I have no idea how to classify this-

[liese5]

I am guessing that this is neurological- but I really have no idea.
I have had this problem that has gotten increasingly worse over time.

  I will be working through an emotional moment (ie crying from sadness, or feeling overwhelmed or extremely stressed), and my right hand, and sometimes both hands, will have a sudden tingling feeling,
then all of my fingers, and my palm, will stiffen up and move close together (kind of the opposite of a closed fist- everything is completely extended but my fingers are closed close together).

My hands are then completely immobile form 5-10 minutes.  If I try to fry my fingers from each other, and force them to bend (with a free hand if available), they just snap back into the stiffened position.  this has happened when I was trying to drive a car, and also before I went out on stage to perform- both situations were not ideal for this strange event- What is this?
It feels like it is definatley related to my emotional/mental state, but what exactly is the cause?

[patty2584]

Yep, your hyperventilating. When you feel yourself getting out of control just breath in through your nose nice and deep and exhale through 'pursed lips' ... or like you are blowing on soup nice and slowwww...its the exhalation that you want to extend. This provides your body to normalize the CO2 and O2 levels in your body. When you get outta wack your muscles will do that. Odd I know, you wouldn't think that but its true.

[creekerjess]

i believe this is a side effect associated with hyperventilation.  i could be wrong, but i have had this happen to me twice in my life that i specifically recall (i actually experienced it earlier today after shortness of breath and collapsing at work - possibly heat exhaustion.  the only other time i had that problem was after hyperventilating, so i decided to look up hand paralysis as a symptom...which led me to your post).   immediately during/after hyperventilating (due to panic or other medical problem) could mean it's the culprit - i imagine emotional moments like you mention above would lead to irregular breathing/shortness of breath/depriving parts of your body the oxygen it needs?

hope that is at least a good starting point; it sounds like the same thing i have experienced though...maybe we should both try to remember to just breathe?!