Relaxation and Stress Reduction
Forty percent of adults in the United States say that high stress has affected their health in any given year. Some stressful family situations are difficult, or even impossible, to do anything about. Some occupations are naturally more stressful than others, and some particular work sites are unnaturally more stress-provoking than others.
The common sources of stress in everyday life can make your muscles tighten up. Your muscles feel tense when your body is preparing for a fight-or-flight response to stress. If you experience constant stress (high-level or low-level) in your home or working life, your muscles, including those in your back, may be tense so often that you do not notice that anything is out of the ordinary. The taut muscles can act on a sensitive area of your spine to produce a strong pain signal.
If your back pain is due mainly to stress, making an appointment with a counseling psychologist or clinical psychologist may be helpful. During your visit, you may learn some valuable relaxation techniques and exercises to weaken the connection between everyday stressors and the muscle tension that makes sore backs far more painful. You might also get help in determining (and managing) the events that cause stress.
Several techniques, when successfully practiced, produce a set of related changes in the body that have been characterized as the "relaxing response." Among these techniques are biofeedback, progressive muscle relaxation, autogenic training, meditation, self-hypnosis, guided imagery, and hypnosis. Your choice is a matter of personal preference. What matters is that you take the time to practice relaxation frequently. People who regularly manage to bring about the relaxation response are less affected by the negative effects of stress, even during times of the day when they are not actively practicing the response. You may learn about many of these techniques in self-help books.
In 1990, 75 million people in the United States experienced enough stress to affect their health, 25 million people considered talking to a professional about it, and 10–15 million actually did. Of those who did, 85% said that it helped, and 50% said that it helped a great deal.
