That Nagging Neck Pain Isn't Normal (Here's Why It Won't Go Away)

You wake up and can’t turn your head. Or maybe it’s that constant ache that travels up into a headache by afternoon. Neck pain has a way of making everything harder—driving, working at your computer, even sleeping becomes a challenge.

Here’s what most people don’t realize: your neck pain probably started somewhere else. Maybe it was a fender bender from three years ago that you thought was no big deal. Or that time you slept wrong and just “dealt with it.” Your body remembers these incidents, even when you forget about them.

Why Your Neck Gets Stuck

When your neck experiences trauma or stress, your connective tissue does what it’s designed to do—it tightens up to protect you. But here’s the catch: it doesn’t always release on its own. That tightness spreads, affecting your shoulders, upper back, and even causing those tension headaches you’ve been getting.

We see this all the time in our practice. Patients come in thinking they need their neck cracked, and while adjustments can help, they’re often not addressing the real problem. If your connective tissue is wound up tight from an old injury or chronic stress, your neck simply can’t hold an adjustment. It’s like trying to straighten a twisted rubber band—it just snaps back.