Clenching Jaw

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I was wondering if anyone else experienced jaw clenching when under an emotional situation (i.e. about to cry, angry, hurt). I find that I'm unable to speak during these times because I can't seem to unclench my jaw. In addition, it feels like there's a tightness or a lump in my throat. Sometimes, on rare occasions, I can overcome it but I'm not sure how I did it. Is there any explanation for this? Is it related to Asperger's in any way?

Yes, in emotional situations I tend to clench or grind my teeth, though not to the extent I can't open my mouth if I want to. I've lost a couple of teeth to this practice. I don't know if it's AS-related.

Other than when I'm frustrated, I don't have this problem. I really don't think it's related to AS.

Clenching your jaw, I think, has a lot more to do with just being stressed out. I, personally, clench and grind my teeth all the time. I also tend to hold my eyebrows in a flexed position a lot of the time. I probably look pissed off to most people, lol. I don't know, it just seems to be the way I handle stress.

I do this and narrow my eyebrows.

I think mine is more seizure related because sometimes I will raise my brow and not beable to lower it. I physically will move it with my hand and it will go into the same position. I won't have any stress at the time and like I said the jaw thing happens to me when I'm coming out of sleep. I won't even be able to get my fingers between my teeth and pry it open.

I do this when I'm stressed or angry. And sometimes quite hard. Honestly, I'm surprised I haven't shattered my teeth from clenching them so hard.

I don't know if it a seizure but it happens to me during sleep and sometimes whe. I wake up. I generally also have a dream of my teeth falling out of my head when it happens at night.

Not only do I clench my jaws when I'm in an emotional situation but I do it all day and night. I had chronic pain from it for years until I figured out what it was and got a mouth guard.

Do emotional situations make you very anxious? I'm highly anxious which I suspect is the reason for my constant clenching.

When I attended public school, I'd always find myself clenching my jaw (especially in the hallways), and I've attributed that to being overwhelmed by everything.
Now I hardly find myself doing so, though, which is good because I would get headaches from doing so so often.

When I was falling asleep, I realized my jaw is almost always positioned back and up more than what should be 'normal'. The next day, I did a google search for "Autism Jaw" and found this study: http://tmjcalifornia.com/wp-content/upl ... le-210.pdf

Can anyone else relate? I realize now that the teeth in my mouth are very compressed, and I don't have a resting stage where my mouth remains closed but my teeth are not touching. It's almost always as if my mouth is predicting there might be an event that causes it to shut and damage the tongue, so it stays shut always.

When I was little I use to grind my teeth all the time and I still clench my jaw sometimes. I was told that I have TMJ and that might be why.

Definitely - dentists gave me a mouthguard years ago, but I have permanent cracks in my teeth and a cracking noise in my jaw. I clench lots of places in my body, probably due to stress and overstimulation. I should do more with relaxation and massage, since overstimulation probably isn't going away.

Me. I clench my jaw so hard that it's cracked two of my upper teeth and I have TMJ. I also grind my teeth at night. It's all from stress.

Yup clench throughout day, but not really noticeable from a view point...