I have to say, the ETD itself is feeling much relieved by the addition of a top-rated HEPA filter that runs continually in my bedroom. Apparently, I am allergic to mold and three local grasses, and ETD can have an underlying allergy basis. So the popping I am doing presently is by rote/habit rather than for physical relief of symptoms.

First of all, I should say that although never diagnosed with OCD, I did play OCD-like games as a child. As I grew up, this OCD tendency seemed to go mostly underground in me…instead I dealt with more garden-variety anxiety/panic disorder, some depression issues, etc.

I never knew someone could develop a “tic” as an adult. But oh yes, one certainly can.

My ear tic madness began this past January after a bad double ear infection brought on by barotrauma led to the dreaded scenario of chronic eustachian tube dysfunction. My ETD has been very slow to heal. Somewhere along the way, I realized that I could flex the tensor veli palatini muscle in the back of my neck and click open my eustachian tubes to try, often vainly, to equalize maddening feelings of pressure in the middle ear space. I could do this without anyone noticing it. Much more discrete than attempting multiple valsalvas.

Even now that my e-tubes have healed to the point where they function somewhat on their own, I still feel compelled — at the first sign of any fullness in either ear — to start clicking away. In fact, I will do a few tentative clicks and pops as soon as I awake in the morning, just to test the water. I can get into loops where I click and click, sometimes up to, I’m guessing, 30-40 times a minute. Needless to see, I end up with sore, tense areas all along my jaw and throat from the strain. I worry that I may even be harming myself by this constant clicking of muscles that aren’t supposed to be flexed hundreds of times a day.

I read an account on one of the online forums of a young man so troubled by his voluntary clicking that he was trying to find a doctor willing to inject Botox into the muscles at the back of his throat. I am not sure what happened to the guy…his postings were from about 6 years ago. Hopefully he was able to find a resolution of his tics without having to paralyze muscles in a risky fashion, although I can certainly understand the frustration he felt.

Has anyone come out of this madness? I tell myself every day that I will stop clicking, but if anything, after 9 months of ETD, my clicking is worse than ever. I get an ever-building tension if I try to resist “one last click”…and so that one last click is never the end of it. The only thing I’ve found to give me temporary respite is a low dose of generic klonapin. It does suggest that there is an anxiety element feeding into this crazy compulsion of mine. I’m exhausted by it, just exhausted.

Reading this blog and it’s comments alone has taught me a lot about the habit of my voluntary ear popping.

Everyone’s blog, along with many other sites, has touched on almost everything I needed to know except for the fact that the development of my story of my ear clicking differs from everyones. At first, a year ago, nothing was wrong as far as ear clicking, pressure, pops, etc. I dealt with ear pops regularly sometimes when I yawn, swimming in pools, and flying in planes. Nothing was wrong until…

I noticed that my ears started to tic about a year ago after my ex-doctor prescribed me a nose medicine that I inhaled. The tics (I initiated) started to become more frequent, then eventually occurred a lot only after I finished work. I assumed it was because my mind needed to be kept busy along with the stress I wanted to avoid. The voluntary tics eventually started to become from 5 times a minute to 20 times a minute depending on the task I am doing I suppose. Now, approximately a year later, I click my ears throughout my whole day sometimes in “patterns”, to feel a “balance/pairing”, or to fill the urge/compulsion; with up to 20-40 instances a day.

Something that makes me want to cry inside is that sometimes, when I have to urge to click my ears until it feels okay, I lose concentration at work or distract myself in the middle of conversations. I also at times forget things because of the need to tend to my urge/compulsion. By the way I am in banking, full time employee. I also religiously incorporate exercise, but I tend to be inconsistent (same for nutrition).

I have tried many times to stop, and force myself to stop. But even with that I involuntarily click my ears when I swallow (bigger concern) and yawn (less of concern). I had pneumonia when I was 11 (I am now 21), and several ear infections from beach/pool when I was a child. Its just that the series of events that played along in the last year that led to my so called compulsion does not add up if I blame my childhood experiences. It would make sense that some minor case of “OCD took my ear popping and played havoc with it”. However, most of my worries is the feeling that my ear being able to click won’t go away. Some blogs give me hope in saying it will go away after 6 months/eventually, and sometimes not where some individuals experience this their whole life.

And let me say that this is the first “blog” I EVER did
With this I have learned that everyone’s blog is important and deserves to be read.
Thank you!

as for uscle relaxants, do a search here on Mellowmania and Lemon Balm tea… its a muscle relaxant.

good luck

Thank you,

JJ