To ask for your advice on chronic neck pain/tension?

@ajw7 yes! It runs down to my shoulder! Top of my neck down ti my shoulder, its an annoying headache. How long did your headaches go on for? X

Where is the pain? There is a muscle that runs from your neck to the bottom of your shoulder. I thought it was my shoulder that was the issue but it was my neck. The physio recommended some gentle neck exercises - just moving my head to each side. It helped the pain immediately but took about 6 weeks to heal fully. Using a lap pillow helped too when reading or looking at my phone.

@purpletablet how are you now ? X

This is exactly what I was going to say! Except I like the groove pillow best, and I found sports massages really good, normal massage didn't help long term.

For OP - I was (still am unfortunately) carrying around so much resentment and anger, it felt as it was a huge sack with a rope tied around my neck physically dragging me down, and my posture unfortunately reflects that. I prayed over it and that did help, if you're religious. I hope you'll feel better soon

I have had something similar and the constant pain is incredibly debilitating. It made me feel so unwell all the time, it was awful. I’m now past that and I put it down to three things that i changed:

1. I bought myself a buckwheat pillow so that when I was in bed, I could literally wedge my head and neck in the position that bore no pain and mostly I would stay n that position. For me, I needed to stretch the vertebrae in that area, a buckwheat pillow can really help with that. I bought mine from here: https://putnams.co.uk/products/organic-buckwheat-hull-pillow

2. I bought one of these neck stretchers and used it every day at least once. It’s very supportive and allowed everything in my neck to expand over time. This is similar to the one I bought.https://www.amazon.co.uk/RESTCLOUD-Alignment-Chiropractic-Light-Blue/dp/B0DKJ4TJBM/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=2FWQ4BEAPLJFK&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.X14R7Hx1D-UVRL-uXKSni3kIGYSQBeHvFWFQtWpNbzIbNYryiTwo4JHmA8YwFyD2yXJnKF0FqcWd_PvSxO83HWe38pDRIrZ2JaA2kbgri1KW2y75GBfvDLrlxH2q548-bAOJzH9gVB_vtGRgpfL9ESTtIzjOo_f-Imew477OJAiISTtoNqGU2-R4xd5Tt-ASpZfai6lJbkowWQVxhTXEP5CwLs0MfN-VVw3qBkit4-W7k5IdhRHJ_ygaFqHW0MtZIwE7njXUacOqU73XIW03oHDFLFaDYb9oSEh35B_zVEY.TdcLUusKj487onS64Mel0QwlzYSmp7ORF1zDGgxDmS4&dib_tag=se&keywords=neck%2Bstretcher%2Bfor%2Bneck%2Bpain&qid=1746129312&sprefix=Neck%2Bstr%2Caps%2C90&sr=8-2-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&th=1

3. when the pain was really bad I would use a neck collar like this: https://www.essentialaids.com/orthopaedic-aids/head-neck-orthopaedic-supports.html

Another thing that I have found incredibly useful for any aches and pains in any part of my body is cutting out gluten. It might be person specific, since being in perimenopause I have developed a gluten intolerance. Since cutting it out I feel so much better everywhere in my body.

It’s a Tempur symphony pillow.

Would recommend acupuncture, immediate relief and lasting improvement with regular visits. Combined with stretch routine and laser treatment.

Can you link this please?

Can you link this please?

Yup, massages and similar are just temporary relief, to fix the issue you need to fix the cause which is nearly always poor posture and you fix that with stretches and exercises.

I had / have this issue. Saw all sorts of doctors, including specialists who wanted to do horrendous procedures or put me on pills for life. I refused.

You need a good physio - but not just any physio. The ones I saw were useless. I eventually found some online videos from specialist physios that showed me how to stretch my chest & upper arm muscles where they join, and stretch my neck properly, and do it three times daily to start. Instant improvement.

Massages from physio didn't help me as it didn't address the issue, just release a bit if the tension. I've also had to learn to not hold stress or anxiety by tensing my shoulders & better posture.

A physio sorted mine out. Don't waste time with other options like I did, just go and get it sorted.

i have this and i end up with migrains from knots in my neck and shoulder.

I saw a osteopath who corrected my full body. He recommends booking in every 6 month. He then advised me to get a sports massage monthly or bi monthly. So i do. They focus on releasing the tension from shoulders, neck, jaw, face and it works wonders.
I also have a massage gun at home if needed. If it flares, i take naproxen or deep heat on my neck. Hope that helps

I have the same. It's been going on since early January. Does it ever make you feel unwell? Sometimes I feel ill from it.

So you grind your teeth OP?

I do at night and honestly it's mad how much pain it can cause. My whole head and neck hurts and then that pain turns to a migraine. I also get pins and needles in my face, which I'm not sure is TMJ or the migraine, because my whole head seems to be a mess.

I now only use feather pillows, and before I go to sleep I make sure I'm relaxed, so do a body scan.

I've been to a private physio this morning and had dry needling and massage in neck and shoulders. The relief of tension and restoration of range of movement is instant. It is sore today but I know by tomorrow it will be much improved. It's expensive but I booked yesterday, seen today, will be much improved tomorrow and once it started affecting sleep for me that's worth it. I do physio led pilates every week and she has told me which exercises to do to stop it happening again.

I had acupuncture done by my physio, has made a huge amount of difference for my neck and shoulder pain.

I've been having infrared saunas. They warm up the muscle and help relieve pain for me. I went for massages but found them painful. The infrared sauna are relaxing and help with the pain.

youtube has done good physios videos for neck strengthening and neck posture fixing exercises

How do you know you haven't got some sort of arthritis? I have spinal stenosis in my neck. Exercising can make it worse. I'd get it scanned. It isn't that expensive.

Regular sports massages and Physio.
If you’re a side sleeper, Dunelm do a goose feather pillow that is amazing. I can’t remember the make but I’ll try and find out. It’s not hugely expensive either.

While you wait for a physio appointment, you could try an osteopath or regular deep tissue massages. I opted for the latter! I also tried a combination of Indian head massages and feet reflexology, which was weirdly calming. As for any tension headaches, try giving yourself a scalp massage.

Also, have you tried something like Deep Heat (or equivalent) as a quick fix? A lot of people from the farming community swear by Uddermint for various ailments, including aching muscles, headaches, mastitis and relief from rheumatoid arthritis, among other things 😁

Something that’s helped me hugely is massaging trigger points (the painful, hard knots) hard in shoulders daily. They need to be ‘released’. It hurts but the improvement afterwards is amazing. A surgeon advised this in A and E. My partner does about 2 mins daily for me, but am going to try a tennis ball against the wall to see if I can also do it myself.

Don't go to a chiropractor - they are complete woo. Osteopath fine. Physio fine.

While you are on the waiting list, try cervical retraction exercises, because they will improve almost all neck pain. Do the exercise within pain - do not push through pain. 10 small movements that don't hurt are better than a few big ones that do. You are aiming to strengthen the postural muscles, that prevent the poking chin we all tend to get from our daily lives, and which squashes the upper part of the neck and overstretches the lower part (I'm oversimplifying massively!).

It's really difficult to find a demonstration of this being done correctly, even by professionals, but this one is close. But don't return to your starting position, as your starting position is most likely a poking chin, at least slightly! So do the pull back, and then 'release' the pull back, rather than returning to where you were.