Hello all,
I'm Gina. I'm 26 years old and I've been cracking my jaw and other joins since I was about about 8. At least, that's my earliest memory of doing it. But my jaw cracking is by far the worst! My knuckles are the second worse, but I believe that I have gotten better at cracking my knuckles ( maybe because I'm living in a much warmer climate??). But other knuckles pop less often, and these are typically involuntary. These including my elbows, hips and and ankles. However, my right ankle can be popped involuntary.
The pressure build up in my jaw and knuckles is something that either I have to relieve, or it will eventually build up and crack on its own, or just go stiff. Anyone else having these same problems?
Even my jaw will crack on it's own if I don't relieve the pressure. I'll open my mouth after sitting still for a while and it'll crack even 2 -3 times sometimes.
I do worry that maybe I've got weak joints? I wonder why my jaw is the worst? I'm a stomach sleeper, and i'll even wake up at night with the urge to crack my jaw sometimes.
I worry about my health, what are the long term effects of this? And I worry about my boyfriend going crazy over it. I've told him about my joint cracking, I just hope it doesn't get old for him someday because I can't stop! I feel like I have OCD tendencies, but I control that very much. I guess my OCD is hygiene/cleanliness related. And when I was younger I had this weird OCD typing thing. As a child, driving in the car with my mom, I would type every sign I saw on the road like I was typing on a keyboard. I would also counts steps on stairs and wooden slats and rows ( like on balcony fences), etc. It seemed I counted any weird thing. I still do it today, but it's much more controlled. Does this have something to do with my seeming obsession with cracking my jaw and knuckles??
Sorry for the novel, everyone!! lol. I just have so many questions and have finally found a place were it looks like other people have the same problem! Please help!! Hoping to find something to help, maybe certain vitamins?? Any ideas at all to help relieve frequency of the jaw cracking. It's very distracting, I try to be discreet, but sometimes I just can't help it.
Thanks everyone!!