Has your neck been bothering you recently? Is it getting in the way of your daily activities? If so, you might be suffering from stress-related pain. These are also referred to as “tension headaches,” and they’re no fun to deal with!
We all get anxious from time to time, some of us more than most. When we become anxious, our muscles become tense. As the muscles tighten, the back, shoulders, and neck are affected. The more pressure they cause, the more discomfort you’ll be in.
Let's take a closer look at what stress-related neck pain is, how it happens, and how The Running Physio Physio Therapy Clinic in Toronto's therapeutic methods can help to relieve your discomfort.
Our clinic offers physiotherapy, acupuncture, chiropractic care, and massage therapy to help our patients in need, so what are you waiting for? Pick up the phone today and handle your neck pain once and for all!
What causes stress-related neck pain?
Stress-induced neck pain isn’t rare. It also isn’t psychological. Many experts think stress-induced neck pain is caused by physical factors — low, but constant, trapezius muscle activity. If your neck pain starts at the base of your shoulders, traveling upward, it may be stress-related.
Have you ever noticed that your neck pain is at its worst when you’re doing an activity that requires you to keep your head in one place, such as when you’re driving or using a computer? This is because your muscles become stiff from lack of movement.
While neck pain has a slew of symptoms, its major symptoms, reported by Mayo Clinic, are:
- Muscle tightness and spasms
- Headaches
- Decreased ability to move the head
While stress alone can trigger neck pain, a few factors can make it worse. Office environments tend to create neck pain problems — as they confine people to chairs, bad posture, and little mobility. Driving often, too, can make your chances of stress-related neck pain higher. Even if it’s caused by stress, untreated neck pain might later reveal muscle spasms, arthritis, bulging discs, or even narrowed spinal nerve openings.
Relieving neck pain with therapy
Neck pain, fortunately, can be alleviated with the therapeutic treatment methods provided at our (town) clinic.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture is a method of treatment used to stimulate areas with many nerves, and relieve pain and symptoms of many different conditions by inserting small needles into “trigger points” on the skin. Trigger points are tight bands of skeletal muscles inside of a larger group of muscles.
Chiropractic care
Your Toronto chiropractor will provide a likely cause of your neck pain after asking you health-related questions or ordering diagnostic tests. Your chiropractor can help relieve your neck pain through adjustment therapy, or cervical manipulation. This involves applying strategic, healing pressure to the joints affecting your neck.
These adjustments ease pain and will allow you to move their necks more freely than you were able to before. A few kinds of adjustments your chiropractor at The Running Physio Physiotherapy Clinic might choose to treat your condition are cervical mobilization or manual traction.
Physiotherapy
Physiotherapists are movement specialists who can target the source of your pain by examining your symptoms. From there, they can offer exercises that stretch, flex, and relax your neck muscles. In time, your neck will become more resilient — giving you the comfort you deserve. Where after-care treatment is considered, custom-tailored neck exercises will assure your neck stays loose, limber, and healthy.
Massage therapy
Massages can be helpful for more than a spa day! Massage therapy involves using techniques such as soft tissue massage, mobilization, and manual traction to target muscle tissue in the neck that needs to be loosened or strengthened.
Contact our clinic
If you’re dealing with neck pain, you’re not alone. Call our office today, and schedule an assessment. Even if your neck pain is caused by stress, it still needs attention! Our team will work side by side with your goals, creating the proactive, effective programs you need to achieve mobility once more.
