Relaxing my tongue... suggestions?

[mjh74]

Hi all,

Since being on Cipralex and working through my anxieties, I've realised that one of my main trigger symptoms is actually speaking or the anticipation of speaking. I thought back to the day of a huge initial panic attack 5 months ago where I was out for a walk in the freezing cold, tensed against the cold and anxious and I wanted to retch for the whole walk triggering the panic attack. This had never happened before in this manner but the person who I was with was chatting to me and I remember tensing my tongue tightly at the back to stifle heaving. This seems to have become one of, if not my main anxiety point now and I'm not sure how to relax it. Sometimes when I'm spoken to, I'll avoid certain words because they feel more likely to make me want to gag. Things like 'cool', 'car', 'can't', 'chocolate' etc all stimulate the part of my throat where the tongue seems to be tensed and 'onguard', this instantly leads to a rise in anxiety and makes me start working my throat. The problem is that as soon as someone speaks, my subconcious has already put my tongue into what my brain must think is a 'gag safe state' making speaking horrible and threatening to me. A very strange one I know and one I haven't read of before. I also find that when I concentrate hard for distraction, that part of my tongue and throat starts to feel a lot worse and I feel a despirate feeling in my throat which again sends the anxiety levels soaring and usually leads to a very painfull 'pill in the throat' feeling which makes my whole back and gullet ache. I've also noticed that opening my mouth wide (as if I were at the dentist) makes me want to heave because my tongue is in this state.

This is really the only problem stopping me from going out more, especially as work involves me speaking to lots of people over the phone and every day living involves verbal interaction to some degree.

Locking myself away as I am is doing me no favours but it's not that I fear going out and facing people, it's the fact that if I speak to them I know anxiety will rocket as I try and speak with a very sensitive throat.

I have a CBT assessment on Tuesday and am dreading having to speak to someone for a period of time. I'm going to take valium before I go to try and help relax the muscles in my throat.

Anyway, just airing this to see if anyone has any thoughts of ways I could combat this. I am already chewing gum and sipping water to make sure my throat stays as moist as possible (especially as the Cipralex dry my mouth so much).

Reading this back makes it sound so trivial but it's a terrifying feeling that is rocketing my anxiety levels.

Thanks for reading,

Mark

[mico]

Hi Mark

It's interesting what you say about this because I have very much the same thing (although not so much anymore), but I have never put it down to such specific circumstances, certainly not down to specific words. But yeah, I get that feeling of wanting to gag and it used to be one of my major problems with anxiety, anytime I went anywhere I felt like I was just going to throw up everywhere. And yeah, this feeling manifests itself in my throat more than it does my belly. I've never thought much about it being to do with the tongue though, I guess that's something for me to think about.

I'm not sure I can offer any great suggestions on this one other than going into these situations and dealing with them. As Meg always says, 'time without incidence is the key to success', which is very true in many situations. It's difficult, but it's a sure fire way to help you.

As for generally relaxing your tongue, you can try using a tense and relax technique. Basically, tense and relax is a method where you tense your muscles one at a time, deep breath, tense, hold it, then relax. Normally you may start at your feet and work your way up your body. As you work your way up, you get to your head/face. Now the face holds a lot of muscles, all of which can be very tense at times. The tongue is one of them. You can relax it by taking a deep breath, pushing your tongue into the roof of your mouth, hold it, and relax. Do it with the rest of your facial muscles too. Not sure if this would help in such a situation where this attacks you most, but for generally relaxing you may find it helps. If you look around you'll be able to find guided tapes on this (I used to have one, no idea where it went though).

And for a dry mouth. Try breathing through your nose rather than your mouth, as breathing through your mouth will dry it more.


mico

[mjh74]

Hi Mico,

Thanks for your reply. Last night I went to my sisters for a few hours and I haven't been out for a couple of weeks. It's about a 20 min journey there and had the usual anxiety symptoms but this time I realised that I did have some control how I felt i.e throat working and nausea. I think my fear of my throat and speaking has been the feeling of having no control over something bad happening when actually I have!
If I start to feel like gagging I open my mouth wide and take a sharp breath to distract the throat locking and chew chewing gum.
For the nausea I ate some refreshers to shift the gas and kept the faith that I wasn't going to throw up. Did my breathing exercises and calmed down to an acceptable level. I feel like I'm moving forward once again!

Best Wishes,

Mark

[Meg]

Well done Mark !

[angieb]

Mark - EXCELLENT -

[kairen]

Hi mark

my internet has been down a few days (it was terrrible) so now im just catching up

Well done you, really good to read your post, you did really well glad your feeling more positive

i hope things are still looking up hun,

take care

kairen x

[mjh74]

Thank you for your replies and encouragement all. I'm pretty sure I've moved onto the next stage now and am a bit stronger. There is a chunk of fear that isn't quite as intense and I'm really glad that I'm starting to feel like I'm taking the reins again and am really suprised at what I've learnt in 1 experience! I base a lot of fear on my perceptions of what could happen, they are pretty irrational perceptions and when met with reality, it's really a different experience. The 'real' feelings don't differ that much from the intense anxiety that I used to have when I was a lot younger with the emetaphobia, I never used to be ill then and know pretty much that I won't be now. I've also realised that you can retch and retch and not vomit with a sensitive throat, as someone else pointed out, it's not a retch from the stomach due to rejection, it's purely a nervous/gag reaction.

Anyway, tomorrow I have my CBT assessment and this I do feel nervous about attending but again, I'm accepting how I'm feeling and that they are my normal anxiety symptoms, no more.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that things really are moving forwards and once again want to thank you all for your help this far, *especially Meg*.


Mark x

[Meg]

Mark Good on you.. You're getting there. Blips happen !!

*I base a lot of fear on my perceptions of what could happen, they are pretty irrational perceptions and when met with reality, it's really a different experience.*

Technical way of saying ' What if '- so what ' !!

Meg
www.anxietymanagementltd.com

Watch your thoughts, they become your words...
Watch your words, they become your actions... Watch your actions, they become your habits... Watch your habits, they become your character... Watch your character, it becomes your destiny...

[mjh74]

The technical bit must have been the 'computer geek' coming out in me Meg [8D].

Well, I managed to get through my hour of CBT assessment and it wasn't too bad at all! I was even able to speak properly for the whole hour with 0 anxiety, amazing!

We ran out of time and he asked me to go back for a bit more of a chat in a week to tie things up. So all in all a success!

Mark x

[Meg]

Good news Mark..

Keep at it