Very Painfull Throat Cramp

[MandySlade]

The first time this happened to me I was 18. I'm 30 now and it will still happen on occasion. Sometimes I'll go 2 months without it.. sometimes it will happen 2 or 3 times in a week. It's usually when I'm sitting/laying with my head in a funny position and I laugh or yawn at the same time. I get this sudden sharp pain and it hurts incredibly bad to swallow. Things just don't feel "right" in my throat. It feels almost exactly like a charlie horse in your leg, only it's in my throat/neck, always in the front and slightly to one side. I try to swallow but it hurts really bad. Sometimes if I press on it I can feel it kind of "pop" and then the pain goes away. Sometimes if force myself to swallow really hard the same "pop" will happen and the pain goes away. These events typically last from 20 seconds to (the longest being) a full 5 minutes. Most commonly though, it lasts about 1-2 minutes. I guess if it's been happening for 12 years I'm probably fine... but every once in awhile (like now) it'll scare the shit out of me. If they happen a couple times in one week (like this week) I start getting stressed about it. I start thinking (like we all do) what if it's a symptom of something huge and I've just been shrugging it off?

Anyone else ever get these? Any idea what it could be? Just a fluke? Possibly something serious?

[Girl_Interrupted]

Hi, i've had this b4, usually goes away after a few minutes, my jaw feels a bit sore afterwards. I get it sometimes when I yawn. I've never really panicked about this one, I guess somewhere in my rationale brain tells me I'm ok. If this is something u've been having since you were 18 and now ur 30 my guess is 'if' it was something serious u'd know by now. Like any symptom that worries us is see how long you can go b4 you see the doctor, the chances are it might go away on it own accord. If however you are worried speak to ur doctor and ask them for advice about it.

Hope that helps

xx

[Going home]

Hello,

Yes its quite possible to pull a throat muscle, and its common to do so when yawning or coughing, even sneezing! If you're an anxious person your throat muscles will be as tense as any other muscles in your body, but the throat is not a place where you can 'rest' the muscles as you can with a leg or arm say...because your throat is constantly tensing anyway, with talking, swallowing, yawning etc. Please don't worry, its painful for a while but nothing sinister...:)

Going home xx

[Cat80]

omg, you sound exactly like me. Mine's been happening since I was 12 and I'm now 29. It happens if I lay funny (so now I have loads of pillows), if I yawn, if I sing etc. It's very very painful, feels like something is rubbing against something everytime I swallow. I usually can get it back in by coughing loads but the longest it has been out is 3 days as a teenager. I couldn't eat or anything as it was so painful. It used to just happen on one side of my neck now it happens on both and my throat feels strained all the time.

Can't believe I've found someone with the same thing, I've spent ages googling it and nothing ever comes up.

[joltesvig]

Hello,

Yes its quite possible to pull a throat muscle, and its common to do so when yawning or coughing, even sneezing! If you're an anxious person your throat muscles will be as tense as any other muscles in your body, but the throat is not a place where you can 'rest' the muscles as you can with a leg or arm say...because your throat is constantly tensing anyway, with talking, swallowing, yawning etc. Please don't worry, its painful for a while but nothing sinister...:)

Going home xx

I agree with Going Home. Thank you for noting that anxious persons sometimes build up tense muscles in the throat. In my case the pain in my throat can become pretty dramatic. The first time it hit my was in 1989 when I was driving and very tense about concerns at work after consuming several cups of coffee. My throat tighten-up and became painful within a very short period of time. It was painful enough that I thought something was seriously wrong. I pulled to the side of the road and tried to calm myself and took several relaxing deep breaths. Finally after five minutes it slowly subsided...thankfully. But it came back later that afternoon when the tension built up to the point of triggering the severe throat pain again. I learned by trial and error that if drink some water, the pain goes away after 6 or 7 gulps. At least I hit on a sure way to stop the pain quickly!
Since retiring the last few years I do not get this like before. But I noticed the onset yesterday when I was getting tense about a car repair I was working on. I remembered to start drinking some water and it did not build up to the point of panic as in the past.

[honeyp1e]

I've been really anxious since this afternoon I got this sharp feeling in my throat and keep swollowing to get rid of it but it won't go its more in the left side of my throat just feels like its been cut or something but the last thing I ate was a ham sandwich and that was nice and soft but its making me real anxious

[Anxious_gal]

It's really really common, In fact I'm nearly always careful when I yawn, I have gotten throat cramps so much that I have trained my body not to over do the yawn!

They are scary though, I've seen lots of posts on the internet and most describe it as a charlie horse , although I don't know what that is, I'm guessing it's another word for cramp?

When I get it, I always sorta panic , but all you can do it wait for it to pass , they can be very painful too at times.

[MandySlade]

Yeah, I'm actually not phobic about this anymore (this is an old thread) it still happens to me occasionally but now I've accepted it as just some odd cramp I have a tendency to get. I also noticed that when I don't instantly panic upon it happening, and instead try to breathe normally and slowly swallow or slightly stretch my neck, I can make it go away much faster. Before, I would jolt up.. start pacing.. and be afraid to swallow or move.. thusly causing it to last a minute or two.

[stigmatisert]

Inside your body, you find "smooth muscle". These you can't control voluntary and are not able to "strech out" got loosen up the cramp...

I was told I had a "lump" in my throat, and my GP concluded that there was an "lump of anxiety" because of certain things happening the previous year.

I've now realized that a "lump of anxiety" isn't that painful, far, far to late. The problem is, at the "lump" developed. It was constant and so painful that I didn't manage being at work anylonger. By a half year later it had developed so far, I was sure I had something stuck in my throat. I was thoroughly examinated. They didn't find anything wrong. I couldn't believe it. My GP got another reason for calling it a "lump of anxiety". First - after looking up on the Internet - I began to get some answers. I found some texts just before visiting a private neurologist (cost me 200£!), told her my symptoms. Let her conduct her examination. She gave me a muscle-relaxing medication. In two days my life changed from a hell to almost normal. I could start live again.

Some tips:
* take magnesium. The muscle needs it for relaxation. When they've gone into constant cramp. It's too late...
* trust your symptoms. Don't let the GP tell you have anxiety because you have physical symptoms. Anxiety is something you feel and think. Cramp is pain. (They ought to learn the difference).
* Don't be fooled to think it's anxiety because the "lump" goes away because the Emergency (ER) gives you valium for calming you down. Valium, as well, is a muscle relaxing medication for smooth muscles.

[Doctor me]

Thank you. I was lying in bed and took a sip of water which brought on the most painful throat cramp on one side. I've had this before and it is distressing but has always subsided within a few seconds. When this one lasted longer I did a google search and found your helpful post. I was able to get relief by sitting straight up and raising my headand gently swallowing a few times. It really hurt but it resolved the problem. You're the best!!

[Anxious_gal]

I hate when I yawn too wide and my throat cramps up : ( usually I freak out a wee bit but it goes away very fast.
I'm really careful not to yawn too wide or too strong as it's happened a lot in the past and it's painful and a kind of scary.

[SOMANNA]

Hi Mandi...I also have the same problem...did you able to find the reason

---------- Post added at 11:38 ---------- Previous post was at 11:37 ----------


The first time this happened to me I was 18. I'm 30 now and it will still happen on occasion. Sometimes I'll go 2 months without it.. sometimes it will happen 2 or 3 times in a week. It's usually when I'm sitting/laying with my head in a funny position and I laugh or yawn at the same time. I get this sudden sharp pain and it hurts incredibly bad to swallow. Things just don't feel "right" in my throat. It feels almost exactly like a charlie horse in your leg, only it's in my throat/neck, always in the front and slightly to one side. I try to swallow but it hurts really bad. Sometimes if I press on it I can feel it kind of "pop" and then the pain goes away. Sometimes if force myself to swallow really hard the same "pop" will happen and the pain goes away. These events typically last from 20 seconds to (the longest being) a full 5 minutes. Most commonly though, it lasts about 1-2 minutes. I guess if it's been happening for 12 years I'm probably fine... but every once in awhile (like now) it'll scare the shit out of me. If they happen a couple times in one week (like this week) I start getting stressed about it. I start thinking (like we all do) what if it's a symptom of something huge and I've just been shrugging it off?

Anyone else ever get these? Any idea what it could be? Just a fluke? Possibly something serious?


Hi Mandi...I also have the same problem...did you able to find the reason

[m dang]

I have this similar pull inside throat fot last 10 years but onlyonce every 6 months or so.but its even more terrible.it may last for hours.if i swallow my saliva or do anything within 15 mins it revives for another 15 mins or so.and i feel its not only bcoz of uncomfortable position of neck but also bcoz of acidity..and those 30 or 60 mins are nightmare..cant speak eat or swallow..and terrible pain.what is it?

---------- Post added at 11:26 ---------- Previous post was at 09:32 ----------

I have this feeling that it happens mostly to all of us lying down,but it has something to do with acidity or air not passing properly ithrogh the throat.anyone agrees?

[Jasonn]

I have been having this Charlie horse feeling in my throat on and off for over 15 years. It starts after I eat a meal and as soon as I drink anything it starts to build into this pain. The more I swallow even saliva it would get worse. It takes hours for it to calm down and then I worry about it always coming back. No doctor can find a reason why this happens other than anxiety. Which now I do have since nobody can tell me what causes these attacks. Did anybody ever find a solution why this happens?

[michelleneckpain]

I am so glad to have found this post, I have looked for symptoms similar to this and never found exactly what I was experiencing until now.

For anyone else that is having this problem, I have worked out that mine only comes on when I am dehydrated. It might not fix everyones problem but when ever I am feeling a bout of these neck cramps coming on I hydrate as quickly as possible and I can usually avoid it.

[Georgie9]

I've had this since I was a little kid and have recently found a solution to it that solves it almost immediately every time. I used to swallow forcefully until my throat 'popped' back in place, but that was a very painful experience. Now when it happens I simply bend my head (only my head) forward as far as it goes, so my chin almost touches my throat and then I swallow. It's always gone after that, most of the time even before I swallow.

I hope I can help someone else with this, cause it made that part of my life a lot easier.

Greetings and good luck all

[Melissalp7]

Hi! I'd like to begin by stating that there is an actual medical term for this, though for the life of me I cannot remember. What is happening is that you are actually experiencing a Charley horse in one of the long muscles in your neck. I first started having these at about 20 years old, and have clocked numerous emergency room visits in which none of the doctors had answers for me, but would fill me full of muscle relaxers and pain meds until sometimes up to two days, it would finally relax. Mine would also come on whilst yawning and turning my neck. In twenty years, I have finally figured out how to make them go away within minutes and I assure you that there is nothing wrong with you, it is simply a painful Charley horse in an unusual place. To make it go away, Extend your neck against the pain as far as you can (this is really painful for a few seconds) Use your fingers to locate the knotted muscle and push it back over your esophagus. Also, if you can get a prescription for Xanax, take one at the onset and then do the technique I just told you. This will stretch out the spasm and the muscle will go back to where it is supposed to be. Let me know how this works for you, and relax in knowing that you are certainly not the only one. :)

[justwantedtosay]

This has happened to me my entire life, primarily when I yawn too big or while laying down in bed. NOTHING works for me except for popping the muscle back into place by repeating the exact same action that made it get stuck. Last night for the first time, it popped out, popped back into place, and then popped back out again and wouldn't go back into place for hours. The sensation is similar to trying to swallow a tennis ball on one side of my throat, and the pain tends to get so severe that it feels like there are knives in my brain. On a pain scale 7/10 with 10 being the worst pain I've experienced. Has anyone had any success seeing chiropractors or some kind of massage therapist for this? it's been tolerably infrequent up until now. After taking a bunch of ibuprofen and falling asleep at about 9 pm, I finally woke up at three am in relative comfort. Tonight though, it feels sore and almost like its waiting to fall back out of place. It does feel good to know I'm not alone in feeling this way!

[Nadja]

I have the same symptom on the left side of my throat for several years. But last time it last for two months. Not cramp, but pain. I did CT of throat, MR, visited several EMN doctors. Tomorrow I am going to visit neurologyst. I tried the same as all of you find helpfull drinking a water with neck above, streching head. Panic attack is horrible. I can not believe that doctors never heard for this. My conclusion is this problem is for chiropractic. I take magnesium for two months. I am.a little bit better. But it still hurts. I think last spasm damaged one of my nerve. Did anyone find solution.for this?

[raeden74]

Hello everyone, I came upon this post looking up my symptoms, Mandieslade, description is exactly how it feels and when I tell people about it, they look at me like I'm crazy, Has anyone ever found out what this is and why? I only get it occasionally and sometimes for weeks at a time or once every 6 months maybe stress related?, When I do get it, its so painfull at times I want to cry, I can't swallow and I get relief only when I can somehow get what feels like maybe my muscle or a big vain to "pop back in place. The longest I've had it last was maybe 20 minutes and at that point I was ready to go to the hospital, but we were camping and finally it "popped". Most of the time it only last a couple of minutes.

[KT123]

I have had this happen many times, can't swallow, can't speak without excruciating pain. Usually occurs when I am laying on my side and yawn. I have searched for help on the internet while massaging my throat and usually within a minute or 2 it would pop back in place. That has not worked very well but I finally found the answer that has worked every single time for me.

OPEN YOUR MOUTH AND SAY "Ahh" like the doctor tells you to.

Works instantly every time.

I actually found that answer in another forum. A girl had to go to the hospital because she was in so much pain, and when the doctor finally got to her, he told her to open her mouth and say ahh. It went away instantly. Excellent doctor :P

[Batat]

I've registered here only to say this: thank you, KT123, you've saved me a lot of pain and a visit at an emergency, it's probably the first time a piece of medical advice on the internet helped me so much, so quickly. I could literally feel it pop back in. Thank you, and I guess I should start taking magnesium.