Hi everyone,
I came off sertraline after 3 years back in May of this year and since July I've been having horrendous swallowing anxiety.
When I started sertraline years ago it made me feel like sometimes my swallow wasn't working correctly, which I know can be anxiety related too. It was very prominent at first but I didn't worry about it as I had experienced the same thing on Citalopram years before. It would still happen the odd time but it was just something I was used to and I was sure it would stop when I came off.
Well I did stop taking it (and much too quick following my useless GPs advice) and it continued to happen. It feels like my swallow jams and a few times I've had to end up coughing the food out Sometimes it happens when just trying to swallow saliva but that only happens when I'm really worked up (like when I was in the car on the way to see a new therapist over this last week). I'm not sure if it's dry mouth or just tension or whatever, it almost feels as if my whole chest locks up when it's happening and it's really scary. It gets worse towards the end of meals usually too, like when I'm starting to feel full up.
I think what has most likely happened is that the stress I was under between May and July made it happen more often and for a month now I've been dwelling on it so much, to the point where I've lost a lot of weight and am fixated on it constantly. It is ruining my life and I feel so stressed out and as if I'm losing my mind It is all I think about (I do have OCD and a long history of health anxiety). I have thought about every swallow I have taken for the past month and it's so exhausting. Every meal or piece of food I eat is making me anxious.
If there was something wrong with my swallow would it happen with every single bite of food? And with water? (water is going down fine) Or would it come and go like this? I can't seem to find a straight answer and my mind obviously jumps to scary neuro diseases the more I read in to it
I'm on day 6 of sertraline again and i'm so anxious in the mornings especially, as the day goes on I have found myself relaxing a bit more, but I feel like I'm never going to enjoy food every again and it's so depressing. It's also causing a lot of DP/DR feelings too and I feel it taking it's toll on my general health, making my heart race every morning.
Has anyone that's been obsessed with swallowing got over it and how? My doctors constantly fail me, won't even see me to even look at my throat and their only solution is to put me back on SSRI's which have caused this in the first place, but I couldn't have went on any longer the way I have been for the past month over this. Has sertraline worked for fear of food for anyone else????
Please help I am feeling so desperate and lost