain is triggered.
These hormones prepare the body for action. All these hormones can lead to various physical and psychological changes. Some of the physical changes that are caused by these stress hormones are increased blood pressure, rapid breathing, tensed muscles, and increased blood pressure.
These physical changes in the body could lead to irritated nerves, pains, and aches when it happens on a regular basis.
These reactions and changes happen to us in tiny spurts all day, and these reactions are not always bad. In fact, these reactions can work well to keep our body protected from harms. These stress reactions are not bad until and unless a person goes through chronic stress. Once a person goes through chronic stress, all the unwanted problems start to appear.
Chronic stress and neck pain could go head to head in some cases. Chronic stress could be either due to physical stress where a person needs to work beyond his/her physical capacity or it could be emotional stress due to tragic events or a financial problem. Now, the question is how this stress can cause neck pain.
Overview Of Stress And Neck Pain
There are many people in the world who suffer from various kinds of unwanted pains in their lives that affect their lives a disaster. According to the statistics, around 1 in 5 American adults are diagnosed with arthritis. Among many types of pains, one of the common types of pain is neck pain.
A neck pain can be defined as any kinds of abnormalities, stiffness, and injury in the bones, ligaments, and muscles of the neck. Neck pain is usually not a serious condition, which disappears within a few weeks. However, there are some kinds of neck pain that may require special medical attention.
There are various causes of neck pain, such as injury, heart attack, arthritis, osteoporosis, Meningitis, stress, and so on.
In this article, we will dig deep into the relationship between neck pain and stress.
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How To Stop Anxiety From Causing Further Back Pain
Under the assumption that your back pain is caused by anxiety, treating that back pain does require a focus on the pain itself. Unfortunately, while treating anxiety can reduce your back pain in the long term , breaking the cycle of back pain depends in large part on your ability to also fight the back pain itself. Consider the following tips:
These are all traditional ways to deal with back pain unrelated to anxiety, but they’re still effective because once back pain starts, it needs to be stopped using traditional methods.
But of course, controlling your back pain is only step one. You will still need to learn ways to cope with anxiety so that you can stop your anxiety back pain from occurring again.
SUMMARY:
Anxiety causes muscle tension, inactivity, changes in posture, and other changes that can all lead to back pain. The pain is real, so over the counter painkillers, stretching, and similar treatments might be needed to eliminate the pain. In the long term, it becomes important to stop the anxiety.
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What Is Good For Stress Neck Pain
Techniques that can reduce stress include deep breathing, yoga , meditation, and art or music therapy. Choose one you can do during the day to slow down and relax. Get a massage. A gentle massage is a great way to relieve stress and neck pain, too, because it gets blood flowing into your sore muscles.
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Stress Effects On The Body
Stress affects all systems of the body including the musculoskeletal, respiratory, cardiovascular, endocrine, gastrointestinal, nervous, and reproductive systems.
Stress effects on the body.
Our bodies are well equipped to handle stress in small doses, but when that stress becomes long-term or chronic, it can have serious effects on your body.
Musculoskeletal system
When the body is stressed, muscles tense up. Muscle tension is almost a reflex reaction to stressthe bodys way of guarding against injury and pain.
With sudden onset stress, the muscles tense up all at once, and then release their tension when the stress passes. causes the muscles in the body to be in a more or less constant state of guardedness. When muscles are taut and tense for long periods of time, this may trigger other reactions of the body and even promote stress-related disorders.
For example, both tension-type headache and migraine headache are associated with chronic muscle tension in the area of the shoulders, neck and head. Musculoskeletal pain in the low back and upper extremities has also been linked to stress, especially job stress.
Relaxation techniques and other stress-relieving activities and therapies have been shown to effectively reduce muscle tension, decrease the incidence of certain stress-related disorders, such as headache, and increase a sense of well-being. For those who develop chronic pain conditions, stress-relieving activities have been shown to improve mood and daily function.
How Severe Can Stress
Most individuals make the assumption that back pain caused by stress may not be that bad. The truth is that stress can cause back pain that is extremely debilitating. The type of stress that can cause back pain is often long-term stress that has not been dealt with. Not dealing with the stress may result in chronic back problems, like lumbago. Chronic back issues are extremely difficult to deal with and can impair the way one goes about living.
It is important to know when to get treatment for any ailments one experiences. Not seeking medical assistance for chronic back pain can result in a disc in your spine, becoming extremely damaged. A damaged disc requires surgery to fix, and should you not get surgery, the damaged disc can result in extreme pain and discomfort. This can result in lower back pain that does not seem to go away along with physical impairment. This can prevent one from living day to day normally.
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How Can Stress Lead To A Neck Pain
There is a definite relationship between stress and neck pain. Its true that stress is not always a cause of neck pain, but it does not mean that stress cannot lead to neck pain. A person suffering from chronic stress can suffer from neck pain, and an existing neck pain could also get worse due to chronic stress.
These reactions from chronic stress can cause neck pain.
How Stress Increases Neck And Shoulder Pain
Stress isnt always the cause of neck and , but it can certainly make even the smallest existing pain much worse. Heres how it affects your neck and shoulders.
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Enlarges the blood vessels in your large muscle groups to allow faster oxygen delivery
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Causes you to clench and tighten muscles in the neck, jaw and shoulders
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Increases tension in the trapezius muscles that run across the top of the back
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Restricts neck and shoulder movement
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Heightens your perception of pain and makes existing pain feel worse
When you experience mental or physical stress again and again, your body is constantly prepared for battle but is never allowed to release that tension. Eventually this irritates your muscles and nerves, causing pain that can be difficult to manage because its difficult to pinpoint or remove your stress triggers.
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Stress Neck And Shoulder Pain
July 4, 2016Filed Under: Uncategorized
- Neck stretches-lower your chin to your chest for 15 seconds and let the weight of your head stretch the upper back, then drop your head to each the right and left sides for another few seconds. Do a few every hour throughout the day.
- Progressive relaxation-mentally focus on individual muscles by first tightening them, and then relax. Repeat the tense and relax motions several times until the pain subsides.
- Meditation-sit quietly with eyes closed for 5-10 minutes and listen to a guided meditation or just enjoy the silence. Work up to 10-20 minutes of meditation at a time.
- Move your body-aerobic exercises such as jumping jacks or arm circles engage the muscles in the neck and shoulders to increase blood flow and release toxins.
Anxiety Increases Neck Pain Risk
Several factors can increase your likelihood of neck pain. If your neck pain is severe or impeding your way of life, it is advised that you visit your primary care provider. Other issues such as whiplash, a herniated disk, arthritis, etc. can all present as neck pain but require medical intervention. As always, if your pain is sudden and extreme, seek medical treatment as soon as possible to decrease the chance of further damage.
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Is Stress Causing Your Pain
Lifes demands create stress and although some stress may be good, too much can cause health problems. Most people equate stress with high blood pressure, a heart attack or a stroke. But did you know headaches, dizziness, neck and shoulder pain can be stress-related too?
Chronic headaches, usually accompanied by extreme fatigue are almost always a sign of stress. People literally live on Tylenol and Ibuprofen for years because they constantly have a nagging headache, induced by muscle spasms from the high amount of stress in their life.
The Cause of Stress Related Headaches
Headaches can range from minor nagging pains, to full-blown migraines that knock you off your feet for a day or two. Any headache, whether tremendous pain or not, should be a warning sign you are under a lot of stress. Prolonged stress can result in muscle tension changes, making you feel stiff, achy and painful in the neck or shoulders.
Hormone production also changes with stress. Hormones also make muscles tense up, which can cause a loss of motion, pain and irritate nerves. One may feel pain in the shoulders, neck, upper back and even radiating out to the upper arms.
Most people who are under a great deal of stress complain about having neck and shoulder pain. The most intense pain usually lies directly in the back and upper sides of the neck. The pain then radiates into the shoulder area.
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