Back pain

[Imanxious]

Weird question, but I thought I'd ask. I was supposed to take my father to my sister's house tomorrow. My dad lives with my wife and me (he's 95, and doesn't drive anymore). Anyway, a lot of my issues are with my siblings, and I get very anxious leaving the house either driving or walking, so this wasn't a good combination.

Earlier today my back seized up. I didn't do anything that would have injured it, and I'm 99.9% sure it's anxiety/tension. Has anyone else experienced this?

The good news, at least, is that my wife (who is a badass) contacted my sister and said she'd have to come pick up my dad, so I won't have to drive.

[Hidden]

Hi. Not a weird question! Sorry to hear this - back problems can be very painful. This sort of thing has happened to me a lot. I have found good information from this site. sirpa.org/ Hope you get better soon.

[Imanxious in reply to Hidden]

Thanks. I appreciate it. I spoke with a friend of mine after I wrote this. The same thing happened to her when she was dealing with similar issues to mine.

[Nathalie99 Partner]

Hi,

I have experienced back pain for no reason other than extreme stress and it makes sense, that it hurts when everything gets tense in the body.

Relaxing and resting, maybe some heat and gentle excercise might help.

[Imanxious in reply to Nathalie99]

It does make sense. This is the first time in my 52 years that I've dealt with this stuff, so these new manifestations of stress and anxiety are all new. Thanks.

[Tara52]

Yes I have heard of others having acute back pain issues related to anxiety. Sounds like wisdom to keep your distance from your siblings for awhile. I hope your back is feeling better today.😍

[bowJim]

I think you are spot on with your diagnosis.

I was lucky enough to find out about TMS (the mind body syndrome) with Alan Gordon, he provides a full free tutorial wikitms.org - one page each day about mind and pain, for me I am sold on it, Alan is not the first Dr to promote this theory, It was first discovered by Dr Sarno over 30 yrs he treated 95% of his patients with mental health therapy to heal pain in the body. best wishes

[Hidden in reply to bowJim]

In UK NHS trained physiotherapist Georgie Oldfield continues the work of Dr Sarno.

I've also used this approach and it's really helped.

[bowJim in reply to Hidden]

Thanks for that, I will take a look. Nice to hear you found the approach helpful too.

[Hidden in reply to bowJim]

I listened to a pain conference on Ayaiya university in April which included lots of different speakers. Really interesting. It's free if you listen during the time period. Would you like the link?

Georgie also spoke about breaking the neural pathway circuits.

sirpa.org/

I suffered from so called "psychosomatic" pains for most of my life. Due to emotional abuse. I wasn't allowed to express any emotion and it must have manifested itself in my body.

[bowJim]

Thank you, that's very helpful, I have only in recent times understood psychosomatic pain, my pain started in my 40's about 15 yrs ago, this followed tests and two diagnosis, none of the diagnosis looked at my mental health only concentrated on physical symptoms.

15 yrs on, I find I have severe anxiety and depression score and Truama from parental interpersonal emotional abuse, bit of a shock really. I am now learning the affects of mental health and Pain and the various therapies that can help.

Can I ask what has worked best for you to reduce your pain.

[Hidden in reply to bowJim]

I have sent a pm.

[Rubyphoenix]

I have had low back pain since I was a young girl. When I was school age it was a dull ache, mostly when I laid down at night, I attributed it to my heavy backpack. I lost my dad in 2001 followed by witnessing my husbands suicide in 2002. In 2003 I was diagnosed with PTSD, depression and tension headaches. Then I started having severe, debilitating back pain. My doctor ordered xrays. The only it showed was I have an extra vertebra, L6, but said that usually doesnt cause pain. So we did an MRI. Which showed I had stress fractures in L4 and L5 and my vertebrae there has slipped forward which narrows the spinal canal, putting pressure on the nerves. The condition is common in gymnasts and high impact sports, or car accidents or I could have been born with it. Not much they can do about other than physical therapy and teaching me how to avoid making it worse. My back will continue to slip. I was grade 1, if it ever gets to grade 4 or 5(which is basically when it slips completely off the vertabra below it), I will need to get a spinal fusion. He said most people dont have as much pain as I reported at my grade but maybe me extra vertebra was affecting it. So I got PT and pain pills. I became addicted to pain pills, which ruined my life. After a decade of using pain pills I managed to quit taking them. 6 months after that I noticed my pain was back to a dull ache when standing or in certain postions. I also found out that depression and stress commonly cause low back pain.

I am convinced that is what caused my severe back pain in 2003. If I wasnt at work,(on my feet for 8 hrs on a concrete floor), I was in my bed grieving. I really wish my doctor had put 2 and 2 together and prescibed PT and therapy or pain management instead of the opiates. But my back conditions threw him off.

My advice to you is to use narcotics only as a last resort. Dont lay in bed for a long time. Ask for physical therapy, pain management, and counseling if the pain persists. Ask if its okay to do yoga and exercises to strengthen your legs and core, use a back brace only for lifting. Im gonna say yoga again because its like a miracle drug. When I went through another tragedy and so anxious I couldnt leave my room, I decided I need to exercise. Im lazy so I choose yoga thinking it would be easy. Found an app and followed along. Couldnt hold the poses for the whole time, lost my balance a million times, and was embarrassingly out of breath and couldn't finish the whole session. But I kept trying every day. I got stronger, my balance improved, and the miracles, my back stopped hurting completely and my anxiety and depression got so much better. I wanted to push myself so I started traditional exercises at 38 years old I felt the best I had my whole life mentally and physically. Lifelong insomnia was gone, i started leaving the house again occasionally, and I was able to stay out of my bed all day, everyday, which I had never experienced in my life. Without even trying I cut my cigarette intake in half. Had I kept it up I believe I would be a fully functional, relatively normal person again. Unfortunately someone didnt want me to be independent and did some things so I eould injure myself exercising. Thats another story and ive said enough here. I had to share though because had my pain been treated differently, i probably wouldnt have anxiety and wouldnt have lost everything including myself. Just exercise. If anyone tries yoga I recommend yoga with adriene on youtube. She has a bunch of beginners videos and a 30 day Challenge that is a good place to start. Focus on the breathing techniques even though it feels pretty stupid at first. Good luck ya'll.