I have depression and anxiety and one of the numerous symptoms that I am plagued with is tense muscles. I tend to tense my upper stomach muscles (without even realising that I do it), and this in turn tightens the whole area and I get pains in my lower rib area. I am not worried about this being dangerous or anything, I would just like to know if anyone else has this and how they 'relax' these muscles as this is so painful. I also have very tense neck and shoulder muscles.

I do relaxation exercises but this doesn't seem to help and I am trying to consciously keep relaxing these muscles but half the time I forget. It must be second nature as I do it all the time and don't even notice I am doing it until I feel pain.