Question
Hello, about 3 years ago I was looking out an open window. Someone came up behind me, trying to surprise me, and pushed me. However, my head hit the front of the wall(not hard) but since the window was open my chest went throught he open slightly and i felt a big pop in my neck and my vision went white. It didnt hurt, just surprised me. I didnt have any medical insurance, and still dont, so i never bothered to get it checked out. About 6 months later I started getting these sharp pains and severe headaches for no apparent reason. These went away after a few months. But ever since I have an occasional crunching/popping in the area where my neck popped and get more often I get sharp pains radiating randomly up my head/neck when i move plus what feels almost like migrane headaches if i persist in using my neck or sleep on it wrong. Seems atleast 5 days a week im in pain, and a few times a month its severe. And it seems to be getting worse and more frequent as the months and years go by. As I dont have insurance, i am afraid that if I go get it looked at it will get on my record and will prevent me from getting insurance in the future. But I am also afraid If I dont do something soon i will have permanent damage if its bad. Do you have any idea what i could have done to my neck? Or any OTC pain releivers that might help specifically my problem? I normally take about 4 advil and that helps for bad pain. But I probably shouldnt take that much all the time.

Answer
Hi, Ted.

Sounds like a neck strain, with neuromuscular involvement.

Vision and headaches are reflexively connected with neck and head movement and muscles.

It's not a medical problem; it's a conditioning problem.  You've got protective reflexes activated in your neck, whether or not ligaments are involved.

These protective reflexes can be retrained, so that the symptoms disappear (assuming no ligament damage).  The best articles to which to refer you are on headaches and the titles, Completing Your Recovery from an Injury and On Whiplash, at somatics.com/page4b.htm.

Get your "surprising someone" to pay for your sessions with a clinical somatic educator (list at hannasomatics.com/practitioners) or for self-help materials (somatics.com/page7.htm).

with regard,
Lawrence Gold