Allergies/Choking Fear

[PanicMerchant21]

I feel as if I am going crazy. I sometimes out the blue feel as though my throat is swelling up and I am having problems breathing. I worry that I am having an allergy to something. Either that or I think I am choking after I have eaten something.
I have went from wolfing my food to chewing 10 million times. Anyone else get this?

[Notlrac87]

You ate not going crazy I used to get this all the time but it was panic attacks caused by stress and depression. I'm not sure if this will help but when I described this to my GP for the first time he suggested a "grounding" techniques that really helped me. After taking a long deep breath in and out with your eyes closed, open up and identify 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell and 1 thing you can taste all the while reassuring yourself that you are in control. I often find that looking into my own eyes in a mirror and then checking myself over helps too. Really hope this helps you.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Hi and welcome to NMP :welcome:

There is a couple of larger threads here about it that may have some useful responses for you:

http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=72538
http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=45057

[PanicMerchant21]

You ate not going crazy I used to get this all the time but it was panic attacks caused by stress and depression. I'm not sure if this will help but when I described this to my GP for the first time he suggested a "grounding" techniques that really helped me. After taking a long deep breath in and out with your eyes closed, open up and identify 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell and 1 thing you can taste all the while reassuring yourself that you are in control. I often find that looking into my own eyes in a mirror and then checking myself over helps too. Really hope this helps you.

Thank you this sounds like a really good technique to get your mind off it. I will try this.

[willz]

I had a fear of choking for a while but gradually forgot about it.

The worst part about it is that we usually chew naturally and when this is thrown off by anxiety we somewhat lose the instinct of how much chewing is required. I can assure you though that you don't need to chew each piece of food for minutes (as I did) and you won't choke unless you literally try and swallow huge chunks of food at once.