to ask someone to stop clicking their joints

[hairyunicorn]

The guy i sit next to at work keeps clicking his joints. Fingers, knuckles, knees everything. He dose it about every 5 minutes and it is driving me insane.

when he dose his knees he pushes back from his desk and kicks his legs out one at a time. The sound goes right through me and is very loud. is there any polite way to ask him to bloody stop. i know there isn't, so i am just posting so i don't kill him today

If it's every 5 minutes I'd be inclined to think it's a tic.

I absolutely hate knuckle clicking. It's rude, who wants to hear your body parts make noise? I don't want to hear your anus make noise, I don't want to hear your joints make noise.

I have two children with tics and they also drive me slightly potty. But I'd be wondering whether this was a tic.
doing it so regularly is quite unusual, I'd say. I'm

I have a knee joint that clicks loudly. It's extremely painful. I can't generally go more than about 15 minutes without needing to click it if I'm in a sitting position. I've even woken myself up in the night because of it though it's generally not as bad when I'm lying down.
I'm sure I probably annoy my colleagues too but I'd be in too much pain to do any work if I didn't.

No, it isn't. I was doing it intentionally from around 4 years old and telling people that it hurt if I didn't do it. Because it did.

The only time I don't click at all is when the joints/etc are so swollen that they're completely locked up - the first sign of steroids taking effect is when they begin to free off. With loud clicks.

DD1 does this. I do suspect that she is hyper mobile as she's very flexible and double jointed.

Nevertheless, it makes me want to commit murder! I can't sit next to her whilst watching a film because the clicking and clonking drives me insane!

I can't imagine what it must be like to sit next to her in class. She probably doesn't do it at school though.

My poor DD is hyper mobile and needs to do this all the time to relieve pain in her joints, but I will agree it’s not great to hear or watch. Perhaps he has similar issues?

<Wonders if I have accidentally name changed>

Having read more comments, it is likely he does it to relieve discomfort and I shall grit teeth more. still bloody annoying noise though that gives me a sensory meltdown

My DD has Tourettes and some of her tic noises have been hard to cope with. Cracking joints would make me feel physically sick though as I have misophonia, it's not a sound I could 'breathe through' and cope with. In a work setting I'd need to move offices.

Oh that's interesting my DD also has Tourette's and she cracks her fingers .. I didn't thing about it being the TS!

I don't think it could be a tourettes tic, they tend to be something that just 'happens' whereas a stress-reducing movement, like joint cracking, isn't a tic. This is according to my reading around tourettes compared to movements linked to ASD.

I also have misophonia and have had to grit my teeth through so many tics.

The current one my second DS has is mouth noises, sucking his lips, (he just did it then!) and all other mouth noises I haaaaate it.
but of course can't say anything because I'm not a horrible bastard. But MAN ALIVE it's difficult

IT IS SO DISGUSTING AND I HATE PEOPLE WHO DO THIS. IN FACT, THE SOUND MAKES ME WANT TO VOMIT. LAST WEEK, I HAD TO CHANGE TRAIN CARRIAGES BECAUSE A WOMAN WAS DOING THIS.

But now I feel a bit bad, knowing people HAVE to click because their joints hurt otherwise. I had no idea. I just thought you were foul fuckers. I promise to be more patient. But I do feel for you OP. Wear sound muffling headphones, if you can.

And joint clickers, what about compromising and (at least sometimes) going to the loo to click? Unless it is something that just comes upon you and HAS to be remedied immediately, a bit like onset of a migraine? It’s like listening to nails on a board. Genuinely makes me feel sick. Your discomfort becomes my discomfort.

@Elbieo thank you for apologising and admitting you've learned something from this thread.

But speaking on behalf of my DS, asking people for whom clicking is a medical issue to go and do it elsewhere is to add to the pain they are in and to increase how frequently they will need to click. So it isn't a solution. Headphones are the way to go if the sound is distressing to you.

Urgh, I wonder if you’re sat next to my husband. He couldn’t sleep the other night so spent the time clicking his fingers and driving me to seething rage. It’s defo not pain or condition for him just a (super annoying) habit.

It's a got-to-do-it in the next twenty seconds most of the time. If I got up to go to the ladies, not only would I be in there for most of the day, you'd still get the clunking of my hips as I move my legs, my ankles as they flex so I can walk, the sound of my back or neck as I move - and you'll probably have to open the office door for me, as when my hands/wrists/elbows/shoulder (that one gives me a pain in the chest like I've been thumped when it goes back into place) need putting back, that handle and the weight of the bastarding thing means I'm stuck.

Or, if I don't move and clunk my hip, give it twenty minutes and I'll most likely fall over getting out of my seat - better than if my neck needs to go - if that doesn't get clicked straight away, I'm going to be poleaxed by a migraine or it'll catch a nerve in my neck and I'm hitting the ground in front of you.

It really, really isn't shits and giggles to have to be constantly adjusting your fucked structure.

I have to click my right thumb joint which can be annoying to some but my thumb locks and is painful if I don't.

I used to click my right knee out of its socket as a 7 year old because it was revolting and I thought it was funny at that age. Glad to say I grew out of that one!

Fellow clickers, do you find the weather affects it? Mine have been exceptionally painful today. Also get worse round my period, which is obviously not OPs colleague‘s issue.

What is the clicking sound? Someone mentioned gas uptrend but is there actually gas in joints?!

My left jaw clicks all the time, and I have to click my toes at least 3/4 times a day. My neck also clicks and my knees sometimes too. I am curious what vases it in the first place.

My DD also clicked in the womb! Midwives looked at me like I was crazy but at least once a day she would move and I would hear a loud clicking sound from my bump! She is now a dancer and very flexible.

Òne of my babies clicked in the womb, you just reminded me! She clicked until a few weeks after birth.

I have painful clicky knees at the moment but don't do them on purpose. I do feel the need to do fingers and toes deliberately to stop them feeling uncomfortable.

I click my joints and I can't help it. Like everyone else says, it hurts if I leave them - to the point that it wakes me up multiple times a night and I have to crack them before I can get back to sleep.

It's not always intentional either, my toes and ankles click when I'm walking when I wriggle them about.

Mine is likely linked to autism.

My boss throws a ball of paper at me every time I crack my knuckles or back/neck.
I throw one at him every time he whistles.

We now have a blanket office ban on both things but sometimes we forget and get papered.

Tbf, sometimes it hurts if I don't crack so I leave the room to do so.

Just tell him really frankly that you hate it and you'll have to throw either him or you out of the nearest window if he continues.

My sons girlfriend does this. She works through both hand, finger by finger probably every 30 mins. I’ve asked her if it hurts. No, it’s just a habit. Makes me feel sick to be honest. We were in the cinema once and she did it, bloke in front was not impressed. I’m assuming she will stop it one day.

Mine are entirely involuntary - sometimes I move and a joint just cracks.
i havent got a choice about it.

I've got misophonia AND arthritis. You can imagine how conflicted I feel!

I misread the title and thought it read how to stop someone licking their joints, that led to some interesting images - no advice - but I do feel for you!