Health

How to Overcome Fear of Choking on Food

How to Overcome Fear of Choking

Fear of Choking or fear of swallowing is something related to anxiety people suffer from.

The fear of choking can be extremely alarming to the person who suffers from it and cause phobias.

People having fear of Chocking, also known as Phagophobia have difficulties in eating, taking medications, and even drinking.

Fear of Choking is usually tightness in the throat that is direct result of tension from chronic anxiety.

If you have sever chocking problem, you definitely need to see a doctor. But, if your doctor has told you that it is purely an anxiety-related issue, then you can overcome it by your own.

So, let’s go through some of the ways to overcome fear of chocking by your won in this article.

 

How the swallowing reflex works?

When you are anxious, you tend to be on higher alert in general. If you have a headache, you just lie down and have nothing to think about but the headache.

The same goes with fear of swallowing. It can get so bad that eventually you fear choking.

Sometimes you may feel a lump in your throat, as if something is preventing you from swallowing your food.

It makes your mind so disturbed that you are not able to concentrate on things you do. That’s how you get anxiety from fear of chocking.

Before long, the thought of eating can bring intense fear and you might also avoid eating food or anything at all.

 

Relax

How to Overcome Fear of Choking

If you are highly anxious person, you definitely have tense muscles throughout your body.

The tightness in your body inside or around your throat leaves very less room for your throat to swallow the food.

So, whenever you feel that you are not able to swallow anything or have a fear of choking, you should relax at the moment.

Seriously, it can happen to anybody. It is just a phase that will go soon. So, instead of panicking and having fear that everyone else might laugh at you, just relax.

Take help of some relaxation CDs which can be found on the internet and sometimes can be downloaded as mp3s.

If you are about to give your short time a day, it will benefit your overall anxious stated and thus tension created by fear of choking.

You are less likely to choke on food if you relax your throat muscles just before eating any of therm.

Also, you can avoid cold drinks as these tend to make the throat muscles contract.

So, instead sip a half glass of warn water prior to eating food.

 

Eating advice to overcome fear of choking

How to Overcome Fear of Choking

Not only just relaxing, you should also be careful with your eating habits if you are frequently choking.

If you have fear of choking, you must have tough time to eat your meal. This certainly creates a tension on you.

Hence, keep yourself busy in stuffs between your meals. That will help you divert your mind from the fear of choking.

Also, eating alone can help you as there seems to be more pressure on you not to choke and no one to help.

You feel lot more comfortable about eating and anything that provokes more worry is best avoided.

Take very small bites of food and chew slowly. It doesn’t matter if it takes you two minutes to chew a small amount.

Never eat your meal with hurry. It’s far better to have eaten something and it takes half an hour, than to have eaten nothing at all.

Also, try to eat food that are liquid such as soup, milk puddings, or yoghurts if you are unable to swallow solid food.

You also need to make sure that your food is moist by adding gravy, stock, fruit juice or water.

Another thing to do to overcome fear of chocking is not to put too much food inside your mouth, even though you are damn hungry.

Rather than making your stomach full, it will make you choke or puke sometimes. So, avoid that.

Lastly, to avoid chocking, you need to always have a glass of water in fort of your table while having your meal. This will help you a lot to swallow your food comfortably.

 

Emotional Freedom Technique

Drink several glasses of warm water through the day, especially just before a meal.

Start with very small amount of food, from liquid leading up to normal meals.

Don’t rush eating and go at a slower pace.

Don’t feel pressured to eat with others and getting embraced of your choking.

Keep yourself busy with many stuffs that you like to do to get out of the fear of choking.

Make sure you have a balanced diet which will help you to swallow your food much easier.

Lastly, just relax. You could try forms such as meditation, guided visualization, yoga, and breathing exercises to forget about the fear of choking.

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