Hello

I have dealt with depression for a number of years and my mother and uncle both suffer from debilitating panic attacks. In the past couple of years, I have developed chronic, severe muscle pain, mainly in the lower back and pelvic area.

Every doctor I've seen says that there is no pathological condition causing this and that it is stress related. I have noticed that it does get worse when I am stressed out and that in less stressful times, i.e. school breaks, etc...the pain often gets better.

Has anyone else experienced this sort of pain? It's definitely musculoskeletal and is mainly in the lower back, hips, and radiating into my groin. Standing makes it worse but, I've noticed that when I'm standing, I'm usually in a more stressful situation.

I've recently started on Buspar, which I'm hoping will help. Your thoughts would be most appreciated and I would love to hear if you've had similar symptoms or know these symptoms to be common for anxiety.

Thank you!
S-

Wonder if this means nobody else has experienced this? That's discouraging as I am hoping that anxiety is what is causing this pain that is ruining my life.

S-

sorry it's taken a while for me to see your post. i have some experience with this. i suffer from severe health anxiety but i tend to make all my illnesses worse. let me try and explain. basically i'll get a cold or something then i without knowing tense up my shoulder muscles and restrict certain movement to my back which in turn then knotts up muscles in my neck making my headache worse. I then get wierd muscle fatigue in my legs arms, tingling sensations etc. Recently I had a bowel thing happen and because i was walking differently and tense i have pulled or done something to all the muscles in my groin causing me pain through my legs and lower back.

All my tests come back negative and normal but i go to an osteopath occassionally who free's up all my spine and neck and i'm ok for a while

hope that helps a little

just to add. i think stressful situations cause us to tense and maybe use different muscles which can cause muscular problems. i take lorazepam and that always help the muscular problems. perhaps see a physiotherapist or osteopath about it

Kayal-

Thanks for the response. I find that as soon as I wake up and throughout the day, I clench my pelvic and lower back muscles really tight. I've never quite figured out if this is causing the pain, or if pain I'm already have is causing me to brace against it. I'm desperately hoping that the Buspar I've started taken, the therapy I've started, and getting done with (stressful!!!) nursing school will help calm me down and get rid of some of this pain, as it has really started to ruin my life.....

S-