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Thread: Anxiety and Excessive Swallowing

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    , , USA.
    Posts
    2

    Anxiety and Excessive Swallowing

    I am new to this forum and was really happy to see that others have the same symptoms as I do. I think I have a genaral anxiety disorder or maybe OCD. The main problem is the excessive swallowing which I can't get rid of. It started in college about 10 years ago and comes and goes. I haven't had it for awhile until just recently. It seems like it always starts in the Fall, around September. Anyways, it just feels really good to have someone to talk to about it because I haven't told anyone, friends not even family. Everything in this post is exactly what I feel. It seems almost like I can't control this and I get really exhausted mentally trying to control my thoughts. Maybe it has to do my job which is not very challenging. I don't know, I just get really worried. Does anyone have any suggestions or help. I have heard that Paxil may help with this.

    Thank you so much,
    Dominik

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Location
    , , United Kingdom.
    Posts
    4,606
    Hi Dominik

    Welcome to NMP, i hope we can be of help to you, you are not alone,

    Here are a few posts that may help:


    throat/swallowing
    MORE HORRID SYMPTOMS!!!!
    Swallowing / throat problems / Being strangled!
    What has suddenly changed, feel awful!
    Really frightend of Swallowing,
    A strange one, anyone else experienced similar??
    throat !!!
    Strange Lump in Throat
    Throat, improvements, questions
    Problems with eating and Swallowing,
    update on throat problems
    Swallowing fear
    Horrible Throat Feelings!

    Love

    Andrea
    xxxx



    "If you have a worry turn it into a problem, you cant solve worrys but you can solve problems"

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    , , United Kingdom.
    Posts
    11
    Hi there
    Welcome to my world!! My swallowing problem started just under six years ago (it is our anniversary on April 5th!). I can remember exactly where I was when it happened, in a meeting, feeling a bit nervous then all of a sudden I noticed my swallowing, it worried me and that was it, it just seemed to implant onto my brain. I really thought I was the only one in the world who had it and it scared me to death. You would swallow and then be waiting for the next one to come and basically my whole focus was on a very little area of my body, like a radar.
    Unless you have experienced it, it is very hard to describe how it makes you feel, it is so consuming.
    Anyway, believe me, it is so common. Like you, I never really told anyone, mainly through fear that they might 'catch it' - I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy! It is definetely a form of OCD, commonly known as a 'pure O', meaning it is purely obsessional with no rituals or compulsions involved. I have loads I could discuss on this subject, feel free to contact me anytime. Rachel.

  4. #4

    Re: Anxiety and Excessive Swallowing

    Rachel, I know exactly what you are saying. I suffer from this, and I also haven't told anyone about it in fear that they may contact it.

    It's something mental. I'm not sure you can get cured from it like a person that has a leg injury can get surgery.

    The only way to get rid of it and these type of obessions is by not thinking about it, and when it occurs not focusing on it. Also, the more you latch it onto different parts of your life the more it sticks around. The key, I think, is to go on living your life as if it isn't occuring.

    It really came consume you. I've had similar OCDs like this, but this one has been the toughest to overcome.

    I'm currently trying to seek ways to mentally control this. Much the same way that when you focus on it it comes to you, I'm trying to see if there is a method of thinking that when focusing on it can lead to controlling it.

  5. #5

    Re: Anxiety and Excessive Swallowing

    hi to all
    if anyone has any clues about this obsession to swallow please help. i am petrified that i cant and that i wont be able to and then die. keep checking and waiting for next one.
    help. it is awful.
    s

  6. #6

    Re: Anxiety and Excessive Swallowing

    It is comforting to find others on here who understand this particular type of OCD. I, too, remember when it first hit me. I was watching a soap opera and remember seeing the actor lying in a hospital bed. I saw him swallowing a lot and then it's as though my brain "got stuck" on the act of swallowing. I was also under a lot of stress at the time. It went away when I graduated high school, although I had other little OCD quirks along the way. I had 26 years pretty much free of the swallowing OCD, but it came back in around 2006 under more stress. I'm seeing an OCD therapist - we are working to do ERP therapy on my other, smaller issues first. I do think that exercising has helped me some. I understand all too well about the "mental" ritual behind it and the "all consuming" part. I just want my "normal" life back again. If it's any help, chewing gum will actually make it go away for me. Don't ask me the why's or how's of the logic behind it, but I've somehow trained my brain to relax and stop focusing on it when I chew gum. Just having a piece in my mouth really helps - I don't have to really even actively chew it. I just relax and re-focus. If I try and keep myself busy and my mind pre-occupied with something else, that really helps as well. I'm a woman of great faith and believe that I'll be healed of this again. I didn't realize how common it actually is. My job is also not challenging right now and I don't think that helps it any. I was intrigued to hear it called "Pure O". Would it not be regular OCD, because we have the compulsion to swallow, although sometimes I can control mine well? Late at night is when it seems to come on stronger. Has anyone tried medication for this? I saw Paxil mentioned earlier. I tried biofeedback - helped with the anxiety, but not necessarily with the obsessive thinking part. "This too shall pass."

    God bless. Everyone is in my thoughts and my prayers. You are not alone in this. We shall overcome. I have had it go away before, so there is hope.

    danni

  7. #7

    Re: Anxiety and Excessive Swallowing

    I'm 16 and have suffered from panic attacks and OCD for years. It comes and goes really, but last year I went to Australia with my family and since then I've been going through a very bad phase. The worst aspect by far is the swallowing problem. I feel the constant need to swallow, but only when I think of it. Sometimes I struggle to swallow, despite needing to, and I get panic attacks because I feel I have no control over what is happening. I've been to the doctor and she's referred me to a psychotherapist. But I'm afraid of going because I'm so embarrassed- I've a fear of people hearing me swallow so lessons etc are hard. And it affects my social life, as kissing anyone is pretty much out right now. So telling the psychotherapist this, I would be paranoid over them watching for my habit. Does anyone understand what I mean? =|

  8. #8
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Posts
    194

    Re: Anxiety and Excessive Swallowing

    hi there i have this problem right now can you suggest anything how to sstop this thanks joyce

  9. #9

    Re: Anxiety and Excessive Swallowing

    Hey, im 19 and over the last few months I have experienced a few panic attacks, sometimes it has felt like i have know control over my body. Since i have these attacks I have become very anxious at times and quite recently it has effected my swallowing in quite a bad way e.g. At some meals i am finding it very hard to swallow any food just out of fear of choking and what not and often (as gross as this sounds) I have found myself having to spit my food into a napkin even after chewing to an extreme, just today i was evan having trouble with soup.

    Does anyone else ever get this feeling? its all in my head but i don't know what to do... Sometimes im just fine and its all normal.

    I have told my family just so they can understand why i may sometimes take a long time eating a meal, im considering some kind of theropy or something.

    Will

  10. #10

    Red face Re: Anxiety and Excessive Swallowing

    Quote Originally Posted by daisyk View Post
    I'm 16 and have suffered from panic attacks and OCD for years. It comes and goes really, but last year I went to Australia with my family and since then I've been going through a very bad phase. The worst aspect by far is the swallowing problem. I feel the constant need to swallow, but only when I think of it. Sometimes I struggle to swallow, despite needing to, and I get panic attacks because I feel I have no control over what is happening. I've been to the doctor and she's referred me to a psychotherapist. But I'm afraid of going because I'm so embarrassed- I've a fear of people hearing me swallow so lessons etc are hard. And it affects my social life, as kissing anyone is pretty much out right now. So telling the psychotherapist this, I would be paranoid over them watching for my habit. Does anyone understand what I mean? =|
    I certainly know what you mean daisy - I've had this going on for about 7 months this time (I had it previously some years ago when I was about 30, but like you I've been plagued by obsessional fears like this since I was 17) and it doesn't seem to be getting any easier. Like you, I'm conscious that people may notice me swallowing constantly. and I'm afraid to tell anyone as I think they'll start noticing then. My tongue has also become very sore, and now my throat. I don't even know if they are related and I'm having tests on them at the moment - it may just be psychological but I don't know. I'm also seeing a therapist for cognitive therapy treatment, but it doesn't seem to be helping much. From past experience I know that it takes something drastic to take my mind off an obsession, and at the moment my life is very calm (apart from the constancy of this annoying obsession)! It's completely taken my life over and I'd be happy to get rid of it just for a few minutes or hours.

    I do hope you feel better soon - I try to think there are so many people in the world with much worse problems, but somehow it doesn't make it any easier.

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