I definitely get pain. To me the pain that hurts the most is when I attempt to crack but fail. The mental and physical stress of a failed pop makes me feel uncomfortable until I get a good crack. At times it has taken me hours to get the crack I need on the joint I need and then I am so sore from all the strain I put on my muscles. I think you should take Midnightwolf's advice, he sound wise and sincere about this topic. Hope you get out of pain.

I have been cracking my joints for over 10 years now, since I was 16 years old and I can report that I have serious problems that I am sure are related to the cracking. I began by cracking my neck with a simple twist from side to side but that eventually was not enough and I began to feel the need to jolt my neck until my ear touched my shoulder because this gave a stronger crack that went all the way up the side of my neck.

But by doing this I was agitating my spinal area because I was continually jolting my head from side to side (I pop various times each hour every day). So eventually I started to feel the need to pop my back because I felt a tightness throughout my spinal area. So I learned how to pop my middle back and then the entire side areas of my back by either twisting my body around or by tensing up and jolting my body from side to side. I also pop my finger, hands, elbows, and ankles. What I have noticed is that the jointcracking is really a cycle of dependancy. I feel tightness and pressure and so I crack my joints. But this cracking causes more pressure to build up and so I have to crack again.

I have tried stopping and have made it up to two months but eventually the pressure and the desire to crack is simply overwhelming and I have no choice but to crack. But after stopping it seems that when I start again the pressure is worse and the need to pop is greater. My body seems to never be satisfied with the cracking and it is always drawing me to new techniques and new joints to crack. I believe that I can crack nearly every joint in my upper body with at least one technique for I have surely twisted, strained and jolted by body in every possible direction.

But I must end with a warning. All this cracking has caused me serious problems. I constantly have headaches and I wake up in the morning very sore and stiff. X-rays show that I have serious spinal deteriation and that I have three bulging disks in the three different areas of my spine (I may have caused these bulging disks from my continual jolting of my spine, sort of like whiplash from a serious jolt in a car accident). The worst so far are the migraine headaches I have been getting. My head feels up with pressure and I getting pointed pain behind my eye which causes great light sensitivity. During one of these episodes I get sensitivity to sound, smell and movement and sort of feel like I am motion sick (I think this is due to my equilibrium being agitated from my constant jolting of my head, sort of like when you get a headache from trying to shake water out of your ears). This episodes make my stomach very upset because I feel dizzy and there is nothing I can do but lie down and take a pain medication. I am constantly on pain killers and have spent thousands of dollars on chiropractors, spine doctors, and emergency room visits from muscle spasms that have been caused by my spine cracking. Then when I lay down to sleep I toss and turn for hours because my back hurts so much and I am usually not able to get to sleep until I pull off a major spinal crack that is hard to get at times.

I just wanted to share my experiences with you. Some people may have no problem cracking thier joints but I know I have major problems from it. For those who do not have problems I wonder if they crack as constantly as I do, if they crack as many joints as I do, and if they manipulate their spine as bad as I do. If you are just starting I would advise you to stop before it becomes a terrible habbit that your body is dependant on like some bad drug habbit that you know is bad for you but you just can't stop.