What causes Clicking or Popping in Throat when Swallowing?

Mine happened over 3 months ago when I was eating fast and I tried swallowing a large portion of food and when I swallowed it didn’t all do down in one swallow I had to double swallow but could still feel the food hanging in my throat (during the double swallow) and I was able to still breath during this. Right after that I felt like something was still in my throat so I tried to gargle and cough and I even tried to force myself to throw up a little but then I didn’t want to make things worse. So I saw an ent the next day they did a scope said it was fine. Then two days after I had thick phlegm develop in my throat causing my to throat clear constantly and swallow. The next day was when the clicking started. It was more of a double click in my throat like two cartilages rubbing everytime I throat clear and swallow saliva . (Now it’s mostly one click) It doesn’t click when I drink fluids or eat food. I’ve seen 2 ents one said it was silent reflux and was put on omeprazole for almost a month. That didn’t help. So I stopped the meds and the gastro said to do endoscopy. That was normal. Pulmonologist said my lungs sound fine because I was so scared everytime I ate or drink it goes down wrong. It’s affected my eating the first month. I lost weight. Sometimes I noticed I can get away from the clicking if I turn my head a certain way up and to the right. But sometimes it got so bad that the clicking happens no matter how I position my head. I can’t get away from it. Very frustrating. I also feel tightness around my throat. To where it’s sensitive if I wear a shirt too high and it touches my neck it bothers me and makes the tightness sensation worse. or a necklace turns on my next I feel the tightness more. Same for if a doctor touches it I feel the tightness worse. But one ent said I didn’t have to worry about my throat closing on me. Even though my anxiety told me otherwise. Stress makes it worse. I stopped going to doctors because some just say it’s a weird thing that happened and just give it time to go away. But how much longer will it take to go away on its own? Sometimes I feel like maybe it’s something so simple as getting a chiropractic adjustment of my neck to make it go back in place. But then the other part of me says not to because if I can’t have anything touch my throat without tension I don’t want to chance twisting my neck and possible making things worse. Maybe I should try physical therapy to strengthen my neck and something will gently go back into place again. But overall the feeling is that something is “ dislocated” in my throat. It’s also affected my breathing feels like my throat is smaller and also the constant throat clearing everytime I inhale doesn’t heal the throat any quicker either. Can you imagine all this that I am going through was from eating too big of portion too fast. I wasn’t even chocking ( thank God) I feel so embarrassed and so stupid and that all of this could have been avoided. because I caused all of this. I feel if I just took my time and had a second to eat normally ( I have 3 very young kids so i was trying to feed everyone while I was trying to eat myself). I feel like this is so unnecessary and should have never happened in the first place. I am patiently waiting for this to go away on its own. I have a physical next week. Hopping he can guide me in another direction as to what it is and what I should do next. Sorry for the long rant. But nobody believes me and thinks it’s anxiety. But it specifically happened right during when I was eating. So I know something happened but it’s not being picked up on testing. Very frustrating. Thanks for listening. Praying for hope. and for everyone who has similar situation I am praying for us to find a solution or for it to just need some time to get back to normal.

Hi its good to see a thread of folks with similar symptoms. The closure and solidarity is needed and is refreshing. Though it must be said that a thread and fixating on these symptoms may also make the situation worse. As others have said this is a very rare and isolating pattern of anatomical disorder. Where the symptoms and worries seem to make a never ending self feeding loop. This seems to be or can be related to globus sensation.

There is definitely a real physical component to all this, I hear and feel a real clicking and can produce and move what seems like loose mangled tissues, ligaments, or cartlidge by pressing the left side of my neck. Right side also but it seems to have more physical integrity. But again one physician told me thats normal, some people have different neck composition thatn produces that. I must also say that psychogenic conditions do produce real crippling results. This is not to discount or invalidate all our suffering and pain, which is real and physical. But again, it seems it could be produced and strengthened through mental health or traumatic physical and emotional events, as mentioned above. I got these symptoms after stretching my neck and taking deep yawns. I felt a sudden scary spasm, a tear of tissue, and kept being fixated on it. Which is impossible for some of us to not do. I went to different doctors and got lots of tests, even an MRI. They found nothing. And the spasms happened a couple of times. But an interesting side note is I knew a friend that got these same symptoms after a yawning/overextension spasm but he never developed the other myriad of crippling symptoms I got from these experiences(which Ill try to not mention to not worry others). He actually told me to not worry that the symptoms eventually stop. I have had many years where its there but i dont feel it, since I'm not fixated on it. I am 30 now and have had this since I was 18. These symptoms are hard and strong but working on yourself and getting therapy will help. If one looks at psychogenic disorders this seems to fit the profile, real physical symptoms that can affect speech, ears, cognition. It can be much to do, as someone else has said, with perception. Maybe we're prone to more sensitivity and more awareness of things. Which can be a folly. But we can keep fighting through different routes.

I suffer through much mental health issues and at the time of this injury I had just learned a partner may have cheated on me, this on top of severe depressive, anxious, reclusive agoraphobic neurotic ways at the time may have pronounced my issues. This happens lots with psychogenic conditions. I would like to recommend the works of an Irish neurologist, Suzanne O'Sullivan, who has done strong research on psychogenic conditions, conditions with roots in the mind that result in real physical affects. The mind and body are connected after all.

These health issues are very confusing and we need all the direction we can get. I am still perplexed and ask myself how can all this happen. But psychogenic explanations give me more answers. Because anatomically the symptoms I had developed did not make sense. There is a real anatomical situation that then produces more issues produced by worry, trauma. Psychogenic issues can be managed through physical and psychological therapy.

Hope these words are received well, and not received as invalidation. To the contrary, I have felt the suffering of these issues too hard and too long.

@mdulfod55-I wanted to commend your post. I have gently made these suggestions on these threads in a few areas. It has not been well received by some. But what you wrote is real and accurate...

When things like this come up for someone, and one goes to the doctor, it is very important that the doctor ask about current stress/tension levels in their lives and or for the person to be introspective of themselves. This is not a medical professional “job”, so to speak, as they are there to provide you with an answer and or medication.
Doctors know patients go to them for answers. When they don’t “find” something, sometimes this frustrates a patient, rather than having them
address the issues elsewhere, which very well could be an underlying emotional stressor.
This can cause a lot of harm to a patient, whom is simply caught in a state of stress/worry and hyper focused on something not harming them but is just making them more aware of it. When there is not a “fix”, the doctor shopping continues. Causing a cycle of more worry and fixation til, the next appt.

The mind and body are absolutely connected. Emotions lead to physical symptoms and physical symptoms lead to emotions. And you are correct, it’s not to say there are anatomical issues, not causing, sounds symptoms and annoyances. But it’s how you respond to those sensations and understand that, the body can be loud. It works all the time for you 24/7. It is not always quiet. And depending on what you are currently experiencing personally, sometimes the sensations and sounds can be more amplified. Triggering worry, which keeps the loop going.

Don’t underestimate the power of yourself and your thoughts.

Mine happened over 3 months ago when I was eating fast and I tried swallowing a large portion of food and when I swallowed it didn’t all do down in one swallow I had to double swallow but could still feel the food hanging in my throat (during the double swallow) and I was able to still breath during this. Right after that I felt like something was still in my throat so I tried to gargle and cough and I even tried to force myself to throw up a little but then I didn’t want to make things worse. So I saw an ent the next day they did a scope said it was fine. Then two days after I had thick phlegm develop in my throat causing my to throat clear constantly and swallow. The next day was when the clicking started. It was more of a double click in my throat like two cartilages rubbing everytime I throat clear and swallow saliva . (Now it’s mostly one click) It doesn’t click when I drink fluids or eat food. I’ve seen 2 ents one said it was silent reflux and was put on omeprazole for almost a month. That didn’t help. So I stopped the meds and the gastro said to do endoscopy. That was normal. Pulmonologist said my lungs sound fine because I was so scared everytime I ate or drink it goes down wrong. It’s affected my eating the first month. I lost weight. Sometimes I noticed I can get away from the clicking if I turn my head a certain way up and to the right. But sometimes it got so bad that the clicking happens no matter how I position my head. I can’t get away from it. Very frustrating. I also feel tightness around my throat. To where it’s sensitive if I wear a shirt too high and it touches my neck it bothers me and makes the tightness sensation worse. or a necklace turns on my next I feel the tightness more. Same for if a doctor touches it I feel the tightness worse. But one ent said I didn’t have to worry about my throat closing on me. Even though my anxiety told me otherwise. Stress makes it worse. I stopped going to doctors because some just say it’s a weird thing that happened and just give it time to go away. But how much longer will it take to go away on its own? Sometimes I feel like maybe it’s something so simple as getting a chiropractic adjustment of my neck to make it go back in place. But then the other part of me says not to because if I can’t have anything touch my throat without tension I don’t want to chance twisting my neck and possible making things worse. Maybe I should try physical therapy to strengthen my neck and something will gently go back into place again. But overall the feeling is that something is “ dislocated” in my throat. It’s also affected my breathing feels like my throat is smaller and also the constant throat clearing everytime I inhale doesn’t heal the throat any quicker either. Can you imagine all this that I am going through was from eating too big of portion too fast. I wasn’t even chocking ( thank God) I feel so embarrassed and so stupid and that all of this could have been avoided. because I caused all of this. I feel if I just took my time and had a second to eat normally ( I have 3 very young kids so i was trying to feed everyone while I was trying to eat myself). I feel like this is so unnecessary and should have never happened in the first place. I am patiently waiting for this to go away on its own. I have a physical next week. Hopping he can guide me in another direction as to what it is and what I should do next. Sorry for the long rant. But nobody believes me and thinks it’s anxiety. But it specifically happened right during when I was eating. So I know something happened but it’s not being picked up on testing. Very frustrating. Thanks for listening. Praying for hope. and for everyone who has similar situation I am praying for us to find a solution or for it to just need some time to get back to normal.

I have experienced extreme health anxiety over various types of diseases (cancer, HIV) and of course just general health anxiety about anything in this body. I remember having the clicking noise back when I had been extremely worried about cancer, in addition to other various physical sensations that have manifested in all parts of my body. I was going to doctors, lung specialists, WEBmd, ALL OF IT.

I have grown tremendously since then, mentally, physically, emotionally and all the other allys. This clicking noise, however, started happening again a few weeks ago. I have been over-using marjuana and nicotine again, leading to more paranoia about health and heightened anxiety. I am 22. I am an extremely gifted and talented athlete, and I am blessed to have this body! Our minds trick us.

The clicking noise is as mentioned above, normal. Our human bodies are weird and magnificent. When we become "hyper focused", we get caught in reactionary loops, such as - swallow, feel/hear click, anxiety, more thoughts, swallow, repeat... - we then look things up, think the worst, and next thing we know we can't focus on ANYTHING else. Throughout our day our focus is always in some way giving attention to the thoughts/sensations, in this case, the feeling of a lump in the throat/cancer/omg whats going on. Faulty beliefs.

If you are feeling ill, certainly seek medical attention. If you feel okay other than this clicking/lump in your throat, I can assure you it is normal and it just an anxiety loop. Reading how so many people go through it is just a simple relief in and of itself. The solution is not overnight, but you will feel major relief rather quickly by following the guidelines below:

1) breathe. deep breathes. feel the relaxation in your body start to build up the more you take some deep breathes.
2) drink cold water, and as youre drinking it, feel the cold sensation in your throat and thank the water for nourishing this body.
3) take hot baths, and i love putting my throat under the warm water.
4) The body knows how to function/heal NATURALLY. There is nothing to fix, or change, or do. Trust and Love that body.
5) Search up health affirmations, light a candle, and immerse yourself in the vibration of love/healing.

Much love to all my fellow warriors!
,stay dusty
-A

I have this too and it’s quite annoying! It seems to be on my left side and if I hold my head up and to the right it will not click- I’m really hoping this goes away on its own 🙁

I too have the same exact issue as everyone else, clicking in the throat when swallowing / feels like the throat is inflamed and something is moving around. I can also verbally make the sound when touching my neck to my chest like a popping sound. I’ve been scoped in the throat and ears multiple times with my ent and no answers. Everything looks normal. Had an x ray done which also comes back normal. Next step is a barium swallow but COVID has pushed that back. From what I’m seeing everyone who has this problem isent getting any answers and if anything it’s only creating more questions for all of us. Trying to stay positive but very disheartening to see no one has had a definitive answer. Where to go from here?