This is a symptom that sounds simple and straight forward, but it causes much more complicated issues with people who have anxiety.
When we experience anxiety, our muscles tense up and stay tense. The first group of muscles that would take the beating is the upper back and neck muscles. These muscles once overworked will cause pain, stiffness and discomfort. Relaxing them will help fix the issues. Simple, right? No, it’s not, not with anxiety sufferers.
Anxiety sufferers tend to overthink and over exaggerate their conditions. A stiff neck can be interpreted as MS, muscles failure, brain tumor, high blood pressure, Lyme disease and so on. Because of these false interpretations, our body get flooded with more stress hormone and the already tired muscles continue to be over worked with little to no rest. Hence, more pain and stiffness. The cycle goes on and on until one can’t handle it anymore, he starts to break down and to spend the rest of his days and weeks in bed.
The stiffness of our neck can interfere with the head’s movement. The discrepancy of where our brain wants our head to move and what our neck can actually move can cause a feeling of unsteadiness or dizziness. I myself suffered from this for months. My painful neck felt like it was connected to a bag of heavy rocks. I had to make efforts just to keep my neck up right.
As hard as it can seem, exercise is your friend. It can help loosen up and strengthen your muscles at the same time. Regular stretching and drinking water can also play a significant role in dealing with anxiety neck pain and stiffness.
But ultimately, work on your anxiety, reduce your stress level. Use A.C.E.R. to get fully recovered from panic attacks and anxiety. Your neck pain will go away and stay away for good.