How to Protect Yourself from Text Neck

Between texting your family, friends, and clients and working on your laptop, you are on your phone for hours during the workday. And that’s not counting the time you binge watch shows after work! Needless to say, your smartphone is an essential part of your life. However, this and other modern devices can give you grief with a condition called text neck. Keep reading to learn more about this issue and what you can do about it.

Symptoms of Text Neck

In addition to neck and shoulder pain, text neck can also manifest with tingling or numbness in your neck, shoulder, upper back, or even in your arms. Little pains every now and then aren’t necessarily worrisome, but if you experience discomfort on a more regular basis or your symptoms interfere with your ability to function, it definitely needs to be addressed.

Cause of Text Neck

Your smartphone itself isn’t necessarily the cause of text neck—it’s looking down at your phone for long periods of time. Holding your head forward requires strength from your neck, shoulders, and upper back to stabilize it in position because it naturally should be well balanced in an upright placement. After a while of looking down, your muscles can get tired and strained, leading to this familiar pain and discomfort.

Treating Text Neck

The most obvious solution to text neck is to stop looking down, but that isn’t really practical! If you can manage to spend less time watching videos or mindlessly surfing on social media on your phone, you may notice improvement. However, many jobs require working on a screen of some sort. To mitigate text neck, take a break about every hour for five minutes, stretching your neck and back. If possible, position the screen so that you can keep your head in a healthy position.

Even if you try to avoid text neck, it may still afflict you, which means it’s time to meet with a professional—a chiropractor! Through spinal adjustments, therapy, and other treatment, your chiropractor can give you relief from your pain and help your body back to its ideal alignment.

Preventing Text Neck

As previously mentioned, consider spending less time looking downward—as much as possible. Ask your employer to help you create a more ergonomic environment so you can work with a screen more at eye level or other provisions. While you’re at the chiropractor’s office, you can ask them about effective stretches that you can do to relax text neck.

Now that you know about text neck, its symptoms and causes, and how to prevent and treat it, you don’t have to let it afflict you or interrupt your life. With the help of your chiropractor, you can overcome this problem and continue to enjoy what technology has to offer.

About the Author

After 20 years of being a practicing chiropractor, Dr. Chad Wills continues to build on his knowledge and experience. He is certified in Chiropractic Biophysics, which is one of the most studied protocols in the industry. In his practice Wills Chiropractic, which is located in Naples, he treats patients of all ages with various issues and injuries. If you suffer from text neck or any other neck, back, or joint problem, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team for an appointment online or by calling our office at 239-331-6060.