Can failing to sneeze repeatedly cause serious problems?

[Jabberwoxx]

This sounds really bizarre, but it's been bothering the past three weeks.

For about the past three weeks, every time I go to sneeze, I ''think'' about sneezing, and then the feeling goes away and I can't sneeze. I now think I've habituated myself into not sneezing because I'm reminded every time I go to sneeze that I can't. And what's worrying, is that every time I fail to sneeze, I get an incredibly sharp pain on the left side of my head.

What's additionally worrying is that I thought I read somewhere that suppressing a sneeze is dangerous, and could potentially cause blood clots. I'm not sure if it's bs, but it's bothering me because I don't deliberately hold in my sneeze. It's more of a psychological thing which I'm reminded of now, and I subsequently fail to sneeze.

Can anyone relate? It's getting me to the point where I'm worried I'll never sneeze again. :(

[.Poppy.]

You're not suppressing a sneeze...you just aren't sneezing.

I have the nasty habit of suppressing sneezes. To do so, you'd actually have to be in the act of sneezing and instead of letting it "come out" you sort of tense up and hold your breath and "hold it in". It's not a good idea - when we sneeze sometimes there's a lot of force behind it and when you hold it in you're containing that force. I've heard it can cause a lot of things, but I think it's pretty rare and blood clots weren't on the list. It is a nasty habit I'm trying to break, though :)

In any case, what you're doing isn't dangerous in the slightest. It's just a demonstration of just how powerful our minds can be! The head pain is probably psychological as well; maybe you had it one time and now you have it every time because you've convinced yourself you're harming your body when, in fact, you're not.