I'm having a lot of problems with this tonight -- struggling to eat every bite of a pizza I really wanted. I have this problem a lot. It's been worse lately.
Mine is the opposite of most of yours though. I never feel like I have enough saliva. I start to swallow and CAN'T. I start flipping my tongue around in my mouth like a dead fish, gasping and grabbing the chair or desk, pawing at my mouth and sometimes jumping up and rushing to another room in a blind panic.
I feel stupid even writing this. It IS stupid. It helps a lot to know others have felt this too. My fiance looks at me like I'm crazy when I say, "I couldn't swallow for a minute."
I start focusing on swallowing, wondering if the next time I try, I won't be able to. So then I can't. My mouth becomes more and more dry, then manifesting what I first imagined.
From a very early age, I struggled swallowing pills. I can specifically remember one instance of choking on a piece of steak. That night, I woke up clutching my throat and panicking. That was 30 years ago. I still do it a few times a month.
It's gotten worse again. A while back, a psychiatrist put me on Seroquel to help me sleep (I'm bipolar w/PTSD). Usually I fell asleep before I felt the side effects. This night, I was awake when they hit. Its major one is dry mouth. I was absolutely terrified, begging to go to the hospital, every swallow a supreme effort. I came online and started talking with friends as they tried to calm me. One suggested I go get some water and sip it. I felt better. After 30 minutes of slow, small sips, I was calm.
As long as I can drink something, I'm ok.
Last night, on a 15-hour drive that was very stressful, I started doing it. When I got to my hotel, I tried to take a pill about the size of an eraser (but it's Trazodone, shaped like a triangle - hard to swallow!) Usually if I choke on a pill, I get some sort of food to push it down. This time, all I had were some gummy bears in my car. I rushed out into the parking lot wearing only a tee shirt! I didn't care. I was choking.Then as the gummy bear started going down my throat, I started thinking about how hard it was to swallow those gelatinous globs, how it would glue into my throat and block my air and make me suffocate and.... you see how this went. Sheer terror. People don't GET it.
I realized something today. Because the dryness comes from over-swallowing, I've decided to let the spit gather in my mouth. To only swallow when there's enough spit. To purposely do this when I start feeling panicky. To concentrate on waiting for the buildup of saliva, NOT the act of swallowing. It takes the focus off the swallow AND gives me enough spit TO swallow.
Also, as everyone else has pointed out, classic clue that it's anxiety for me? I can get lost in fiddling with my computer, or online chatting with friends, or reading or doing some sort of activity that engrosses my brain, and guess what? I'll see that three or four hours have passed, and somehow I swallowed just fine.
BTW, I do this with breathing too. Panicked can't breathe feelings.
To the poster who mentioned gum helping... this reminds me of something I read in the book "Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamott. It's a book for writers (Yes, I'm a writer.) She mentions having a tonsillectomy and complaining to her doctor about pain. The doctor tells her to chew gum, and she thinks, "How stupid! My throat HURTS! I can't SWALLOW. You want me to chew GUM?" She says after a while of chewing, she realized her throat no longer hurt. The doctor told her that if something hurts, or if your body believes something is wrong, the muscles all around that area will tense, causing more pain and anxiety. If you can do anything to relax those muscles, they'll stop seizing up.
I do the candy, gum thing too.
Another thought on the gum, it may provide distraction, or for those who have dry mouths, it may stimulate salivation.
As for breathing, I haven't found an answer to that one.