Physical manifestations of anxiety and stress

[notloki]

You can skip to the last paragraph if you just want to know the question.

 

So this is an old symptom but when I am very stressed (if I don't feel safe, the future is uncertain on big issues for examples) I take out this stress on the muscles of the neck, shoulder, and muscles attached to the shoulder blade. I tense them and at some point they react with constant pain. If touched the muscles hurt more, a message, though painful brings relief but it is very short lived. Heat helps, also short lived.

This was brought on by the election of Trump and the proceeding chaos. Hate crimes are up, I am gay, and I stand to loose all the rights we lgbtq people just got or would of soon gotten. I lost my insurance but was able to jump to Medicaid but it is far more restrictive than the insurance I had from work. I really fear for the US as Trump is deranged.

In terms of treatment I raised the Klonopin dose from 1 mg to 2mg and now 3 mg hoping the pain would abate some. Benzos are all muscle relaxers, some quite good ones. at 2 and 3 mg I don't feel stressed or anxious so that part of the problem is solved. I doing fine mentally, it is the constant pain in my neck and some days all day headaches. The Klonopin increase helped some but I still feel pain. I decided to do 5 days of Aleve twice a day. This seems to be working, but I am still diving for the hydrocodone  at night as it wakes me up. I don't have many left so that would mean a trip to the gdoc.Taking Aleve increases the chance of a heart attack, its enough to not take it and I had quit using all NSAIDs on gdocs advice. So I think 5 days will be it for Aleve.

I was thinking Valium, I think is one of the stronger benzo muscle relaxers, and might be substituted for Klonopin. I see my pdoc Weds so I suspect he is going to say 1) Raise Klonopin or 2) add some prn Valium along with existing benzo I take or 3) Switch to valium My main concern is that with Klonopin I'm not tired or sleepy but my experiences with 2 benzos is you can get powerful sedation and powerful other effects. I have switched benzos before, it causes no problems. I have a well established limit to amount of benzos I take; once I start slurring it is too much. Slurring if the first thing that happens if I take too much.

The question, finally, is what are y'alls experiences with muscle relaxers ? Most muscle relaxers do not directly relax  the muscle the sedate and that relaxes the muscles. So Soma and Flexeril will not work for me as they just sedate. I am not sure of Zanaflex's method of action. So I am looking for one that does relax the muscle directly and not by sedation. Lots of meds side effect of sedation works synergistically with klonopin and I get majorly sedated.   

[melissaw72]

6 hours ago, notloki said:

The question, finally, is what are y'alls experiences with muscle relaxers ? Most muscle relaxers do not directly relax  the muscle the sedate and that relaxes the muscles. So Soma and Flexeril will not work for me as they just sedate. I am not sure of Zanaflex's method of action. So I am looking for one that does relax the muscle directly and not by sedation. Lots of meds side effect of sedation works synergistically with klonopin and I get majorly sedated.   

I don't have an answer to your answer other than to say that I am on flexeril and it works wonders for me.  Idk what I would do without it.  It does not make me feel sedated, maybe tired, but it relaxes all of my muscles.  The trick for me taking it though is to take some, then lay down to fall asleep or lay quietly in bed with the lights out.  When I wake up (I always fall asleep for about an hour) I feel rested and my muscles feel a lot more relaxed.  Much less tense.  If I take a muscle relaxer and stay awake though, it totally backfires and makes me feel like crap, and doesn't feel like it did anything. 

Another is baclofen I've been on but it doesn't work like the flexeril does.

6 hours ago, notloki said:

Benzos are all muscle relaxers,

IME not all are.  I can take a xanax and just calm down a little.  Doesn't even touch my muscles and does not relax them at all.  The only time it sedates me is if I take way too much of it.  Over the dose I am prescribed.

Maybe this will help? ...

http://www.spine-health.com/treatment/pain-medication/muscle-relaxants

[Alien Navel Cord]

12 hours ago, melissaw72 said:

 

Another is baclofen I've been on but it doesn't work like the flexeril does.

 

Baclofen didn't do jack for me. I even took 2 and still nothing. It was like a placebo.

[jt07]

I took Skelaxin for neck problems, but it did have psychological side effects. It seemed to aggravate my depression. That was ok though because I took it only for a short while. I cannot recommend it as a fix for anxiety and stress.

Have you ever tried one of those percussion massagers? They can be painful at first but they really do work.

[notloki]

Saw my pdoc. He wants to try swapping out Valium for Klonopin. He felt it would have more muscle relaxing properties  than Klonopin. So instead of 3 mg Klonopin at night I'll take 30 mg Valium at night. He gave me 10 mg tabs so I'll start with 20 mg tonight.

Edited February 16, 2017 by notloki

[notloki]

On 2/14/2017 at 6:24 AM, Alien Navel Cord said:

Baclofen didn't do jack for me. I even took 2 and still nothing. It was like a placebo.

Baclofen works through GABA, benzos work just as well. But it is a good option if you want the GABA hit but want to avoid benzos/scheduled meds.

On 2/14/2017 at 0:36 PM, jt07 said:

I took Skelaxin for neck problems, but it did have psychological side effects. It seemed to aggravate my depression. That was ok though because I took it only for a short while. I cannot recommend it as a fix for anxiety and stress.

Have you ever tried one of those percussion massagers? They can be painful at first but they really do work.

Skelaxin I have heard of. Actually I have one of those massagers, it is good for short term relief.