Persistent salty/Burning/Menthol taste in mouth?

[PatrickChicago]

Hello everyone, I'm new here - going though my own thing, and saw the support people give to others who are suffering from anxiety on this web page and thought I could use some tonight..

Exactly one week ago, I suddenly - about midway though the day - started tasting a exceedingly salty taste in my mouth. I would describe it as if you were to swish salt water around your mouth and spit it out... that kind of feeling. Like my saliva was soaked in salt.

Despite how much I drank, it wouldn't go away. And stayed constant for days, and only started feeling like it was starting to ease around two days ago. Nothing else was wrong with my mouth, just a horrid salty taste that at times literally my my tongue tingle or feel burned.

Surprisingly, I was able to not have a full blown horrible anxiety attack during that, and earlier today it was so dulled down that I assumed it was over.

Then, around midnight here, I was getting ready to go to bed and suddenly noticed a menthol "cool" taste on the inside of my cheeks.

It tingles and feels almost cold... the salty taste is pretty much gone... just a new tingling "cool" feeling that, as I was laying down to sleep, I really focused on and as I drifted off - BOOM - snapped awake with pure panic attack about it and feeling like I was losing my mind and that something awful was behind the sensation (it's my only symptom of... well... anything..)

I started worrying about why this has been happening for days, why I can't get rid of it, and worrying that I won't be able to sleep with it now that I am focused on it. I have suffered from insomnia a ton in my life, and I dread it when it happens because it makes me a wildly irrational person who thinks he'll never sleep again.

Basically, I'm all over the board here and I know it - but I just was hoping for some reassurance that it is all going to be alright. I goddamn hate being an anxious person... mainly because I am not always one, but when I fall into it, I tend to dive head first - if you know what I mean?

[Freaked]

Hi PatrickChicago, weird tastes are something some people get with anxiety. I took a poll about symps a while ago actually (you can find it if you look in my posts), and weird tastes/smells was one of the less picked options, but there were still a few people who picked it. Anxiety researchers aren't really sure what causes the funny tastes, but there are a few possibilities. It could be your anxious brain and nerves spazzing out and creating tastes out of nothing (a bit like taste neuralgia), it could be stomach acid, it could be mouth-breathing, or it could be a direct side-effect of adrenaline in some people.

I've had a really persistent bad taste too at times. Mine tastes metallic and bitter. I think for me it might be related to stomach acid, since I've had terrible acid probs.

[PatrickChicago]

Thanks for the insight Freaked!

Well I finally fell asleep, and got a good amount

Then woke up with a salty tasting mouth despite how much I drink again

I have been able to stray away any thoughts of "this is a symptom of something horrible" because of the fact that I doubt something horrible would only have one single symptom.

Might see a doctor soon if this persists, but right now I just remind myself that it has been 7 days so far our of 28 years that I have felt a weird taste in my mouth - so I got to keep it in perspective. That and the fact that it has gotten about 50% better from when it started, and like I said - last night it was almost gone anyways.

The psychosomatic anxiety idea is interesting, might try to get a few Xanax, just to see if it lessens the taste. I noticed that sweet foods taste sweeter, and bitter foods taste (not shockingly) more bitter... so it might be that my taste buds are working on overdrive for some reason.

Either way, if I start to really act the fool over this - you can expect me to be back typing on this forum haha.

I appreciate the reply!