Persistent sore throat (3 years): Could it be related to tension?

@maolland-

By chance do you have tight neck muscles/jaw muscles/tight upper shoulders?

Yes I do and I always have ever since I can remember. I see a chiropractor every week and I was getting massages once a month and need to get back to doing that.
However I have had issues with my jaw locking up due to holding tension and that was happening before I started experiencing the sore throat.

@maolland-

Don’t underestimate what that can cause to your throat. The jaw tightness, tense muscles, stress/anxiety.
The tension holding affects all of that and the throat. Your throat can feel sore, affected by the muscles.

Unfortunately-many doctors especially surgeons don’t make the entire connection with the body.
They will only focus right at the source of the issue.
Held in tension causes so many issues. That has to be addressed first and foremost.

Your story reads all too familiar. Just be careful of any unnecessary surgeries/procedures when trying to chase the pain.

It’s not a coincidence that I knew to ask about your neck and musculoskeletal tension.

Sore throats and tension issues are very real.

I have deep hoarseness and when I speak it is hard for people to hear me. I had a pulmonologist appointment and he gave me antibiotics and said I had trush. This happened twice with no results. I also get the stiff neck often. Trush is not the problem. I’m fine my PCP said as far as trush but wants me to see an ENT as it could be anything including cancer or issues with my vocal cords or tonsils at 70 years old. I am under psychiatric care for generalized anxiety disorder.

Thank you so much for your reply. I think you are right about that.
I have always struggled with holding my tension in my shoulders in the past and now I find I clench my jaw and bite down without being aware most of the time. I have to sleep with a mouth guard. Where I struggle to figure out is if now I’m holding more tension there because I have a sore throat or if the sore throat is from the tension.
Right before this happened I went through a traumatic event in my life, which I have always felt was related to this issue.
I’ve been so desperate at times to get my life back, I was willing to try anything to get rid of this awful pain.
The doctor that gave me the surgery for acid reflex did it without proper testing before hand. I was unaware of this at the time but later it was brought to my attention by his nurse. Come to find out I never had “silent acid reflex” like he said. It’s incredibly disappointing that this happens so often to people.
In the past when I was going to voice therapy they mentioned injecting Botox into the muscle in my neck to relax it and see if it helped reduce the pain I’m experiencing.
I consider myself to be pretty level headed and strong individual but I feel like I’m in a whirlwind of always trying to figure out if it’s this or that. Im so tired of disappointment from trying and nothing working. I’m exhausted and it’s taking a toll on me emotionally.

@maolland

I understand this. Hang in there. If you can tie this back to happening around a traumatic event in your life-I would trust your intuition.

And ask yourself if you had found a proper way to process the stress/trauma/grief emotion.

If you already tension in neck/jaw/shoulders then pair that with a trauma it can cause more pain.

During that time did you seek help through talk therapy or any way to process the event rather than holding it in? Emotional pain can be just as strong as physical pain and will present in the body.

Medical doctors are terrible at connecting the mind/body. Especially specialists. They focus on one part only like a mechanic.

You will never have a Western Medical doctor ask you about your stress levels, what you do for fun and relaxation. The two are not separate.

Take the voice of a nervous scared person, versus that of a relaxed happy person. You will get two different sounds and projections. If low level tension is repeated it really can cause stress on the throat as well as held in emotion. That’s where we project from.

It’s all connected.

I’m not discouraging you from ruling out pathology, but sounds like you have gone that route and doctors visits are not relaxing and cause more stress.

Have you worked with someone to process your traumatic event and how you handle and hold stress in general?

Thank you for taking time to respond to me. I am thankful for your input. You seem to be very understanding and relatable.
At the time when it happened I kept it all to myself for months, nearly a year. I did eventually talk about it all and now I find it easy to talk about.
I live in Minnesota so I was able to go to the Mayo Clinic ENT and also neurology department and I’ve never been more disappointed, especially in their ent department. It was awful. I actually felt stupid for being there. The woman I saw there was so low on compassion! It was upsetting.

I have not talked to anyone specializing in that area of expertise but I did tell the voice therapist that I saw from the university of MN. He asked me specifically.

I keep “maybe it is just from holding tension“ but I also keep thinking there has to be more to this being that the pain is so great no matter what I do. I am definitely going to try and do more to relax the area. Any suggestions?

@maolland -

You are most welcome.
And from my experience (just me personally and from things I’ve read) ENTs might be some of the most worthless specialists out there. Not trying to sound negative.

Know that you are not alone.

As far as suggestions-I’d really work with a PT on holding patterns and try to get into a regular practice of mindfulness w/ yoga etc..

Make sure you are giving yourself enough space to really be unplugged and experiencing real joy and relaxation.

Often tons of doctor visits and pain chasing can be stressful and keep us stuck and draw more attention to the area we are trying to fix. And keep us wound tight.

Really focus on releasing old patterns.

You can’t rule out a physical condition either. I clear my throat all day long. My throat hurts constantly even when I’m not clearing my throat. The back of my neck is pretty much tight all day long. Lots of headaches especially in the morning. I can’t swallow without having water or other drink to take by my side during meals. 2 separate speech therapists turned into one saying I have to grind my food. Do you know how bad that is? It looks like vomit on the plate. I stopped eating for days because of it.
I got a new speech therapist and she said “you can swallow good enough to take you off ground up meals. “ Heres some crackers, let’s see how you do.” I had to have some sort of liquid near me but I wasn’t chocking. She cleared me for regular food. “Just keep liquid nearby while eating.” I didn’t mention that I have GAD as well.

@andytheman-

GAD can create terrible stress on the body long term.
Especially neck, muscles which all tie into one. Long term tension, over use and held patterns IS a physical issue.
Anxiety disorders can cause all kinds of musculoskeletal physical issues.