fear of not being able to swallow anxiety

[jasn88cubs]

can thsi be a part of anxiety

sometimes i will make myself swallow repeatedly to make sure i am still able to swallow. sometimes if my mouth is really dry and i struggle i get really anxious


is that a thin of anxiety?

 

[Sacrament]

Anxiety can make your mouth dry due to a lack of production of saliva. However, the swallowing thing is mostly psychological (obviously, if you have enough anxiety, swallowing will be difficult because your muscles are very tense). If you tell yourself you're not gonna be able to swallow properly, your brain will get mixed signals, and the muscles responsible for swallowing will act up.

Carry a bottle of water with you and have a sip when you feel your mouth getting dry, it'll help you swallow. And don't convince yourself you won't be able to swallow, otherwise you'll drool and spit water all over the place, which is more embarassing!

 

[jasn88cubs]

Anxiety can make your mouth dry due to a lack of production of saliva. However, the swallowing thing is mostly psychological (obviously, if you have enough anxiety, swallowing will be difficult because your muscles are very tense). If you tell yourself you're not gonna be able to swallow properly, your brain will get mixed signals, and the muscles responsible for swallowing will act up.

Carry a bottle of water with you and have a sip when you feel your mouth getting dry, it'll help you swallow. And don't convince yourself you won't be able to swallow, otherwise you'll drool and spit water all over the place, which is more embarassing!

so its all in my head?

 

[TheNomad]

Hey, i had the same problem when i first began having panic attacks. I would feel like my throat would soon stop functioning, and most of the time it had this feeling, like someone was squeezing it. I had a hard time even drinking water sometimes.

So yes, it is in your head. After you stop worrying about it (losing the ability to swallow is near impossible without, like snake poison or something) it will go away.

 

[Sacrament]

so its all in my head?

Yes. There's nothing physically wrong with you that makes you unable to swallow. Obviously this wouldn't be the case if you had some kind of allergic reaction to something, but this is 'just' anxiety, and your brain telling your body what to do. It's like someone who blushes feeling fear that they will blush in situation x or y. The fear itself is likely to make you blush, whereas if you weren't really afraid of it and had an attitude of 'meh, if it happens it happens, it won't really bother me', the odds of blushing would go down immensely.

When your mouth is dry, take a sip or two of water, or chew some gum. Being afraid of an inability to swallow will confuse your brain into not knowing how to make the necessary muscles allow you to swallow.

 

[Crankor]

+1 on gum chewing