Sudden jerks/spasms in shoulders and neck.

Hi.

Quite often I get involountary snapping jerks around my neck and shoulders area, they are quite severe, they all seem to be separate, but can happen at the same time.

One is in my neck, It will jerk to the side at a 60 degree angle, usually to the left, but occasionally to the right as well. sometimes it will be such a violent and sudden jerk to the side that my neck will crack (in the way peoples knuckles do) it doesnt hurt.

Another is in my shoulders, they will spasm and bunch together either backwards or upwards. again, its completely painless.

Sometimes both will snap at once. and my upper body will jerk to the side.

I dont know what triggers them, they happen when im alone or when i am in a social place (which is becoming uncomfortable now)

it only lasts for a split second. but I am starting to get concerned now, as it worries/confuses people around me.

Im 16 years old, soon to be 17. its been happening for about 6 months now.

I thought it was stress as i had my GCSES (general qualification exams) coming up, but they are now over and out of the way and I havent noticed any decline in frequency of these twitches.

On average i get about 20 or so a day. I dont get days without them anymore, (i used to)

I did a little research myself and it pointed towards nervous tics, or motor tics. But i dont want to self diagnose, i know thats a bad idea haha. but I did go through a patch of bullying, well you might call it bullying, some girls picked on me a lot, about two years ago and it has affected my temper.


has anyone else had this problem? what could it be?

I also have something wrong w my neck. I would call it episodes of shakes, only when i feel uncomfortable or sometimes worsen when i turn my head to one side or the other. Its extremely embarrassing and sometimes i get such the headache trying to control

It could be tourettes. I have this disorder myself and moving my neck and head about violently is one of my tics. You say you have had it for 6 months. I would wait another 6 months months to see if you still have it before going to the doctors. What do you feel like if you try to stop yourself from doing it?

Stress makes tourettes worse so relax as much as possible. Maybe you already had tourettes but very mildly and the stress of exams has pushed it onto another level if you understand me.

If your worried then go to the doc but they wont do anything till you have had it for a year. Typicaly though tourettes usualy starts around the age of 6 or 7.

Well I cant really tell you how I feel if i try and stop myself from doing it because it lasts for a split second, like a blink, I cant tell if it is about to happen and it is over in a split second so there is no time to try and stop it really

i have the same problem except it is in my neck.

it all happened after the death of my trapoline! (i put a chair on it and jumped...it broke ) i was in my mates car going to his house and all of a sudden my neck/ lower head area spased out. my frend through i was having a fit after eatting to much bacon in the morning . it only happens about once a day, but it is getting annoying.

i think it may be cos i used to wrestle and get rid of stress on my trapoline. now i havent got one and i am having spasms.

huuuummm this could be the prefect excuse to get a new one .

I starting getting violent neck jerks too. My neck jerks to the left and back to center violently fast. Sometimes it scares the shit out of me. Sometimes its just a jerk and I carry on. My neck started jerking from once a day to now 40-50 times a day. I dont know what it is. I have PTSD from the war and beleive my brain is fried from a anti-malarial the army gave us. But the VA wont acknowledge even the manufacturers warnings. Roche the manufacturer even admitted to potential vestibular damage. Anyways, my neck jerks I beleive are atributed to brain damage in my brain stem. The part that controls my sense of balance. I get panic attacks frequently. ANysways yeah me too. Any ideas. BTW the antimalarial I took was Lariam.

I'm getting them too, but are not sure if its normal as it only happens when i'm try to throw my hair back during class. At first i thought it was random muscle spasm, but it happens although not very often.

It happens in less then a blink of a second, doesn't hurt and my neck jecks to the right only.

I get these things aswell, I've had them since I can remember but they have gotten more frequent in recent years. Its like a completely unprovoked spasm. My neck will just snap to about 70 degrees and back In a split second. Normally cracking. I hate it aswell, its embarassing. People don't seem to notice but I do. Its also normally accompanied by a seratonin shiver down my spine. Not sure how to explain that any better, But anyway I found this one link which may be useful.
Also I have seratonin/dopamine imbalance if that helps anyone to relate.

I've recently started getting those too. i'm a sophomore at my high school and have never felt these neck "jerks" and spasms before, until one day, while i was sitting at the front of my class for about a month into my year, when my neck jerked a second-fast jerk. I've always felt uncomfortable sitting at the front of the class but my neck never jerked before. Now it does. I changed seats a week ago and am sitting a bit behind the seat i was before, but I still experience this problem. I try to cope with it by fidgeting in my seat or trying to relax, but it still happens. the best way I've found so far is to focus entirely on what my teacher is saying so that i wouldnt' care about my neck jerks, and it helps cause it gets your mind off yourself. These spasms might be because one feels too tense..that's my conclusion. I also try to relax in a position that I always do at home.

Hello, I was searching the internet for a reason behind my random neck spasms and this was the ONLY site which described my condition.

I am 23 and have been getting a twitch similiar to what was described in this thread ever since a level two concussion from landing on my head in a football game at the age of 18.

Maybe once a day now (used to be once a month) I get a spasm where my head will violently throw itself to the left about 70 degrees and then violently throw itself back to facing normally. Sometimes my neck cracks and it scares the shit out of me. I honestly feel like in that split second I'm going to break my own neck. Very rarely I will spasm to the right, but usually this occurs within a minute of spasming to the left, almost like my neck is correcting itself.

Sometimes I will get a shiver down my spine after this occurs, although the more violent the spasm the less chance there is of a shiver.