The quick answer is – Yes. Stress can cause pain in muscles and joints anywhere in your body.<\/p>\n
Low back pain, particularly long-term back pain is surprising. Many people link back pain to poor posture, in fact there is very little correlation between posture and people who experience pain. If I want to predict a time when you are vulnerable to a pain episode it will be when you are stressed and\/or tired.<\/p>\n
The reason for this correlation is probably due to chemical changes in the body caused by stress hormones. However it is clear that stress and low back pain are linked.<\/p>\n
From my clinical experience there are two common types of stress that I see patient\u2019s with low back pain experiencing:<\/p>\n
Overwhelm stress<\/strong> \u2013 this is the stress of being so busy, no time to look after yourself. Perhaps lots of extra things happening in life. The common metaphor is having a full plate. These people are just concentrating on keeping going \u2013 keeping everything balanced on the plate. There is a sense in which they are holding on tight or pushing on and this leads to physical tension and pain in the low back.<\/p>\n Unresolved stress<\/strong> \u2013 this is the stress from major life events, most commonly bereavement but it can be other stressful events that cause a large change in your life. Often these people have just ploughed on through the difficult circumstance but not actually acknowledged and dealt with the emotions of the situation. The pain associated with these situations can come out months or even years after the provoking event. This may not be until you eventually relax or get to a situation where you can be in pain and you can give your body some attention.<\/p>\n I cannot emphasise enough that when pain has an emotional context it certainly doesn\u2019t mean the pain is not real or all in your head. The pain is definitely very physical with muscle tension and restriction of movement and physical treatments will often make a significant difference. However the pain may not improve long-term without recognising and taking positive action to improve emotions associated with the pain.<\/p>\n One of the keys is simply acknowledging what the stress is and the role it might have in your pain.<\/p>\n Coping with a plateful of stress that is ongoing can have several solutions. You could share the food so someone else takes some of the burden. You can simply take off some of the food. You may need to get a bigger plate so it seems more manageable. This may mean putting in place some self-care so that you have greater resilience to manage everything on your plate.<\/p>\n When pain is associated with a significant life event acknowledging and talking about feelings linked with that event can be very important. Tell someone about your emotional pain, anger, disappointment, numbness \u2013 whatever your feelings are about the situation. The person often simply needs to listen, not offer solutions. Perhaps your body is telling you it is time to take a break and allow yourself to relax.<\/p>\n Maybe your high stress levels are indicating that you need to make some changes to improve your general well-being \u2013 exercise, healthy eating, less caffeine, relaxation, improving sleep and so on.<\/p>\n Come and talk to me in clinic if you want to explore if there may be underlying factors relating to your pain. My comprehensive assessment often enables us to identify several factors that may be contributing to your pain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The quick answer is – Yes. Stress can cause pain in muscles and joints anywhere in your body. Low back pain, particularly long-term back pain is surprising. Many people link back pain to poor posture, in fact there is very little correlation between posture and people who experience pain. If I want to predict a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[29],"tags":[57,28,19,56],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/painpuzzle.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/adult-1850268_640.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nPain is real<\/h3>\n
How to deal with stress?<\/h3>\n