Can back pain be caused by psychological factors such as stress or anxiety? What can we do to face this pain? Discover how to detect it and alleviate it.
He back pain and anxiety or stress may be closely related. The reason is that being in constant tension due to the symptoms of these two disorders can affect our body posture, which also leads to experiencing back pain. But how are these two aspects related?
Why is back pain due to anxiety or stress?
There are different reasons that can lead to back pain Some of the most common reasons include physical problems, such as contractures, ligament strains, arthritis, among others. In many cases, these problems appear due to poor posture or activities that may seemingly be harmless, such as, for example, very forced lifting or repetitive movements.
Even so, there are other psychological reasons why people may suffer from back pain. Among them, anxiety or stress are factors that sometimes lead to these symptoms. He Stress or anxiety can cause back pain In these cases, mental or emotional distress may be the reason for this pain. Some of the symptoms that are usually experienced in this type of case, along with back pain, are the following:
- Fatigue: He back pain due to anxiety or stress It can mean feeling very tired. The reason is that our body and mind are so tense that they waste a lot of energy staying in this state of alert, which causes fatigue.
- Headache: Physical and psychological tension can also lead to headaches. Above all, in the event that anxiety is linked to overthinking certain problems or the future.
- Gastrointestinal disorders : Both anxiety and stress are often linked to experiencing problems in the digestive system. In fact, there is much research that highlights the relationship between these two factors.
- Insomnia: Rest problems are usually very common in people who suffer from excess stress or an anxiety disorder. In addition, back pain can also cause insomnia at night.
So much stress like anxiety They involve reactions in the body that stem from thoughts or situations that are generally perceived as negative. Given this, our body reacts by releasing cortisol and adrenaline, and generally, an involuntary contraction of the muscles occurs. These body tensions can affect the neck, shoulders and spine. Therefore, if you experience this reaction for a long time, you could suffer from back pain due to anxiety or stress.
How to relieve back pain due to anxiety or stress?
The first step to relieve back pain is to identify the cause of it. For example, people may experience this pain because they are thinking too much about how to deal with a difficult situation at work. Taking this into account, you can take into account the following:
- Take care of your sleeping posture: The posture when resting at night can relieve or increase back pain. Therefore, it is important to be aware of how you sleep and correct it.
- Have good posture: Suffering from anxiety or depression can cause people to end up with poor body posture that increases back pain. Trying to correct our posture during the day will also allow us to alleviate it.
- Do stretches: Stretching can be useful to correct poor body posture. Therefore, doing small stretching exercises daily can help you.
- Maintain a healthy lifestyle: This means taking care of your diet to have a balanced diet and, above all, exercising regularly. By focusing on this, it will not only help you relieve back pain but also control symptoms of anxiety or depression.
- Cope with anxiety or stress: There is no point in relieving back pain physically if you don’t work on solving the mental problem that is causing it. So, try to analyze the situation to find out what is causing these symptoms and work to deal with it.
- Go to therapy: The best treatment in these cases is to combine consultation with a physiotherapist with that of a psychologist. This way, you can end the pain and the problem that is causing it.
He back pain either due to anxiety or stress As with another pathology, it can limit our daily life. So it is a problem or situation that you should give priority to.