Why Dont We Go To The Psychologist When We Have Back Pain
This question may seem very obvious at first. Logic leads us to think that if we have back pain, it must be due, of necessity, to a physical problem. Human beings, when faced with a problem, tend to seek solutions that share their very nature, and in the case of physical health, this is very evident. If we have muscle problems, we look for a doctor who specializes in this type of pain, and if we have stomach problems, we specialize in the digestive tract.
We like to think that a problem will be solved with something related to it. That is why, when going to a doctor, the professional tells the patient that maybe his problem is due to a psychological problem, the person is somewhat skeptical. How can a psychologist fix my back pain? Surely it isnt due to a lump or bad posture? What is it going to have to do with the anguish that my back is hurting ? Patient.
Although a lot of progress has been made in getting the public to stop seeing the psychologist as the one who treats crazy people, there are many people who have very much internalized the idea that going to one of them. is to confirm that they are themselves. out of their mind. Because they are afraid that the psychologist will find something for them that they do not want to know, many of these patients resort to alternative therapies, being wary of doctors and fearful of psychologists, who think they will not do much. thing to calm their crippling muscle pain.
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How To Reduce Anxious Muscle Pain
In an ideal world we would jump directly into reducing our actual anxiety. No anxiety naturally means no pesky symptoms of anxiety after all. But anxiety recovery is not a race, its really more like a marathon.
Thats an awfully cliche statement, I know. But as with most things, baby steps is the way to go when recovering from anxiety. Lets take a look at how we can start taking steps toward a full recovery and reduce muscle pain at the same time!
Our muscle pain, aches, soreness, and cramps are caused by leftover tension, so we need a way to release that tension. Luckily we have a tool designed exactly for that!
That tool is physical relaxation! An added benefit is that physical relaxation not only releases tension, but it also reduces anxiety levels over time through regular practice.
Types of physical relaxation
When I mentioned hyperventilation earlier I also mentioned the possibility of choosing a relaxed breathing pattern. In my opinion this is the most important relaxation technique anyone suffering from anxiety can learn.
This technique is usually called abdominal breathing, and it works by stimulating the vagus nerve. It takes no more than 5 minutes, and the effects are nothing short of amazing! Heres how:
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Can Anxiety Cause Muscle Weakness
Does your body feel weak and lethargic? Do you often feel weak and trembling in your knees? Does your body feels tired and feeble and you wonder why? You may be unaware that it can be anxiety whats causing it.
Anxiety isnt only messing with your mind, but also affecting your body. Although all of us have anxiety from time to time, chronic anxiety can disturb the quality of human life.
In this article, Can anxiety cause muscle weakness? we explore the link between anxiety and muscular weakness and how to cope with it in daily life. Read till the very end to learn more.
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Tingling Sharp Pains And Tightness
Because the central nervous system is connected to the peripheral nervous system, that means youre wired from head to toe, Dr. Merrill says, and when theres anxiety in the brain, it sends out signals all along those connections. Much like your muscles, heart, and lungs are prepped for a threat, your nerves fire up to ensure the rest of your body is ready to jump or punch, too.
Because your nerves are activated, that can create an effect anywhere along those nerve systems, says Dr. Merrill. You may have tingling fingers or toes, for example, or the hairs on your arms stand up like youre scared.
If a nerve fires suddenly, there could be sharp pain or tightness as wellespecially in areas where the nerves are in tighter clusters, like your lower back, jaw, or neck.
In This Post Ill Explain:
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What happens when we experience stress
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How stress turns into anxiety
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How anxiety and muscle tension cause and exacerbate each other
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How to recover from anxiety by reducing muscle tension, addressing other physiological factors, participating in talk therapy, taking control, and exploring your habitual reactions to stress
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Physical Symptoms Associated With Stress And Emotions
There can be short-term and moderate pain, but in some situations, there can even be severe and chronic pain.
Some specific events or stressors can make any person upset or anxious. The example in this regard is of the death in the family or because of job loss.
Such situations can release cortisolin your body, causing significant inflammation, increasing heart rate, and constrict blood vessels. Thus, these changes in your body can cause an extreme level of pain.
Furthermore, when any person experiences difficult emotional times, stress can indeed make the immune system weak. As a result, you can become more susceptible to colds, flu, and other kinds of infections.
Tip: Did you know that you shouldnt use Hydrogen Peroxide on infected wounds?
Stress can even make you eat a lot or drink too much and skip on your regular exercises.
Below is the list of some common physical symptoms related to stress:
- Stomach pain
- Rapid level of breathing
Home Remedies For Left Arm Pain
Until you can get to your doctor, home treatment can help arm injuries. For example, if you think that your arm is broken, use a sling to immobilize it and apply ice packs as you wait for medical attention.
Many other types of arm pain can improve on their own, especially if you:
- take time off from any normal activities that can tire your arm
- use an ice pack on the sore area three times a day for 1520 minutes
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The Science Of Blowing Off Steam: Why Exercising Is Helpful For Stress
Exercising for stress control is an option that isnt fully satisfying to many people, and often awkward for people in pain. But its still one of the most accessible and effective options, and it is firmly grounded in biology and science. Exercise is startlingly good medicine.52 Anything that can ward off dementia53 or actually help your brain recover from injury54 is probably neurologically relevant to any mood disorder as well. Which is certainly what the data suggests so far.55
But theres a more specific and fascinating reason that exercise is helpful for anxiety, which is well worth understanding:
Exercise simulates what stress is trying to prepare us for. More exactly, exercise simulates a reaction to a stressful emergency which then also triggers the relaxation and recovery mode that follows. Robert Sapolsky:
The stress-response is about preparing your body for an explosive burst of energy consumption right now psychological stress is about doing all the same things to your body for no physical reason whatsoever. Exercise finally provides your body with the outlet that it was preparing for.
Why Zebras Dont Get Ulcers, by Robert M Sapolsky, 255
This is why exercise is an effective outlet for frustration, which is well-known to measurably reduce the stress-response.
How To Reduce Anxiety
If youre suffering from anxiety that is making your joint pain worse, there are a few things you can do to help. One solution is to focus on your diet. By eating the right foods you can reduce inflammation and improve your overall well-being. The importance of a balanced, healthy diet cannot be understated for both physical and mental wellness. You should also try to decrease your anxiety levels using a few simple remedies. Many people find that engaging in deep breathing exercises helps them to decompress from stressful situations. Listening to music can also be a great way to lower anxiety, as it diverts your attention away from things that may be weighing your mind down. And even light exercise has proven to be a great release. In addition to helping dissipate the hormones built up by anxiety, it can go a long way towards building a better, fitter body.
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Can Stress Cause Physical Pain In The Body And How To Identify The Stress
Posted by Shani Liyanage | Feb 13, 2020 | Mental Health, Pain | 0 |
The high-stress levels affect every person, and it can cause physical pain in the body.
Most of us may notice symptoms associated with stress in different situations. As a parent, you can be experienced while you try to discipline your children. The busy schedules at work may even lead to a stressful situation for many employees. Household financial management or coping with a challenging relationship can even lead to a stressful scenario for many people.
In short, stress is everywhere.
The little amount of stress is not a problem as it can also have a beneficial impact on many people. However, a high amount of stress can make wear down any person and can harm health. The person may even experience a physical impact on the body because of high-stress levels.
It is necessary to identify the symptoms of stress in the first step. It can help any individual in controlling stress. Though, sometimes the identification of stress symptoms can be hard for the people.
Most of the people are so much used to stressful situations. They are often not aware that they are stressed out until they experience a breaking point. It can be a dangerous situation, and maximum efforts are needed to control the overall stressful situation of any person.
Tip: If you have not read already, here are the links to the symptoms of stress in men, women and children. The symptoms depend on your sex and age.
How To Diagnosis Of The Major Stress
One of the significant examples of stress-related chronic pain is lower back pain. This condition is usually not diagnosed by many medical professionals. However, the mind-body experts who understand the impact of stress on the human body do not find it difficult at all in diagnosing the lower back pain and the cause of it .
When the process starts for diagnosing stress-related lower back pain, the other possible reasons in this regard are ruled out by the mind-body expert. The majority of these patients suffering from chronic lower back pain are diagnosed with the condition known as sprain-strain.
After this particular diagnosis, the patient can then form a possible connection between lower back pain and stress. A fruitful dialogue with the physician can then take place by the patient. A physician would later adopt a meaningful cure in addressing the relationship between stress and the back pain of the patient.
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When Should You See A Doctor
While bone, muscle, and joint pain can be symptoms of anxiety, these sensations can also be symptoms of common sports injuries. Its important to see a doctor if your pain is persistent and severe. You should also look out for swelling, bruising, and tenderness. Call your doctor or visit a sports orthopedic urgent care clinic if you are having trouble moving the limb or joint.
Symptoms like pain, swelling, bruising, and impaired movement can be signs of orthopedic injuries, including:
- Fractures
How Anxiety Contributes To Bone Pain
Anxiety can make everyday life more challenging, causing symptoms like racing thoughts, difficulty concentrating, and constant worry. However, anxiety can cause physical symptoms as well, including pain. This guide will help you identify when bone pain might be a symptom of anxiety and when you should visit a sports injury clinic.
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Feeling Too Hot Or Too Cold
Due to the altered circulation that can come with anxiety, hot flashes are not uncommon. Narrowing blood vessels can affect body temperature. A person may, for this reason, feel too hot when they are anxious. Conversely, sometimes the body will sweat in response. This can sometimes be too effective and cause a person to feel too cold.
Ways Anxiety Can Impact Your Muscles And Joints
Muscle and joint pain can be caused by a myriad of issues, but could our emotions also play a role? Could anxiety or stress be exacerbating or even causing joint pain? Today we take a look at the relationship between our mood and joint pain, discussing 6 ways that anxiety can impact our joints and what you can do to reduce symptoms.
Louise Baillie
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Can Anxiety Damage Your Nerves
While anxiety and stress can play into neuropathy, they cant actually damage your nerves. This means that stress isnt a root cause of neuropathy. Even if youre incredibly stressed every day for months, that by itself wont cause damage to your nerves. However, that doesnt mean stress wont play a part in the symptoms of your neuropathy.
Shoulders Head And Jaw
The effects of stress in your body can move through the tension triangle, which includes your shoulders, head and jaw.
Stress can trigger tension headaches, tightness in the neck and jaw, and knots and spasms in your neck and shoulders, says Dr. Lang. It also may contribute to TMJ, a jaw disorder.
Ask your doctor about remedies such as stress management, counseling or anxiety-reducing medicine.
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Theory Vs Practice: Youre Not Always Going To Get Ideal Cbt
Its easy enough to get optimistic about CBT in the abstract, but in my personal experience with several psychologists over the years, and based on a lot of communication with readers well, lets just say not all CBT is created equal. Theres a great range of quality and creativity in its application, a big gap between the best possible CBT and the kind that many people will actually encounter in the wild being sold for a bare minimum of $100/hour.
Good CBT probably gives you a better chance than winging it on your own, but its still not an easy road. And its most common weakness in practice seems to be an unfortunate overemphasis on the thinking part using conscious thought as leverage. Which I cynically assume is an issue simply because thats what is easiest to do in a therapy session.24
Thinking may be what gets us anxious in the first place, and it may be hard to fight fire with fire, hard to use calming thoughts to subdue or replace worried thoughts. Or, worse, worried thoughts may over time become embodied, so entrenched in our behaviour and biology that they are no longer just thoughts and fresh attempts to think less worried thoughts may have little impact, especially at first.
Does Stress Cause Body Aches
Answer: Stress can certainly cause general aches and pains. When you are feeling the emotion of stress or anxiety, it links into bodily reactions. And the typical bodily reaction we see when someone is stressed is muscular tension. So if we walk around day in and day out facing stress without coping with it,
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Muscle Tension Chronic Muscle Tension Aches Pain Common Anxiety Symptoms Descriptions:
- You feel like your muscles are always tight or strained, sometimes to the point of frequent pain or even chronic pain.
- Some people might also find the pain so restricting and debilitating that it prevents physical activity, and sometimes to the point of becoming bed ridden.
- It’s also common to experience pain or cramps in any of the body’s muscles.
- This symptom can also be experienced as muscle spasms, twitching, clamping up, and intermittent pain.
- Sometimes the muscle tension pain can be so severe that pain medications are required.
Anxiety muscle tension symptoms can appear for a few brief moments then disappear, can last for minutes or hours before they relax, or can be stiff, tense, or painful persistently.
Anxiety muscle tension symptoms can also persist when trying to relax, go to sleep, when asleep, or resume when waking up.
The degree and intensity of anxiety muscle tension symptoms can vary from person to person. For example, one or a group of muscles can be only slightly uncomfortable for one person but can be intensely painful and severely restricting for another.
Anxiety muscle tension symptoms can affect ANY muscle or group of muscles in the body, and can randomly migrate to various muscles or groups of muscle throughout the entire body.
Anxiety-caused muscle tension, aches, and pains can persistently affect one area only, can shift and affect another area or areas, and can migrate all over and affect many areas over and over again.
What Is Muscle Weakness A Sign Of
Muscle weakness is a very common complaint but there is a huge range of possible causes. People feel tiredness or reduced strength in their muscles.
Are you suffering from muscle weakness? Well, you might think its a symptom of your anxiety. Well, anxiety is one of the common causes of muscle weakness.
Nervousness or being afraid can cause your body to feel weak and tired. Daily psychological stress can also cause your body muscles to weaken and eventually lead to muscle loss.
Muscle weakness can be a sign of lack of exercise or aging. Muscle injury or pregnancy can also lead to muscle weakness.
There are many medical causes for muscle weakness. Chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases can also eventually lead to muscle weakness. Other possible causes of muscle weakness include stroke, cancer, depression, fibromyalgia, and multiple sclerosis.
Muscle weakness at a very young age is a sign of either congenital muscle disorders or malnutrition.
If you feel fatigued or tired or you feel like your body has become very weak, its best to discuss your symptoms with your doctor.
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