May 23, 2007

My screaming problem.

I don't know what it is, but I have this problem -- it started a year ago or so -- of sounding like I'm screaming when I sneeze. It's just absurd to suddenly and seemingly for no reason let out a blood-curdling shriek. It's not the only annoying thing I do, but it's the only one I'm going to tell you about in this post.

23 comments:

Methadras said...

Sorry. I'm just laughing over here. hehe.

J. Cricket said...

Aw darn. I thought you were going to talk about your screaming problem on bloggingheads!

Bissage said...

1. I'm not going to type anything dirty, except what I just typed.

2. I'm a long-time allergy sufferer, and an expert on sneezing, and here's my free advice: When you feel a sneeze coming on, just before you blast, exhale vigorously through your mouth as if blowing up a balloon. Everything will be smooth and groovy.

3. You're welcome.

4. Now, maybe somebody can tell me how not to read Althouse and every now and then let loose with that explosive Ha! (for which I have become justly infamous) that is powerful enough to frighten horses and worry sensitive persons for miles around.

5. Still, it's better than sneezing.

6. There is no number six.

7. Anyone ever get those "electric shock" sneezes? No fun, no way, no how.

8. There is no number eight.

MadisonMan said...

I've been trying to keep my eyes open when I sneeze. I can't.

I'm Full of Soup said...

You have an obvious need to atttract attention to yourself. Your blog and now this outrageous sneezing is proof. Get help!

Jennifer said...

Well this made me laugh out loud. Not a shrieky laugh, though.

I have the opposite problem where I try to hold my whole sneeze in my head - like the golf clap equivalent of a sneeze. Quieter, just as annoying.

Joe said...

My wife does that. It drives me nuts.

Ann Althouse said...

"You have an obvious need to atttract attention to yourself. Your blog and now this outrageous sneezing is proof. Get help!"

LOL. I was alone when it happened this time. I really can't help it. As for my blog, I'm thinking of starting a new blog and calling it "Outrageous Sneezing."

Galvanized said...

My daughter started doing this a couple of years ago. She used to sneeze in a whisper, without her vocal cords involved, and now swears that she cannot do it anymore. Strange...

I noticed that, for the first time the other day, while eating a slush, I got a brainfreeze up on my forehead for the first time ever. I have always been a strange one with brainfreezes in the base of my skull, at the back of my neck. To date, I have never met anyone else who has them there. But rest assured -- I had another slush and the BF returned to its rightful place. LOL

So maybe you will "devocalize" again someday. LOL!

Drew W said...

My dad has a sneeze similar to the one Prof Althouse describes. It seems to rally his sinus cavities, lungs and vocal chords into one thunderous, furniture-rattling blast. It scared us when we were little, and still does (a bit) today.

When my daughter was a baby, she seemed to sneeze only in pairs. One sneeze was inevitably followed by a secondary sneeze.

When my cat doesn't seize the opportunity to sneeze on you, she simply wags her head so fast that the contents of her nose end up on your arm anyway.

Buried somewhere in "The Last Whole Earth Catalog" was an old strobe photo -- probably taken by "Doc" Edgerton himself, by the looks of it -- of a man sneezing. The cloud of mucus expelled from the man's nose was frozen in space inches from his head. The photo was captioned: God creating the universe. (Photo: Mrs. God).

Bob said...

A person with a really good ear and a talent at music production could record sneezes from members of the public and splice them together to form tunes, even symphonies, and it would be one of those 9-day wonders that makes the guy/gal an instant millionaire. Probably choosing some sort of cheesy Christmas song would be the best choice.

Galvanized said...

Well, maybe the voice now is an attempt to keep open the throat and lungs somehow. I just practiced and think that's it. Bahahaa! Really, though, maybe you always just sneezed with your head/nose to expel and just decided to involve the whole respiratory tract and body. Just a thought. These little idiosyncrasies always intrigue me.

(Sorry if that paid additional attention, aj. But I would say that with a personal blog 9 million-read and counting, other people must also find these little things interesting.)

Palladian said...

I think you did this in a podcast one time and it scared the hell out of me...

Palladian said...

Ah, it wasn't a sneeze but a cough. I'd hate to think that the sneeze is even more terrifying.

Hoosier Daddy said...

My grandmother, God rest her soul, was notorious for doing this. I mean she'd make the windows rattle. She'd let one go and my grandfather would just look at me and shake his head.

It was funny until she did it in public and then you hid.

William the Coroner said...

Reminds me of the woman who consulted a friend of mine because she would orgasm every time she sneezed. When asked "Are you taking anything for this?" she replied, "Ground pepper."

Badump-dump. I'm here all week. Be sure to tip your waitress.

Fred said...

Oh God, my friend does that *all* the time.. I've learned to stay away from her during allergy season. :)

Chip Ahoy said...

I don't understand scream sounds at all, couldn't make one if my life depended on it, even on a roller-coaster.

Dad Bones said...

Could it be a martial arts "kiai", cleverly disguised as a sneeze to throw your opponents off balance?

LoafingOaf said...

When I'm all by myself I let it rip and have extremely loud sneezes. Feels good. But I'm able to control that around others.

Worse are the people who hold their nostrils and fight their sneezes, nearly making their heads explode.

mrs whatsit said...

A woman in my college dorm had a scream/sneeze like that. If she sneezed at night, it would wake up the whole floor. She hated it and seemed to be quite genuinely unable to control it. In spite of her obvious chagrin and quick apologies, our psychology professor threw her out of class one day because she scared him by sneezing. You might have thought a psychologist would have had a bit more insight, but no.

Unknown said...

I have a very loud kind of bark when I sneeze because I have a hole in one eardrum and it's friggin' painful to suppress one.

KCFleming said...

Just don't suppress the sneeze, otherwise this happens, and then you'll really scream.

Pneumocephalus is a relatively uncommon but well-recognized condition caused by trauma, with its incidence estimated to be 0.5% to 1.0% of all head injuries.... Most likely, the intermittent high airway pressure within the sinus by repeated sneezing or nose blowing sent the air into the cerebral parenchyma by the "ball valve" mechanism.