Potential neck problem from ticking..

[robolink]

I have always had a problem cracking my neck now and then from the stiffness, that along with stress making my shoulders and neck muscles so tense it was almost impossible not to do now and then.

I was diagnosed with mild turrets at a young age and im sure I have it but the last few years I have always figured my obsessive nature of pulling my shoulder/neck muscle and occasional neck cracking were ticks because I could not NOT do it.

Within the last month I got off my sleeping medication and have been trying to sleep like a normal human being. The problem is that now towards night time my body is SO tired and tense that that urge to pop something is always there but doesn't go away even if it pops. This ONLY happens at night, not during the day when im working or anything else, just in my room when its getting late.

The last week its been picking up dramatically and I have been paranoid of practically killing myself on accedent from it, today I was sitting weird and I tried to roll my neck and ended up destroying the muscle or muscles under my neck. They are in pain if i move my neck down or to far left or right. This has happened occasionally in my past but they are all years apart.

Before the muscles went out today I was noticing A TON of noise just relaxingly rolling my neck in a circle, basically it sounded not only like bones rubbing against each other but they grinded like 7 times.

I am afraid if I keep this up and don't figure out why im so tense and find a solution soon It might be too late.

I don't usually other than the pulled muscles today have any back pain other than when I stand up straight for a few hours because of my flat feet and bad posture so I always blow it off.

Is there any serious problems other than higher risk of stroke to messing with your neck to much?
Also is there any serious problems other than pulled muscles now and then if you over stretch your neck/back muscle. Its not like im lifting stuff with my back, im just tensing my neck muscles and rolling my neck at night.

[robolink]

Thanks for the response, I am going to do my best to restrain myself from cracking my neck as much as possible. As far as the muscle relaxers go it might actually help my Turrets if thats what this is and not just tense muscles in general, I figure the only reason I tug on the muscles is the fact that I feel them being tense. Just like an itch, if you dont feel the itch you dont have the urge to scratch it.

Thanks.

[yankeerose1970]

When I was going to physical therapy for my neck the therapist told me one of the worse things you can do for you neck is crack it.  I always felt like I HAD to crack it a lot too.  But after restraining from doing it, that urge left about in about a month.  I still feel on occasion that I need to do it but I stop myself.  The grinding you hear is pretty typical but if when you turn your head and the grinding starts to hurt, you might want to see the doc to be sure there is no arthritis or bone spurs in there.  As for the muscles, you might want to see if the doc can prescribe muscle relaxers however I am not sure if this will bother your Turrets or not.