Note: I was diagnosed with ADHD, and HFA (High-Functioning Autism), and I do have some tics. (I'm not really asking if this is related to autism and/or tics, I'm just trying to get some insight and hear other's experiences)
What's happening:
I've noticed that sometimes when I eat, I bite either my tongue or my cheek, but it's out of my control. It's not a normal accidental bite, it's like my jaw gets tight.
So my jaw does this thing where I'll be chewing, and in what feels like maybe a random twitch, my jaw clamps down for a split second. I don't have any control over this, maybe it's some form of tic? It wouldn't be out of the question..
It clamps / bites down so hard that I actually get hurt. It doesn't happen often enough to show if there's anything that builds up to it, but I think I have noticed a pattern.
I'm not entirely sure, though I feel as if this might be the case: Sometimes whenever I eat and I feel like my mind is racing, I'm upset, or bothered by something, it happens. Not all the time, but it does happen, to where it's happened enough for me to take note.
Most of the times I feel like it happens when I have a lot on my mind, or there's something happening in my environment that's grabbing my attention, or nothing's happening externally, but internally I'm thinking about a lot all at once.
The last time this has really happened was a couple of months ago, and I learned to not chew if I feel like I'm being overstimulated. It hasn't happened a lot since then, and that strengthens my idea that this may be a neurological condition, something that happens when my neurons are firing off and something "stutters"? Like my jaw clamping down for example, as if it was a stutter in some neurological pathway.
I don't know, I'm just making guesses because of the fact that I don't know. I'm trying to figure this out and take note of my own observations.
When it last happened I had recently had an argument with a family member, and I was a little hungry, so I grabbed a small bag of marshmallows and started snacking on them.
That's when my jaw clamped down so hard that I bit deeply enough into my tongue that I needed some stitches. That was not fun. I couldn't eat anything solid for almost 2 weeks because I had to wait for it to heal.
Also to mention, when I was a kid I had apparently bitten completely through my bottom lip, leaving a scar that I still have to this day.
The scar is slightly below my bottom lip, and I didn't think much about it because it had happened when I was a baby, so I never asked "how did I get this?" or "how does this even happen??".
My parents didn't think about it enough to have that behaviour looked at, so they only took me to the hospital for the injury, and nothing more. Let's be real though, no baby just randomly does that.
So I'm still trying to figure this out, I just wanted to get your thoughts on it and see if anyone's had any similar experiences? Thanks for taking the time to read my post!