Tight muscles and neck headaches

[Entropy]

A lot of my anxiety is getting better but I'm SUPER tight in my neck shoulder area, like it feels like my head is wrapped in plastic wrap and it's hard to move my neck. Also I get nasty headaches when I mess with my neck too much, like right under the back of the skull.

Anyone have similiar experiences? Or solutions? Seems like no matter what I do my muscles won't relax

[Agora1]

Entropy, I have the same exact thing with my neck and shoulders. Every single day for years. I am so protective of my neck. Whether I'm sleeping or doing things around the house, everything seems to aggravate the muscles never relax. I use relaxation tapes morning and night, imagery, microwavable heat paks, warm compresses on my face sometimes helps relax the whole head. Tonight I might take 1 Tylenol since I'm experiencing a muscle contraction headache. The discs are bad in my neck due to a car accident many years ago. Arthritis has set in now. Not even years of being on tranquilizers help so I have just learned to live with it. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

[Entropy in reply to Agora1]

Thanks for your reply! Yeah it's really annoying to deal with, but I'm glad someone else understands at least!

[karenkoala]

I get exactly the same thing - feel like my head's in a vice and my scalp is too tight for my head! My neck shoulders and head feel so tight - I walk around with a heat pad but it's very hard to shift, sometimes takes days to go

[Entropy in reply to karenkoala]

Yeah it can really get locked in. I'm still trying to find some ways to relax them

[Iguana]

I have suffered from a lot of issues over the years related to neck and back injury. I have learnt to deal with the pain but it is the related symptoms caused by nerve compression that causes me most problems - tingling/mumbness in my arm, sharp pains in the chest, rigid neck, headaches etc. You can just imagine what that does for health anxiety.

I find that when I really start to lock up I need to have a course of Chiropractric treatment to get things moving again. The trouble is when you get really tight, you are inclined to try to protect your neck and not move it to much which can often make things much worse.

Some of the things I find most useful are:

Taking a walk everyday,

Adopting good posture,

Not spending to much time at the computer,

Gentle stretching exercises,

Ice packs (heat packs can irritate if you have inflamation)

And my new best friend - a hand held self massager which can really help release muscle tension.

[Curtis33]

Also try using magnesium oil and also this stuff I got the other day called "emu oil" works well compared to any other things I have used

I find having a hot shower is good especially if you run cold water on your neck for 1 minute followed by hot water for another minute really helps relive some of the tension