Brief Answer: Difficult to tell exactly what might be causing Detailed Answer: Hello XXXX, Thanks for posting your query, I feel so sorry for your health troubles and I understand that you must be going through some tough time trying to figure out first what is causing this sudden pain and also how you can feel better with treatment? You must be asking yourself a million questions and all I will have to do now is try giving you some guidance based on the information you have provided. I suspect that your pain is neuralgia or nerve pain due to damaged nerve (wear and tear or aging can lead to this). Given that, the symptoms such as you describe are unspecific, it will be hard/difficult to tell what diseases conditions might responsible without running some tests and conducting a full medical exams ( a Rheumatologist should be able to help you with this). Given the scenerio, stretching or non-stretching exercise may not be able to help as the pain seems to be inflammatory rather than mechanical which means that you will require a long term use of antiinflammatory (steroidal or non-steroidal) associated to antidepressant (tricyclic antidepressant) which an help both for a nerve damage pain and your depression. Other antineuralgic medications can be included. You may need a physical therapist or chiropractor to assist with the pain. I also recommend you seeing a neuropsychiatrist. Your problem might need a doctor who has a lot of tact and understanding of such situations. Hope this helps and wish you the best. Feel free to write back with follow-up questions. Dr. Nsah

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