To find finger cracking horrible?

[HangingOver]

Person next to me on the train has just sat down and cracked every finger loudly with like an extra fist crunch flourish on each hand to finish. I can't explain why but it makes me feel odd!

Why do people do this? Does it feel horrible or painful if you don't do it?

Does it feel horrible or painful if you don't do it?

Yep! I try not to do it right next to people because I know people don't like the sound, but yeah I get ache and stiffness building up, and eventually pain, if I don't do it.

It can be an autistic stim. I don't like it either but I'm not sure people can help it.

If I don't crack my knuckles my fingers ache & hurt. I'd prefer not to do it because I know people find it minging but it's not something I can help.

You'd hate me OP: I also crack my neck! Not generally in public though!

You'd hate me OP: I also crack my neck! Not generally in public though!

Good lord 😂 Does it hurt or it's it satisfying??

Also is it one of those things that isn't horrible if it's you? As in, if you're a finger cracker yourself, do other finger crackers bother you?

My daughter does it. The noise really gives me the creeps. She must get satisfaction out of doing it otherwise she wouldn’t.

I crack mine because my fingers feel stiff if I don’t…I do it discreetly though!

I do this and I crack my toes, my husband hates it! He says it makes him feel sick. With my toes I feel a compulsion to do it and can't settle until they are cracked, they feel clicky if I don't. My fingers don't feel as bad, I do them once or twice a day.

It doesn’t hurt at all. The noise isn’t made by the actual bones; it’s just a popping sound caused by the synovial fluid when you expand the space in the finger joint. That’s why you can’t crack the knuckle again immediately.

The impulse to do it is a bit like the impulse to stretch. If my hands feel a bit stiff or tight, cracking my knuckles eases that, a bit like wanting to stretch your arms and legs out after sitting in cramped or uncomfortable space. I crack my neck as well.

For some people it’s also a habit that they just tend to do, like a sensory thing. Similar to nail-biting or fiddling with your hair or tapping your foot.

I crack my knuckles and it doesn’t bother me when other people do it. It’s not like farting where your own farts don’t bother you but everyone else’s are vile 🤣

I need to crack my neck, right now but it won't go.

I also need to crack my knees and ankles, at times.

Just cracked a shoulder. Neck still needs cracking.

It genuinely is uncomfortable if I don't.

I'm a knuckle cracker. Sorry OP. Reading this has just made me crack my knuckles.

I can't remember a time that I haven't done it.

I don't feel any way about it. It's not particularly satisfying and it doesn't hurt.

I'm not sure if it's just a habit or I need to do it, but I just do it.

I crack all the different bits of each finger and thumb, my toes, hips, neck and back. Uncomfortable if I don't but I have joint problems (not caused by cracking!). Think fingers might also be a sort of comfort thing too!

And I don't mind the sound of other people cracking joints at all!

My DS puts his hands together so each hand has a finger in between and cracks them or bends them back and they go very far back. The little finger makes me sick but sometimes I am super jealous of the massive crunch but mainly makes me feel a bit bleugh 🤣

My DD does it, it drives me spare. I was always telling her it would affect her joints, cause arthritis etc but she looked it up & apparently that's not true.

Godawful sound tho.

I hate it too, I can't bear the sound.

God I'm the crunchiest person ever, I crack my knuckles, wrists, neck, spine, hips, ankles... It feels goooooood. I don't think I'd just do it on a train though like I was spoiling for a brawl, I save my best crunches for at home.

It relieves pressure and tension. The only movable joint that doesn't crack on me as a rule is my jaw. Fingers, wrists, elbows, knees, neck (I can stop many looming headaches with a clunk), thoracic spine, pelvis/SI joints, ankles, toes, top of foot, shoulders - if there's a joint, it's been cracked, some deliberately, some will just do it randomly for no apparent reason.

There's not just the decompression, there's also the twanging of tendons over large joints - that really frees things up (my hips can pop in three different places at once, for example).

The relief from pain and stiffness is so great that somebody else's emotional reaction isn't going to make any difference, I'm going to do it for the ones I have some control over and the rest i don't even have a choice over.

Ugh my stepdad does it all the time. He tried to crack my knuckles a few times when I was a kid and it hurt to buggery. Actually made me cry one time (he didn't do it again after that to be fair) he just genuinely couldn't believe it actually hurt me till then.

In fact it's kind of weird to think that it actually relieves pain for other people when it REALLY hurts me. Guess it shows we're all different.

I do all of them one by one. The feeling when I need to crack them is like every joint has a tiny balloon inside it that's been gradually filling up with custard-soaked cotton wool over the course of the day until they're straining at the seams, and I need to go "POP!" in each joint to make it feel normal again.

And the worst worst worst thing is popping some of them but not being able to pop all of them — I'm all imbalanced, like I've got one extra-long, extra-stiff leg. Maybe someone's already mentioned him while I've been typing, but I remember reading about a guy, a doctor maybe, who cracked the knuckles on only one hand for several decades of his life, to see if it really did cause arthritis like people said (it didn't, apparently). I don't know how he could tolerate it. It's worse than not cracking at all 😰

But other people cracking their knuckles is pretty irritating to me