Releasing Muscle Tension Help

[Michael4422]

I went to a PTSD therapist for the first time and he confirmed that all the pain and tension in my neck, throat, and face is from repressed emotions from childhood. So I'm looking forward to working on that, basically processing these emotions, fear, anger, and sadness.

These symptoms are driving me crazy! Can anyone offer techniques to start FEELING again? I need to cry. I need to express something. I feel like I want to go into the woods, pick up a stick and just beat it on something until I'm exhausted.

Btw, I've had this tension for years but now that I'm sober and that mediation has allowed me to feel the tension rather than be numb to it, my situation seems to be temporarily worse. I know that I"m moving forward though.

And advice?

 

[Meadowsweet]

Physical exercise is good for releasing muscle tension. When the tension is due to holding emotions in, it can also bring out those emotions too.

 

[Whitneys story]

Michael4422 Congratulations on accomplishments! One thing I do is bend at the waist and hang arms, let everything flow out of your fingertips to the ground. You may need to start slow and let everything relax. Hope it helps.

 

[missmary]

I have tension and pain in the right side of my neck down and behind my right shoulder blade. For a temporary fix, I use muscle rub to ease it before bed. When I wake up it tends to be markedly better.

Long term? Hot baths with calming bath salts regularly. This will help ease the muscle tension and relax you, PLUS give you forced time to just be in one place, safely to reflect on your feelings and what's going on inside. I bring a book with me in case it gets to be too much and I need to distract for a bit.

Hope this helps!

 

[The Albatross]

Muscles can only do two things, contract or extend. Another technique I use is to squeeze/contract the muscles in my neck, face and shoulders as hard as I can for each body part for about 30 seconds... trying not to let the pressure off. At around 30 seconds, the brain gets tricked... it assumes it is a "permanent condition" and sends a signal to the body part to "relax". It takes practice, but it works. Conversely, I learned it because the stroke patients I cared for would often have body cramps. A PT taught me to apply firm pressure (like a big pinch though not roughly hard) to the muscle and hold it for that long... when pressure is let go the cramp or spasiming (sp?) would stop. When I was a life guard I used this on some swimmers too and it works like a charm.

 

[The Albatross]

P.S. A lot of my body trauma is neck, and throat it radiates to the shoulders and trapedius muscles. Hope it improves for you.

 

[missmary]

I may give that technique a go Albatross! Thanks for the post! :D

 

[The Albatross]

If it's anything I can reach I use the grab/hand technique and flex at the same time. But for places I can't reach, it's just contract and squeeze as consistenly hard as you can.

 

[piratelady]

Any other suggestions? ....Albatross' didn't help :( My shoulders and neck hurt so unbelievably bad.

 

[Whitneys story]

While sitting in a chair, grab the seat with both hands on the sides. Pull up the seat and hold, then release. Do this a few times in a row.

 

[Loner]

[DLMURL]https://www.ptsdforum.org/c/threads/yoga-meditation.27505/#post-416307[/DLMURL]

I'm completely serious. You may have your doubts, but the series of mindful movements, physical exercise, and mental focus really seemed to be key for me. I was able to feel almost every muscle in my body, ones I'm not even aware I keep tensed most of the time.

The other thing I would suggest is some sport that will give you adrenaline. Anxiety is a somewhat obsolete survival mechanism. Its a leftover from when we lived lives where we were almost constantly either in danger, or in situations where we would have to react quickly, like hunting. In such situations, our bodies would be flooded with endorphins when we would be excited or afraid, which would then help us to perform better physically as well as mentally, shortening our reaction times, slowing time down, etc. In the modern world, especially for a ptsd sufferer, we get all these stresses and anxieties building up, but there is never any release, these little endorphin dumps just happen all the time and just build up into tension.

Running on a treadmill is good, but a sport that requires more agility and quick reactions is better, a sport that scares you a little is best I think, just don't get hurt, calculated risks.

That combined with the yoga seems to be awesome. I've been skiing, mnt biking, and other stuff for years, but just went to one yoga class. The combination of adrenalinizing sports with peaceful mindful simple movement really seems to have two different effects on me that compliment each other very nicely.

 

[Shellbell]

I have a lot of tension in my neck and shoulders and find yoga helps a bit. But if my anxiety levels are high - nothing seems to help. They really hurt today - which is probably because I have my second therapy session tomorrow which I am dreading.

I going to trial going to the gym - I don't know if I can cope with it, but I can do a months trial to see how I get on. I think physical exercise will help the tension and anxiety.