Causes of Neck Pain

Many of us are experiencing neck pain because we’re all hunched over our device to accommodate a small laptop on the couch, or the physical demands of your personal workspace. This also goes for all of our essential workers making sure our packages are delivered, and those stocking shelves; repetitive movement and awkward postures can do more damage than you think. 

So how do we address it?

It would be nice if there was a quick fix; maybe a massage or a medication that takes away the pain. But then you’re still left with the underlying condition that was never fixed  at the root (from the inside out). When patients come to Occupational Therapy, the first part of every session is an explanation of their diagnosis and an evaluation of daily habits/tasks to see where it might be stemming from. That, or understanding the traumatic event that caused the injury. I find that the more a person understands their condition, the more they are willing to do what’s necessary to rehabilitate. So the first step is, education. 

A little anatomy…

At the core, our neck consists of vertebrae (bone), nerve roots, and discs that are stacked up. The nerves that start out in the spine (neck) go out to your arms and hands. So many people with neck issues or injuries may have tingling, numbness, or pain in their upper extremities. Neck pain has also been linked with imbalance of scapular (shoulder) stabilizing muscles.

So in order to fix the pain, we have to fix our positioning during the day, and even at night. Most of the time, those awkward postures are because of weakness or imbalance in certain muscles and its exacerbated with adjusting to your repetitive activity during the day. 

Occupational Therapy provides manual techniques to assist healing, and exercises to improve posture; but it also comes with homework if you want to see results that last. We advise on sleeping positions, ergonomic evaluation for your workspace, and patient specific activity modifications to help heal. 

If you want to learn more, please feel free to reach out to us at smplytherapy@gmail.com