When dealing with anxiety and panic attacks, people aren’t often interested in much of physical activities. Their posture is out of whack. They either don’t want to exercise or are afraid of doing so. They toss and turn in bed due to anxiety induced insomnia.
All of the above can lead to chronic and acute shoulder pain. On top of that, with stress hormone running in our system 24/7, our shoulders muscles get tensed up and stay tense. They get little to no break. The pain I had ranges from shooting pain, dull pain, burning pain. There were times I felt as someone put a hot clothe iron over my shoulders. The pain would get so intense I thought I would go crazy and start going crazy, I never did though.
One of the scariest things about anxiety induced shoulder pain is if it happens to be only on the left shoulder. We, the anxiety sufferers, will immediately connect to a heart attack. And once convinced by Dr. Google that it could be a sign of a heart attack, our anxiety will send out symptoms and signs that match every single description of a heart attack from chest pain to difficult breathing and of course the heart palpitation.
All of the fear that exaggerated by anxiety cause our body to send out more stress hormone which making our tired and sore shoulders become even more sore. At times it feels like someone just keep adding more weight on your exhausted shoulders.
Pain medication, stretching and exercises can help provide short term comfort. But working toward full recovery from anxiety and panic attacks can help you live a life free of those excruciating and debilitating shoulder pain.