Trouble swallowing food

[Okieb]

Hi all,
New here, decided to join because I really have no one else that could possibly relate to this.
I'm a 24 year old male, and I've been dealing with hypochindrea for a long time. Ever since I can remember myself i would always think of worst case scenarios, especially when it comes to my health.
A few months ago it became really bad. I started feeling weird in my chest and immediately thought "heart attack". Since that day I started experiencing panic attacks on a nightly basis. Ones that I would feel that I have to get up and run for fresh air and drink water. Luckily I'm slowly finding ways to cope with those and I haven't had a bad one in a while.

My big issue now is swallowing food, and sometimes even saliva.
I could never swallow pills, throat would always close and I would get sort of a gag reflex. This would happen the second a pill goes in my mouth. I know it's all mental because It doesn't matter how big or small the pill is.
Anyway 3 days ago I was eating a chicken wrap in my car and all of the sudden the food went to the back of my throat but I coukdn swallow it, and felt like I was choking on it. Immediately I grabbed my water and chugged some to push it down. I know that feeling and I've has it before, but it was very rare. Then the next bite, it happened again, and again, and again. I couldn't eat without a swig of water. It was so weird and it got to my head. Even saliva would be hard to swallow because I would overthink the swallowing process so much. 3 days later I'm still having a hard time eating food but drinking water is perfectly fine. Im pretty sure it's anxiety related, because my anxiety has been so bad lately. The second I see myself about to eat, I get nervous and dread the thought. Takes me an hour to eat a sandwich.

It's so frustrating! My biggest fears right now are choking or feeling like choking again which is unpleasant, and also I'm afraid this will last forever and I wonnt be able to enjoy food anymore.
I work out 3 times a week with heavy weights and I need to eat over 3000 calories a day and this just makes it all so hard.

I'm wondering if anyone encountered such an issue, or heard of it. I'm thinking about seeking therapy, but the last thing i want is a stack of pills that will supposedly "cure me".

Sorry for the length of this post, hoping I could get some ideas on coping with this.
Thank you.

[gypsylee]

Hi there,

I don't have this myself, although I may have had it once or twice over the years. I do know other people with anxiety get it though.

Sorry I can't be of more help - Just wanted to reassure you that I've heard of this as a symptom of anxiety.

Cheers,
Gypsy

[Ryker]

Hi,

Yes, it's quite common. Before you can get a cure you need to understand the evolutionary pie-in-face moments that combine to contribute to the problem.

Fishy Ancestors. Your ancestors were fish, and after that amphibian and the fight-or-flight reflex that is causing your problems had a very important role in your ancestors - it was used to control their gills and when startled the response would clamp their gills tight shut for rapid movement in or out of the water and for defence also. This response was vital for their survival. Over time the gills evolved into your larynx and vocal chords.

The evolution of speech. As humans have evolved the ability to communicate more and more using speech rather than hand-signining and body language, our larynx has become repositioned making it far easier for us to choke on food than any of our cousins in the animal kingdom.

What happens is we have a genuine close-to-choking moment and our old brain screams "That was fucking stupid, just be careful will you!" Your conscious brain gets all uppity about this and every time you eat you become nervous about choking and getting screamed at again. This causes your fight-or-flight reflex and that causes your throat to try and close up as if you were having to flee or dive rapidly. Your body associates that sensation with choking and then all the shouting starts in your head!

Understanding what's happening is vital before a cure becomes possible. It means you can accurately predict what's going to happen, and that enables your brain and body to understand and prepare for the sensations, stopping all the screaming, stopping the anxiety and stopping that vicious cycle that you're in.

Once you understand it, then it's just practice that's needed to get yourself used to the swallowing sensations again by increasing the size of things you eat - slowly, steadily and methodically. You can do it, you just have to be on top of why it happens and remember how important this 'predicting what's going to happen' is to getting a recovery.

R.

[jon mike]

I used to have this, you are just thinking about it
To much, try to forget about it, you've been eating all your life and you've
Never once choked to death, even as a baby you were fine