Don’t Feel Guilty About Having Neck Pain, We All Have It
There’s nothing like finally finishing up another long day at work or school in front of a computer and coming home and relaxing in front of the computer. You may be watching the news, television shows, movies or saving the planet from giant marauding space aliens. It doesn’t really matter, but somehow, by the time you go to bed, that mild neck pain you had when you left work has blossomed into a light burning in your shoulders.
By the morning, when you discover that the reason you felt like you were sleeping at an unnatural angle with a 12-pound cat on your chest was because you were sleeping at an unnatural angle with a 12-pound cat on your chest, the neck pain that had migrated to the shoulders is now part of a screaming headache. Just another normal day.
The routine of popping two or three or six aspirin or acetaminophen and going on with your day may work just fine, but it would seem that it might be nice not to wake up in pain every morning and go to bed that way every night. Especially as the longer pain goes on, the more likely it is to actually be indicative of some actual physical damage for which you might require complicated and expensive treatment.
There are things you can do on your own although that does not include shifting the cat; everyone knows that’s impossible. However, you can make sure to shift your position and move your neck around during the day. This will serve to stretch and reposition the stiffening and straining muscles and alleviate or even prevent some neck pain.
This will not eliminate everything, especially if you have long-term pain. This probably means something in your neck, back or spine – pain does not always radiate from the point it appears to be, the body is a funny thing – is out of alignment and may need to be put back in place by a chiropractor before the pain will completely dissipate.
This is even more necessary if your pain is severe rather than mild or moderate. We all have those days where, for one reason or another, we wake up, turn our heads and want to die. If you have those days a lot, it is very likely that long term poor posture, sleeping positions, or incorrect body mechanics – most physical labor isn’t geared to making sure you don’t pull or twist something – has given your neck no choice but to protest in the only way it knows how.
Chiropractic treatment is generally covered by insurance and can not only alleviate your immediate pain, but continued treatments along with recommended exercises or postures can prevent its return in the long term. This can also avoid it becoming something much more severe.
A final reason to seek treatment for your pain is that sooner or later your system will either build up a sufficient tolerance to the over-the-counter painkillers or react badly to them in some way. This might leave you seeking prescription narcotics, which, while fine in the short term, can have long-term negative impacts on every aspect of your life.