Nice find. Thank you!
Although, after reading, this seems like a chronic condition. When it happens to me, sometimes it’s been years before it happens again, and it only last for seconds. Rather than Occipital Neuralgia, we’re just Spronging the Occipital Nerve, albeit due to stress, tight muscles, or tweaking our head in just the right (or wrong for that matter) position.
Nonetheless, Ignorance Fought! Thankee.
Whenever I got one, I referred to it as a “neck burner”. Ooh, those were painful, and I could never predict when one would hit.
This is just how I’ve always thought of the ones I get., all warm and liquid-y. Not so much with the neck-snapping, though…
See a Chiropractor. Trust me on this.
Thanks. I get this about once a year, and have always wondered exactly what it was called.
Nah it’s because you turn too fast because of reflex action… You turn before the brain sends a ‘signal’ down the nerves to your neck telling it to turn. BECAUSE the signal hasn’t reached yet, the nerve will kind of ‘snap’ or ‘burn’ as you say.
Heres a test. If you try to turn your neck as fast as you can, in order to get that ‘snap’ again, it won’t happen because your aware of it. So next time that happens, once your okay, look back at the situation. I guarantee that it will be because of reflex related actions like a loud noise or someone falling or something that caused you to turn your head without thinking. Hope I helped yo cuz my dads a brain surgeon
My dad used to get these every so often. He wouldn’t be able to move his head for days. You’d ask him a question, and he’d have to turn his entire upper body. I think this phenomenon started before I was born. He was active duty AF, and he’d go on sick call and get shots in his back and time off to come home and be miserable. AF docs diagnosed it as “military neck.”
Now, I’ve never been in the service, but DAYAM if I don’t get it also. I call it “computer neck.” And I figure it’s just something that is a product of genetics and holding your head in a certain position for long periods of time. Then you turn your head, and SPRONG!!
“Neck Sprong” is a MUCH better description than “military neck” or “computer neck”!
~VOW
“Twang” is in fact the correct medical term, as well as the sound of c&w music.
In my family, it was known as a “kink” in the neck.
At last! A name for my painfully debilitating* spasms - Neck Sprong !!
*neck sprongs were not painfully debilitating, just wincingly sharp pains in the neck on rotation; have not occured in years but could sprong up at any moment without warning
Have had this exact thing to the extreme on both sides of my neck practically all my life. It can occur and seems to right out of bed in the morning lately, but can happen when I simply turn my head to the right (mostly) rarely to the left but it has as well. The pain jerks my whole head abruptly and quite noticeably. It is a debilitating pain, that is like fire, and paralyzes me during the process for a few seconds or more. Some people have seen it happen and even said to me, what happened. I would have to hold the side of my neck in extreme pain. It occurs sort of to the rear of my ear and sometimes I can swear I blackout for a split second. When it does happen, it will be easy for it to repeat over and over again unless I turn my head very slowly, and even then I can feel it wanting to do it again so I stop. I’ve noticed that when my head is held up straight or turned slightly upward, it tends to make this happen. when I drop my head and turn, it seems not to do it. After this snap occurs, my neck then is left with this firey hot painful feeling for quite some time and then a stiff neck follows. Right now, I am going through a severe stiff neck from an incident that occured 2 days ago. I remember getting this when I was a youngster, while playing ball, swimming (the worst time for it to happen) and it has been with me my entire life. I’m 57
Medical advice is best suited to IMHO.
Note that this thread was started in 2007.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
I’ve had the same thing happen to me about once a year since I was a little kid. It happens when I turn my head fast and it feels like a rush of hot lava through my neck. It is very painful but only lasts a few seconds. I never knew what it was but it’s good to know other people have the same problem. I thought u was the only one.
-George
Chronic occipital neuralgia attacks at random times for no specific reason, although cold drafts aggravate it and sometimes trigger it. It feels to me more like an ice-cold chromium steel chisel being hammered in back of my head. It comes in waves every few minutes or so. If it gets out of control it can be seriously debilitating. I’ve learned to manage it by using pressure points to relax my scalp and wrapping my head and neck warmly in a pashmina shawl. So it doesn’t get me as bad as it used to.
I’m curious as to whether there’s a story behind this extremely specific description. :eek:
Just what I said. What it feels like: sharp, cold, merciless.
In which case it is called by doctors, with all sorts of patients, “wry neck”.
Wry neck is caused by the spinal accessory nerve, and so spasm (being held tight…) of the trapezius muscle.
The burning feeling up the skull is not involving wry neck… must be the different nerve.
I mean that the pain is so overwhelming that the sensation spills over into synesthesia (I don’t usually get synesthesia). Along with the feeling of cold, sharp pain attacking me at high velocity is a sense of brightness flashing in darkness, a high metallic luster, which explains the reference to chrome and steel. Not a visual hallucination, just a sense that if it were visible, it would look like that.
Occipital neuralgia, eh? It’s got to be a good thirty-five years since I last experienced it, but boy, I remember it well.
Frustratingly, it virtually never happened to me when there was anybody around, so I never had occasion to explain what it felt like to somebody. This left me thinking (when I thought of it at all, which was usually during an event) that I was the only person this ever happened to.
How fortuitous to have run into this zombie thread!