Physical or Psychological pain? PAIN IN THE NECK!!!

[cnote]

This seems to be ongoing.

I'm 32 male. Not a stranger here, but luckily not on here as much as I used to in the past years.

About a month ago, I was having issues with neck and head tension. My head felt like it was in a vise 24/7.
Thankfully that left!!

I've been pain free from that for about 2 weeks maybe?

Now the past week my neck has been hurting AGAIN. But this time JUST my neck and shoulders area.

My neck muscles feel as if they are took weak to hold up my head. That's what it feels like, and also I feel that the muscles on the base of my skull/neck are TIGHT.

When I turn my head left and right slowly, I can hear a sound that I can only describe like "grains of sand" or "muscle fiber noises".

Is this just tension?? It's causing daily headaches too.

Aleve, ibuprofen etc. does not touch it. :(

I'm starting to get anxiety over this, but I KNOW DEEP DOWN IT'S NOTHING SERIOUS.

I just don't feel anxious though, that's the thing.

With my history though of Generalized Anxiety, can it really be anxiety without feeling anxious??

Will this eventually go away on its own?? I believe it will. I just need to take it easy I guess.

It's just starting to depress me, b/c I feel like I've been dealing with this for TOO LONG.

My brother is a massage therapist and worked on me a few days ago, and it felt wonderful, but didnt cure it. I know it can take a few sessions. Also, I have started working out again the past 2 days hoping it will help build muscles back up and help anxiety or depression if THAT's what this is.

Thanks.

(32 male, no medication for 4 years)

[Paxiled]

I started seeing a sports chiropractor recently to see if he can put me back together again.  Unlike you, I do have disc problems and plantar fasciitis and all kinds of problems, but they really were made bad by my bad medicine experience and trying to exercise my way out of it on too little sleep.  I don't think you have arthritis and I think you're doing all the right things.  My only concern is you tend to freak out every time something goes wrong with your body, and as you age this is going to keep happening, so it's not doing you any good.  You do the right things, but you make yourself miserable anyway.  Exercise isn't really good for everything -- it's good for the organs but very hard on the joints and the discs and connective tissue.  People who live the longest healthiest lives tend to live in societies where they don't do all this odd exercise but who are very active in their daily lives, including walking a lot to get where they're going.  I love to do athletic stuff and it didn't catch up to me until my fifties, but it does catch up to you.  That's why I say you need to take care of your body maintenance now and learn to move properly so you don't end up injured when you're older.  That's the part that I don't think is an anxiety issue.  It's a life issue that affects everyone.  

[Paxiled]

My experience is so rare that it's not something that really corresponds to what most people are going through, but I also spent a lot of time on medication before Paxil withdrawal pretty much ended my useful life.  It just never stopped, and that doesn't happen often and only really happens if you have a quack for a psychiatrist like I had.  But my view of medication is this:  you should only take it if you absolutely need it, not just because it's the easiest way out or the only one your doctor knows how to do.  But if therapy and relaxation techniques and milder medicine don't work and your life is miserable, that's when medication becomes the best thing we know how to do to keep going.  That's how you determine if you're a candidate for going off meds -- have you worked on your problem in therapy and feel you've made enough progress to stop?  Did you need them in the first place, or did you have the kind of doctors who just dole out meds to get you out of their hair?  And do you have the patience to take the time necessary to safely stop taking the meds?  A good book to read on this is the Anti-Depressant Solution, which talks about when it's time to stop your meds and how to do it safely.  

[cnote]

My chiropractor is a good friend of mine. He's a sports chiropractor.  So he also does massage, training and other things for injured athletes or just regular people. Sports medicine pretty much.

While my doctor nor my chiropractor did an xray, I do believe my chiro when he says he doesn't believe its arthritis. There are key factors with arthritis,  and mine didn't match up.

What we have finally found out is, is that I have a TON of trigger points, they hurt to the touch. Nasty buggers.

They are sending referred pain to my neck sometimes and other areas. You can feel the pain pathway when these are pressed on.

I'm still working on them with exercises, massage therapy,  posture correction,  and some old fashioned at home trigger point therapy with a tennis ball.

Yes anxiety makes this worse. Because I am dwelling.

My anxiety is getting better now that I know the cause and that these knots/trigger points are treatable. :)

[anxiety860]

Hey paxiled. Do you mind me asking how long you were on medication?... I'm assuming you were on Paxil.... I ask because I'm in mid 20s.. Debating about getting off medication all together. You don't need to answer. Just curious.

[Paxiled]

Oh, and I also believe if you don't feel anxious you're not anxious.  But C, you're clearly feeling anxious or you wouldn't be obsessing over this very common pain that happens to active people.  You're obviously feeling very anxious over it.  Me, I'm just angry as all get out at the level of pain I have after being active all my life.  But I'm in my sixties, and it hit me in my fifties because medication destroyed my brain's ability to deal.  I don't think you have anything other than a little wear and tear that needs, and is getting, tending.  

[Paxiled]

Just for any general reader out there, chiropractors have no way of knowing if you have arthritis or not.  They say a lot of thing they're not qualified to say.  I have been seeing chiropractors for years off and on, and one has to take them with a grain of salt.  One example is the supplements many of them recommend and sell, but none of them have really studied this stuff in the detail required to truly know how to do it properly. It's just a way to make more money off you.  The only thing chiropractors are qualified to do is make adjustments and some have learned some massage techniques and hopefully this mitigates pain.  Some really have gone a long way further to learn more and more about how to mitigate pain.  But the only way to tell if you have arthritis or not is to get tests for it.  That being said, I don't think it makes much difference if you have it or not -- what you want to do is just keep the pain at bay that comes from life.  Anxiety is often blamed for everything, but it doesn't cause everything, it just makes whatever you have feel worse.  This is especially true if you're on medication for it or have been on medication for it, because these medications interfere with the absorption of magnesium, essential for relaxing the muscles and nerves.  Not disagreeing with C and his self-diagnosis, because I have no clue what's going on with him, just giving general information here.  Peace all.