Mental
My first patient was a woman in her mid-50s. It was my second day of practice. She walked in with her head tilted so far to the right that her ear was almost touching her shoulder. After initial introductions she told me that she had been stuck in this position for six weeks.
Being trained in "discovering the cause", I asked her if she had fallen or tripped or lifted something to cause her problem. Had she slept on her stomach or had a fender bender? "No" was the answer to all. Had she eaten something that upset her system? "No" again. Then I began to ask her about her job stress (none), her relationship stress (none), her financial stress (absolutely none, I was assured). She was a very secure, very wealthy single woman — and stress-free, according to her.
That's where the frustration was. I knew she needed an adjustment but my real job was to figure out why she needed the adjustment and what had to be done so the bone, once adjusted, would have a better chance to stay in place.
After a lengthy consultation which resulted in no real information, I asked "What were you doing just before this happened?"
"Nothing," she replied.
"No, you had to be doing something!" I tried to say calmly.
"Well, only talking to my sister on the phone — when she told me that my brother had died six months earlier and no one told me."
And right then — right in front of me — her neck straightened out and she was totally fixed. That's how dramatic emotional or mental stress can be.