jef9up's Journal
Stress.Nov 10 2009 15:41
Entry #2 today - because I am dying of boredom at work. UGH. Longest day ever.
So I've been super stressed about the whole work situation with my manager quitting. I'm feeling better now because I know who is taking his place and I think he'll do a good job. AND that means I don't have the stress of the promotion myself (I wasn't ready for it).
But all this stress has manifested itself into my JAW. I literally have been struggling this week to just CLOSE my teeth together. Everything I read online about TMJ and all the jaw issues are usually with OPENING your mouth - but I haven't been able to clamp the left side of my teeth together. Its a tad better but the tension is still there. What a silly thing to have stress do. It makes chewing rather difficult. I'm not sure if its just a knot in the muscles, a misalignment or something residual from night time clenching/grinding.
I want home. I think I'm going early.
I have TMJ, or used to a long time ago and was scared into behaving myself with threats of surgery and/or a brace. My jaw would click and click and click whenever I opened/ shut my mouth, and then it started seizing up, sometimes closed and sometimes open, usually somewhere in between. I remember one particularly awesome time that it seized up when I was eating an apple. I had to scoop the half-chewed apple out of my mouth with my fingers through the one inch opening where it seized. Ow my jaw hurts just thinking about it. I have not eaten an apple whole since. I always slice my food, never take big bites, trained myself to only chew/ move my jaw up and down NEVER slide it sideways, never open my mouth really wide for anything including the dentist (they are really good about working around that). If you are a night clencher, you probably need a brace thingie to stop, since you are asleep you can't train yourself to not do that! Anyway I haven't had any problems since except the occasional achiness, usually from overusing my jaw. I still occasionally do the excercises which is really just practicing moving jaw straight. Hope something here is helpful! |
I dislocated my jaw once when I was dong extacy. In a panic, I relocated myself. It hasn't worked great since, and that was 10 years ago. Now, so much of my tension winds up residing there. And like victoriagirl, I take small bites, chew gently and cannot bite into a whole apple. Yawning is pure hell. The bottom line is work stress sucks. I'm looking at a layoff this week or next. I'm happy to hear you didn't get your promotion? I think? Don't forget to breathe. Deeply! Relax! Chewing is overrated. Run everything through the blender first! |
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