Dangers of stifling?

[Little_sniffle]

I'm deathly embarrassed of sneezing loudly in public, so I have a tendency to pinch my nose and stifle my sneezes. When i go into fits, this sometimes gives me a headache and congestion. Is stifling really that harmful? I let out my sneezes at home and in front of close friends, but thats it.

[Graham Cracked]

I've heard it could cause a rupture in the blood vessels of the nasal cavity, and the pressure build-up all at once could result in the same occurring in your lungs and throat...so, yeah, potentially harmful if done too often. :/

[Hygge]

I've heard that if you release the pressure into your ears you can get hearing loss.

I'm so embarrassed about sneezing openly. I used to induce as a child in the middle of the night just to practice stifling until I was able to sneeze completely silently. So now hardly anyone can even tell I'm sneezing lol. I just like hold the pressure in my throat. But if I have a fit it totally gives me a headache, and sucks when I already have a headache.

I started having this weird problem where my lymph nodes get big when my allergies act up. It's probably pretty normal, but sometimes they get sooo big that it hurts to turn my head at all, and my tonsils hurt / swell up a lot. It probably isn't related to the stifling at all, but I considered it as a possibility, because it feels like the pressure is held right in my neck and really aggravates my lymph nodes and makes them sore. The lymph nodes already being sore and enlarged from an allergy that's also making my sneeze is more likely than an allergy causing me to sneeze which aggravates lymph nodes. But I'm just saying.

I still stifle, I don't think it's dangerous unless you do it wrong like release pressure the wrong way or have huge fits all the time that make you burst an ear drum or something xP

[Little_sniffle]

Thanks for the advice! BubbleTea, I've definitely noticed that my throat gets really sore after stifling fits, so it might be related...

[Arty]

Yeah..u can cause a sinius infection in your nose which is not good.

[Hygge]

Yeah..u can cause a sinius infection in your nose which is not good.

This is something I've really wondered about. Or if they make someone more prone to sinus infections. I mean, there's no way stifling could just magically make you develop a sinus infection, it would have to be caused by some kind of bacteria, but I've wondered if stifling can make you more vulnerable to sinus infections.

But I've stifled all my life and I've only had one sinus infection that developed after I was sick a while back. It was pretty nasty and obnoxious, but sinus infections almost always clear out on their own and aren't very serious from what I've read. Though they're pesky.

I've read that even blowing your nose can make you more likely to develop a sinus infection if you're sick, and put too much pressure on your sinuses. Since they're already swollen and vulnerable, it doesn't take much for bacteria to take hold and cause a sinus infection, but sinus infections are developed. So it would't just show up on its own because of stifling when you're otherwise completely well.

My boyfriend is kind of a hypochondriac. He used to think having water in your ears after showering is the main symptom of a sinus infection lol. He's so adament about keeping his ears dry and every time we go swimming, he freaks out and starts head banging to get the water out of his ears lol. But obviously, symptoms from a sinus infection would be in your sinuses. Not your ears. That would be an ear infection haha. And he says he doesn't think he's ever had a sinus or ear infection lol, he's just worried about stuff like that for some reason, so I do a loooot of research to calm his nerves. And I just think that the immune system is really interesting.

[rhombohedron]

Ahahaha, water in the ears? That's really funny....

I broke a blood vessel in my eye somewhere in the midst of a hands-free stifled fit of five at work. After wandering around looking like the next coming of Sauron for a week or so, I don't stifle as often, or as successfully anymore.

[Hygge]

Ahahaha, water in the ears? That's really funny....

I broke a blood vessel in my eye somewhere in the midst of a hands-free stifled fit of five at work. After wandering around looking like the next coming of Sauron for a week or so, I don't stifle as often, or as successfully anymore.

Whoa that sounds freaky! Kind of scares me haha. I'm trying to work on stifling less. But mostly because I want to be more comfortable about sneezing in public and saying bless you out loud, stuff like that lol. Your experience with stifling gives me that much more motivation tho

[Arty]

The part about ur bf head banging had me rolling on the floor laughing! XD

[Kuchafya613]

I think it depends on how you sneeze when you don't stifle. Some people have really soft, quiet sneezes, so a stifle probably wouldn't hurt too much. However, if you have a gigantic, earth-shattering sneeze, stifling could be harmful.