Treating stress related neck-pain or any stress-related issue is tricky. Read my blog to find out why.
I am not a doctor, but I can certainly answer this question with the assistance of your doctor. The reason you should always consult your doctor is that you want to rule out causes OTHER than stress, first.
I had a pinched nerve in my neck that I THOUGHT was caused by stress and as a result, I did ALL the wrong things to try and fix it. I tried massage and that didn’t work. I tried some yoga postures that focus on the neck and shoulders and that made it worse. I even tried going to a comedy club, because I thought a good belly laugh might help me feel more relaxed.
I got plenty of good belly laughs that night (and felt more relaxed) but my neck was killing me the next morning. Why? Imagine all the times I reflexively swung my head back and forth laughing thus causing even more pressure on my pinched nerve. OMG! It was terrible.
So please, do yourself a favor and check with your doctor first before concluding that this or any other pain is caused by stress. If he or she doesn’t know what’s causing your pain, (but doesn't see any organic cause) or thinks it might be stress-induced, now you can safely consider the advice below.
First of all, you have to determine whether your stress is physical or mental or a combination of both. Let’s talk about physical stress: Your posture, how you sit in a chair and whether you sit at a desk all day (or behind a steering wheel) can all have a definite impact on the stress that your neck must physically endure.
To cope better with physical stress you are probably looking at some combination of ergonomic adjustments including a different chair, a standing desk, adjusting your posture and even changing the position or height of the computer screen on your desk. I do a lot of writing at a computer and I used to have all kinds of neck and shoulder issues. I switched to a more comfortable chair (that allows me to lean back) and I now type on a laptop which literally sits right on my lap. Within a week of making that change, all my physical stress-related neck and shoulder issues went away. But a standing desk might actually be an even healthier solution.
Mental stress is entirely different. It consists of missed deadlines, difficult co-workers, traffic jams, arguments, money problems, relationship problems and so on. As these problems build up, your stress can become chronic. Over time, chronic stress can express itself (in your body) in the form of stomach pain, back pain, headaches, immune system disorders, elevated blood pressure and of course neck pain.
For mental stress issues, you first have to figure out where your stress is coming from. If I were you, I would keep a journal or a log of your stress for two weeks and make a note of anything that bugs you in any way. Anytime you feel the least bit annoyed by something write it down. At the end of a couple of weeks open up your journal or log and you’ll be amazed at all the data you will have collected.
You may realize that your stress occurs when you’re getting ready for work, or during your morning commute, or from some particular person or activity that is causing you the most stress. Once you discover a repeating (predictable) source of stress, it’s quite possible that with a little creative problem-solving you can easily eliminate it.
And finally, I’d seriously consider yoga for physical and mental stress. I was traveling down to Nashville, TN recently to put on a presentation about stress for a wellness conference there. I was starting to get a headache on the trip and my neck was starting to stiffen up. My wife was driving, so it wasn’t the driving or the traffic that was causing this but I noticed, even though I was sitting comfortably, the pain and stiffness seemed to be getting worse.
I was pretty sure it was stress-related because, as I’d been getting ready for this trip, I had also been ignoring my own needs for yoga, exercise, relaxation and just “me time.” This is the classic busyness trap I’m always teaching others how to avoid!
Well I’ve been doing yoga now for about ten years and I knew a lot of different yoga postures involving the neck and shoulders. So I just kept doing every neck exercise I could think of right in the car (while my wife was driving) and amazingly, in about a half an hour all the pain was gone - and it didn’t come back later (as it might have if I’d just taken some ibuprofen to cover-up my stress symptoms).
And the next day, instead of sitting hunched over my computer, practicing my speech one more time, I went out for a jog and had a wonderfully relaxing morning. My presentation that afternoon was a big hit in part because I spent more time relaxing that day and and hardly any time rehearsing. This is a picture of me and two of the other presenters doing yoga in the hallway of the Nashville Music Center. I’m the one on the left, doing a handstand.
