Unexplained neck pain

Hi all,

I'm new to the site and this is my first post however. Please forgive me if I ramble on but I'll very much appreciate any help or advice offered.
I'll start with a bit of my background. I'm a 32yo male and I had my first panic attack almost 3 years ago due to a combination of work stress and huge life events, moved house twice, got engaged and got into a lot of debt. Ever since then I've had all the common symptoms - stomach problems, constant chest pains, tension headaches, fear of situations out of my comfort zone, pains and sensations all over my body as if the anxiety is working through one limb or organ at a time. Before my first panic attack I hadn't seen a doctor in 10 years, in the 3 years since I've been to my GP around 6-7 times. I got prescribed omeprazole which I stopped taking because of side effects. I did a lot of reading and slowly learned how to deal with my symptoms, identified triggers and in the last year have made massive improvements in tackling this beast. My last visit to my GP was last summer and he basically told me I'm a hypochondriac and embarrassed me and made me feel very stupid. Since then I vowed to help myself and convinced myself that I was a hypochondriac.
Although I'm about a stone overweight and was a heavy smoker, I've always been physically active, playing soccer, squash and doing some weights/circuits etc. at home. I have stopped smoking and I am watching what I eat and trying to get back to a reasonable weight.
Anyway, to my current problem which has been going on for just over a year now. I have seen some of my symptoms linked to anxiety/stress and bad posture, but not my EXACT symptoms so I'm here to see if anyone can relate.
On and off for the last year I have had a pain in the side of my neck, sometimes a dull ache, sometimes quite sharp but I seem to be almost always aware of it. The pain feels like it's near my throat, behind the muscle where the carotid artery is. Sometimes it feels like the artery is throbbing. The pain comes when I sit leaning to the right slightly as a dull pain, which leads me to believe it's muscular however the worrying times are when the pain comes on all of a sudden when I'm in a stressful or excited state. It appears instantly and feels like something is pinching my neck, underneath the muscle. After a few seconds the pain will travel to behind my left eye and feel like pressure/pain pushing out. It will also travel to the top of my head, slightly left side. Once I regain composure and the situation normalises, I get very fatigued and can barely talk to anyone for a couple of hours until the fatigue goes away. I also get a very strange feeling like a shudder at the back of my neck during stressful situations.

I work in an office and have very bad posture, slouched over and leaning my head forward. One thing to add is that when I sit up straight and pull my head and neck back into a straight line my neck pain goes away a little.

Again, apologies for my ramble, thanks for your time and any help will be much appreciated!

Hi Jontar,

Pleased to hear you have got your anxiety symptoms under control now, and that your situation is improving.

One of the most telling things that you mentioned about your neck pain is that it reduces when you sit up straight. The effect of bad posture, but more importantly, lack of movement is key. When sitting poorly, the likelihood is that the structures on the front of your body around the sternum, pectorals etc will get tight. Link this with your previous smoking (and the effect that will have on your diaphragm) and it will lead to a lot of restriction through your rib cage and thoracic spine.

If you cannot move appropriately through these areas, you will begin to overload the structures around it (neck / lower back etc.). The pain that you experience referring over your head / into your eye would link with the referral pattern of Sternocleidomastoid (a muscle commonly associated with poor posture - see attached image).

I suspect that until your mobilise your upper back and correct your posture, this issue will continue to cause some difficulty, regardless of how much treatment your receive to the neck in isolation.

Hope this helps, but please let me know how you get on.


Attachment 1345

Hi AzzaRehab,

Many thanks for your reply, I read up on the sternocleidomastoid muscle after I read your post - it's amazing what it can do if it's not looked after!! Since your reply I have been trying to improve my posture and performing a neck exercise where I pull my head back in a straight line with my back and my chin in and down towards my chest. I have to say these little steps have made a big improvement so far, the particular neck pain has almost gone away and I feel a big improvement generally. I will make an appointment to see a local physio for a proper evaluation and see if there is professional treatment I should consider to help me further.

I had a girlfriend who was a physio when I was at uni around 10 years ago. She was ALWAYS telling me off that I had bad posture, I think I should have listened to her better now!

I suffered migraines and neck pain for years and years before a doctor determined it was a pinched nerve. That may be something you also look into.

Pleased to hear it has had an effect! Keep up the good work.