How do you cancel a sneeze? And on average, how successful is your method?

When you feel it coming on, press your tongue hard into the roof of your mouth just above your front teeth.

If you cannot stifle it, sneeze into the crook of your elbow.

I don’t even know what I do (sorry can’t be more helpful). I just know that I am able to stifle them sometimes (though sometimes it results in an embarrassing noise). I do it especially if I get the urge to sneeze while eating.

I have luck pressing firmly on the area just below my nose but above my lip.

I’m sorry, I wish I could help you. I am one of those people who sneezes seismically, there is no stopping it, and people fall down if they are nearby.

I would love to know how to stifle it without my eyeballs hemorrhaging. I’ll be following this!

I stop it by putting my chin down and basically swallow it. I’ve heard it’s not healthy so I try not to.

Conversely looking into the sun or light with chin up can make one happen.

It’s probably not good to do so, but I hold my nose. Sometimes it cancels it, sometimes it just suppresses it.

I heard somewhere that trying to stop a sneeze could potential kill you, because the pressure would have nowhere to go so it has to go back to your brain. I don’t dare to try stopping a sneeze.

If my eyeballs don’t literally pop right out of my head, it was successful. But you shouldn’t try to stop a sneeze, you could hurt yourself.

My grandfather, a scientist, said there were two pressure points that could stop a sneeze. One is the one you see in cartoons: just below the nose (real pressure, though, not just a symbolic placement of the index finger). The other, more discreet, is right at the top of the bridge of your nose, below the brow ridge. You can press there as if in deep thought and stifle the incipient sneeze.

I used to start every school year with hayfever at the height of the season for my allergens, lots of sneezes and lots of Kleenex, carrying on like a crazy person just when everybody was making their great first impressions, courting teachers and picking friends. (No allergy shots back then.) So I had a big stake in my grandfather’s method. And yes, it worked.

Sometimes, though, the sneeze would backfire, turn inside out, making a weird inverted implosion. And sometimes it would halt at the pressure, then strike again immediately, before I could stop it. Big explosion.

I started getting shots about 30 years ago, still go for a maintenance shot every four weeks, and they changed my ife.

Not sure if it counts as “stifling”, but I’ve found that I can sneeze very quietly by just sneezing through my nose (into my elbow, keeping my mouth closed.

When I try to stop a sneeze I end up sneezing about 10 more or more times. That happened on an airplane one time. I spent about a half hour with a blanket over my head sneezing over and over.

Last Summer at the Seattle airport I was sitting next to a man who removed his mask to sneeze and then put his mask back on. I just got up and left the area. Couldn’t believe how stupid or rude that guy was.

Why do some people have to bring their vocal cords into their sneeze? One woman where I use to work would let out a loud scream each time she sneezed.

@gondwanalon: ”Why do some people have to bring their vocal cords into their sneeze?”
It’s involuntary. Believe me, nobody does that on purpose, we really can’t help it, and we get more than a little sick of people bitching about it.

The second you start to want to inhale to sneeze stop yourself and pinch the tip of your nose.

@canidmajor, at home, my husband always vocalized a sneeze, often right behind me. Egad. What really piqued me was that out in company or at an event, he could stop it. So for me he was letting ‘er rip. It wasn’t involuntary.

I don’t mean that he added the voice just to bedevil me, but he didn’t bother to suppress it when I was the only victim collateral damage audience.

I can’t really stop them but I can mute them by putting back pressure on it.

@Jeruba I have tried to suppress it, having been told often that it is “just drama” (a term my sister used to use). I could sometimes suppress the vocals, but it always results in coughing fits that give me sore throat. I admire those that can make their sneezes more socially acceptable, and I envy and resent them.

@canidmajor You may be right up to a point. I generate a very slight vocal cord noise sometimes when I sneeze. I could increase the vocal cord noise volume if I wanted. I’m talking about people who obviously and purposely make a big deal about their sneeze. Is the ear shattering volume really necessary? One woman could be on the other side of the a large room and whenever she scream-sneezed I about hit the ceiling. That was just ridiculous.

Well, enjoy your outrage/mockery, @gondwanalon. I, of course, cannot speak for everyone, but having been mocked, bitched at, called an “attention whore”, “disgusting” and worse for my entire life because of the way I sneeze, I can tell you that it’s not about anything other than reflex. I don’t know anyone who “obviously and purposely make a big deal about their sneeze”. I explained what happens when I attempt to suppress, I will happily skip the sore throat even though you are startled.

Being the butt of increasingly gross jokes gets old very fast.

I positively cannot imagine anyone other than a lunatic having the thought, “I want more attention. What can I do? I know! I’ll obviously and purposely make a big deal of my sneezes. That’ll make them notice me, or at least punish them if I don’t. So what if it embarrasses me to tears? It’ll be worth it.”

(I view this as completely different from the conscious or unconscious thought, “I know this drives Jeruba up a wall, so I’ll make sure to do it when she’s around.”)

@canidmajor Practice, practice, practice. No one that I know sneezes more than I. I’ve always been like this. In my younger years I too have been told that I sneeze too loud. Over time and a lot of practice I’ve learned to greatly decrease vocal cord involvement in my sneezes. I can also direct 100% of the sneeze through my nose. Thus greatly limiting the vocal cord investment. But I can’t do that too much as I sometimes sneeze blood. Perhaps sneeze manipulation is my one and only talent. HA! I should talk to my doctor but what’s he going to say, “You have allergic rhinitis”? Anyway, my nose knows that already. HA!

At this point in my life, @gondwanalon, I just don’t give a rat’s ass if you or anybody else disapproves of the way I sneeze. Vocal or not, I will likely still be sneezing violently, people will still be commenting, and I will still think it’s just as classless as when guys used to look at my breasts and say “Are those real?”. If I could lessen the violence of the sneeze itself, that would be great, but I’m not going to waste my time and energy trying to alter one aspect.

Once upon a time I indulged in imagining book titles for nonexistent books of the Stunning New Bestseller! variety. One that I remember was The Vaseline Story. Another was How to Change the Way You Sneeze. Maybe somebody should really write that one. There appears to be a need after all.

@canidmajor, my father used to tease me constantly about my sneezes. With all the allergies I had (that nobody bothered to do anything about), I didn’t scream when I sneezed, but I sneezed a lot, and humidly. I was the only kid in school with a whole box of tissues in my desk. When I let loose with not one but a vigorous string of atchoos, my father would shout “Grapefruit!” from wherever he was in the house, which was often one or two floors below me. He said it sounded like I was throwing overripe grapefruit at the wall. Nobody thought to tell me that I didn’t have to take the constant humiliation. Like you, I feel entitled now to sneeze any damn way I please (although not, please, not at the opera), and those who object are welcome to go elsewhere.

@canidmajor Yes, Grasshopper. But can anyone afford such arrogance? You must become one with the sneeze. The wisdom you seek may be found deep within the spirit of the sneeze. Ask the sneeze what to do. If you truly believe and eliminate your ego then the sneeze will lead you to a special place. A place where the air is sweet and pure. A place in which you have never been yet you will recognize instantly should it appear on the horizon. For its the place of your dreams and it’s name is truth.

So classy to keep up the mockery, @gondwanalon.

@canidmajor You’re so sweet. Good health. Stay strong. Love ya!