Anxiety pain and tension

[neowallace]

Hi guys

Does anyone suffering from Generalised Anxiety Disorder need to take strong pain killers daily for neck and head pain resulting from anxiety tension? Or even other pain issues? I am just curious as I daily have this trouble:unsure: and paracetomal does not help at all......

Any feedback would be appreciated....

Best Wishes
Steven

[Anxiety A]

Hi there, when i was a young child i suffered badly with stomach and chest pains whenever i socialized with other people this was just the start of my social anxiety problem, however i did not know what an anxiety disorder was at the time and my parents just told me it was indigestion. What i'm trying to say is that anxiety can affect people in different ways (physically) and what you are saying i know has happened to other people including people i know as well! Obviously i'm no therapist or specialist but i had/am attending Cognitive therapy sessions which really helped me a couple of years ago when i had bad Generalized anxiety disorder and bad obsessive thoughts and i know it helps a lot of people so it might be worth seeing your GP to have a course of CBT and when i had bad stomach pains the doctors prescribed me buscopan which is a medicine used for IBS however there are many thing out there that might help, so my advice is to see your GP and ask for a course of CBT or self-help therapy and just ask if there are any other medicines that might help.

Hope you feel better soon!

-Anxiety Anonymous :)

Btw here are some tips that help me sometimes (I appreciate they might not help some people):

> What is the worst that could happen - No one's going to die, i might get told off because of something though which is not as bad.

> Try and focus on another activity if possible such as deep breathing or even just something simple like reading a book!

[neowallace]

Hi Anxiety A

Many thanks for your kind reply. I am seeing my G.P. on Thursday and will ask about medications. Thanks again for your help...

Best Wishes
Steven

[Donna21]

I can relate to this as I frequently get pain and muscle tension with anxiety disorder, I always tense my back muscles when I'm anxious and have had shoulder blade pain ever since then so quite frequently take strong painkillers which is probably the wrong thing to do. I frequently worry about pain though. X

[neowallace]

Hi Donna

I do a lot of jogging and relaxation exercises but I always seem to have this constant neck and shoulder pain. I do take strong painkillers but try and only use 1 per day when it is at it's worse and also a small amount of diazepam. I don't think I tolerate pain very well.....I do try other alternative medicines and therapies but to be honest the only ones that seem to work for me are the jogging and relaxation.....best of wishes to you and thanks for replying...

Best Wishes
Steven

[expecto patronum]

Hi Steven, I have had pretty bad neck tension and resulting headaches from anxiety. I thought that this was something I'd have to live with, as I thought it would be the last physical symptom to go, and that I would have to be completely better from my anxiety before I'd see an improvement. But I decided to go to physiotherapy (NHS) just on the off chance it would help. I do 10 mins exercises every evening, and I acted on their advice on how to correct my posture so I now hold myself in a straighter/more upright and yet more relaxed position. Over the course of a couple of months I've seen huge improvement with this, I rarely get the really awful headaches now, and the general underlying tension is much better :). I'd really recommend asking your doctor to put you forward for physio. The only thing I'd mention is that exercise is good, but I've found that when I did an exercise class involving lots of upper body work, it did bring the tension and headaches back temporarily as it put strain on my neck again.
Good luck :)

[neowallace]

Hi expecto patronum

Many thanks for your kind reply. I will mention a referral to my G.P for some physio. I have worked in Call Centres for the last 15 years and I think my posture is not very good. It seems like even physical pain coming from high levels of anxiety just feed the anxiety more. I stopped doing any weights at the gym and only jog as like yourself the weights can trigger the pain and tension as well. Best wishes to you and thanks again....:)