There are many reasons why your neck might hurt. One of the most common reasons is because of stress. There are a few different types of stress that can affect your neck including physical stress, chemical stress, and emotional stress.

Physical Stress
Physical stress is the most common type of stress that we consider when we are thinking about neck pain. When we fall asleep in a strange position or are in a car accident and have a bad neck ache, we immediately know that this physical stress has a direct correlation with the pain. Many times physical stress is identified because we see where the problem lies, like with whiplash from a car accident.

Physical stress gives us neck pan because our neck muscles handle physical movements differently. Neck pain can happen from physical stress because our muscles tighten or we have loss of muscle tone. Both of these things can give the neck problems with its discs and joints.

Chemical Stress
The second type of stress is chemical stress. Chemical stress happens by things that you inhale, eat or absorb. These include medications you take, preservatives that are in your food, or even breathing the air. Chemical stressors can cause neck pain because they irritate the nervous system in your body.

Emotional Stress
When we think of neck pain we usually don’t think of emotional stress, but there have been several studies that have shown a direct correlation between physical health and stress levels. Emotional stress isn’t easily measured, but there are physical symptoms that happen because of emotional stress. This includes neck pain.

Emotional stress can occur over anything that causes you to feel overwhelmed. If you were ever stressed out over finances and work, or are angry with a family member, this is a form of emotional stress that can leak over to physical stress. Stress causes tension to happen in the body. This directly affects weakened areas in the body, or parts of the body, which are overworked – like the neck.

Stress causes nerve interferences that create neck pain. The most effective treatment option to heal the neck is to let it heal naturally. Pain relievers can only do so much before they don’t become an effective pain relieving technique. Pain relievers also tend to only treat the outcome, not the problem. Treat the actual issue and don’t just temporarily dull the neck pain.

Chiropractors are a great alternative medicine option so you can treat neck pain with out invasive, medication techniques. There are several different exercises and treatment options out there to help you deal with stress. Speak with your chiropractor to see what recommendations he or she has for physical, chemical and emotional stress.