Prevalence of Neck Pain
Got Neck Pain?
Does your neck hurt a lot? Does neck pain keep you from activities that you love? It’s always good to know that you’re not alone. In fact, neck pain is the third most common chronic pain condition experienced by adults in the United States. Not only does the pain impact your physical life, but it also impacts you in other ways.
Social Consequences of Neck Pain
When your neck hurts, you may not feel like going out as much. In fact, if you’re having a really bad day, you may not get out of the house at all. This limits the social engagements that you can commit to and enjoy. Over time, your neck pain may keep you more isolated than you prefer to be, and it may keep you from participating in activities that you love.
Neck pain can also make you grumpy and difficult to live with, which can impact all of your relationships. Whether you’re at home or at work, you want to have positive interactions with the people around you. This can be hard when you’re in constant pain.
Psychological Consequences of Neck Pain
Any kind of long-term chronic pain impacts the way you think and feel about yourself and your life. Over time, you may begin to thin of yourself as weak and tired, for instance, rather than as strong and capable. These can wear away at your self-esteem and self-image, causing you to feel badly about yourself and what you can do.
Long-term pain can also contribute to depression and anxiety. If you hurt all the time and it doesn’t get better, you may gradually lose interest in a life you once loved. When you can’t do many of the things you love to do, it’s easy to get discouraged and feel hopeless. And when you never know how badly things are going to hurt, it’s easy to get caught up worrying about when your pain might strike again.
Well-Being Consequences of Neck Pain
When you hurt all the time, you don’t feel great about your life and you can’t do as much. Over time, this wears away at your sense of well-being. Even if you are positive and try to stay engaged in your life, chronic neck pain is discouraging and that takes its toll. Most people find that they aren’t as happy when they hurt a lot.
Treating Neck Pain
One of the most promising ways to treat neck pain is through chiropractic work. Chiropractors all receive at least 7 years of post-graduate training, and much of that time is spent focusing on the neck. Through various techniques, they can treat many kinds of neck pain without medications or surgery.
Even if you feel like you’ve tried everything for your neck pain, chiropractic could help you. Call us for a consultation and we’ll let you know what is going on with your neck and how we can help you to feel better and live better! You may be able to get back to the life you love sooner than you had thought possible.
