Stress and frozen shoulder?

Hello Cindy,

I had to marvel at your latest post.  Although, I have fully recovered, I felt exactly the same way as you with people not understanding because you look fine (except for the misery written all over your face) but the pain is beyond belief and you're the first who described it like me being a toothache.  I also tried explaining it that way, saying that it was like a the worst toothache you ever felt, but it was in my arm with the aching continuing ever second of every minute of every day - it's not surprising most of us thought (or still think) we were going off the deep end.  I also want to reiterate how much a good massage therapist specializing in active release can do to break up some of the lesions that have taken hold.

For all those stil suffering, my heart aches and wish I could do more.

-Jennifer

Hello Cindy,  I remember thinking three months into this awful nightmare, "There is just no way I can keep living this way!"  The steps I took were drastic, a 3-month leave of absense from work that continues to hurt me professionally to this day on top of spending a small fortune on therapists.  But that three months away did it for me.  So all totaled, I beat this thing in 7 months.  From reading all these heartbreaking posts, it sounds like we all over the board as far as time and what works. I am also deeply troubled at the amount of posts I've read where someone has gotten it a second and third time, which is why I won't ever stop hanging from a bar for a few seconds every day after the book I read written by an orthopedic surgeon. I agree with your earlier post that it is scary some of the things people will try just to end the pain - I was certainly there and luckily it worked for me.  I'd give anything if you were here in my home town because I so believe I received some very innovative care that worked without any nasty surgery. I hope some kind of relief comes soon for you.

Cindy,

I spoke to a friend of mine about this. He is a very sharp 86 year old retired British man. His career was working as a psychiatrist in both Britain and America for altogether over 50 years in psychiatry.

He served in the British army as a doctor and endured the Nazi bombing of London as a child/ teen.

He said in his professional medical opinion that unequivocally Yes to stress as a contributing factor to the development of frozen shoulder in some cases.

Fir what it's worth that is the professional medical opinion of a retired British psychiatrist who was trained in Britain.

Yes! I had a moment of realisation recently. I was having acupuncture for my FS & the acupuncturist said that the areas I indicated to be tender when palpated were in a channel which when translated from Chinese means grief.

My acupuncturist was unaware that my mum had passed away last year very suddenly & that came as such a shock that I don't think I dealt with it. At the time I had so much other stuff going on (separation, flat-hunting & applying for a mortgage whilst working [in a horrible full-time job which I hated] on top of running my business - so I could borrow enough.

Anyway, yesterday I read some examples of people who have FS & are recently bereaved (the initial tendonitis mild symptoms which I got before FS really kicked in started about six months after my mum's death).

I now looking for options to deal with the underlying issue of processing my grief properly.

It really is as though my shoulder is carrying all my sadness. I have a heavy, sad shoulder :-(

Hi Cindy,

I too, have been thinking in similar direction about my FS.

Mine is in stage two, maybe a month or so in. After some negative experiences with orthopedic doctors (missing the FS altogether and ordering surgeries for bursitis, or shoulder decompression, or patronizing me when asking about neck possibly being involved, and brushing me off when asking about inflamation in the body in general), I have decided to see how it does on its own before I seek the mainstream medicine help again.

My treatments so far involve only the supporting kind - massage and osteopathy, which are both very helpful in keeping my back healthier, especially my neck, which seems to 'go out' now more than ever before. 

But talking with holistic health practitioners and reading up on symptomps that I feel, I am now looking at my case of FS as a near-autoimmune disease rather than an injury.

To explain - I am a freshly turned 40 year old, otherwise very healthy woman, who up until the FS struck, exercised 3 to 5 times a week, ate healthily, never had smoked, rarely drank. BUT, prior to my waking up about healthy diet (about a year and a halF), I abused sugar for decades. I lived for sweets. And I have been under periods of chronic stress my whole life.

Thinking about all of this has led me to two things: dysautonomia, which is an autonomic nervous system dysfunction, and metabolic syndrome, which includes a variety of trouble including pre-diabetes, diabetes, heart disease etc.

Basically, I think that chronic stress and sugar, both indulged for years, have contributed greatly to my having one full blown FS and a starting second one on the other arm (yeah, very lucky indeed).

My self healing now involves a few-stage sugar removal from my diet, walking for exercise, stretching as much as can, breathing exercises (I take 10 deep breaths every hour (when I don't forget, and when I remember to finish all 10), toning down caffein (because it too affects the adrenal glands function, which is extremely important to managing not only stress responses but also blood pressure and blood-sugar levels), and continuing seeing a massage therapist and an ostheopath to help me maintain spinal health, which plays a great role in overall health.

To come back to your question Cindy - yes, I think you are onto something when looing at stess as risk factor in FS. 

It may not be everyone's case (especially if clear injuries are present at first) but stress seems to be involved here. It is a symptom of things not being alright either in the physical (a great injury, long term inflamation) or in the emotional body. So I think it is well worth looking deeper for the underlying cause.

Hope that you all have a good day, no pain, and I'm looking forward to when we all share our success stories at the end of this difficult time in our lives.

I was also very stressed when my frozen shoulder started. Was selling house and moving across country away from family. Try a massage. I went once a week for a couple months and pain is almost gone. Still go once a month now and have almost full mobility back. I did also take glucosamine, fish oil and collagen pills.  No doctors or physical therapy.