How to Overcome Swallowing Anxiety: 6 Tips to Relieve Anxiety Symptoms?

Have you ever had a lump in your throat due to intense anxiety? Some anxiety disorders can affect your swallowing by hampering the motor function needed for swallowing.

Normal anxiety levels are harmless and acceptable as it is your mind and body’s natural response to stressful situations.

However, suppose your anxiety becomes persistent to the point that it interferes with your daily routine and day-to-day communication and causes a serious feeling of being choked in the throat. In that case, this might be a symptom of a mental disorder that could need immediate attention.

This article will provide you with Tips on How to Overcome Swallowing Anxiety.

How Does Your Body Respond to Anxiety?

There are many ways in which your body reacts to extreme anxiety. This section covers the commonly observed signs.

The most common symptoms are:

• Racing heart/Palpitations
• Trembling
• Heavy perspiration
• Panic attacks
• Suffocation or the intense feeling of being choked

In this article, I will focus on the last symptom, choking due to anxiety, also known as swallowing anxiety. And I will also give you actionable tips to alleviate your anxiety symptoms.

There are multiple reasons to feel choked or suffocated, and the severity of this choking sensation might range from mild to severe, depending on its cause.

In some cases, many physical factors are responsible for causing discomfort in your throat, thus blocking your airway and inducing a choking sensation.

Here are some of the most common physiological causes of choking, as stated by the National Library of Medicine.

• Hiatus hernia
• Goitre
• Post-nasal drip
• Lingual tonsil
• Sinusitis
• Gastro-oesophageal reflux
• Cricopharyngeal spasms
• Tingling sensation in fingers
• Cancers in rare cases and more

Overcoming Swallowing Anxiety

Despite the physical causes mentioned above, swallowing anxiety is considered to be a common psychological origin of a choking sensation in your throat. How do you get rid of that?

6 Tips to Relieve Anxiety Symptoms

In this section, let’s look at the key tips to relieve your anxiety symptoms for reducing swallowing anxiety.

1. Distract Yourself

One of the most effective ways to relieve anxiety symptoms is to distract your mind elsewhere to prevent your body from getting overwhelmed by extreme anxiety. Calming down may be as simple as picking up your phone and talking to your trustworthy friends, colleagues, or family members.

Another way to distract yourself from anxiety is to play a video game, listen to relaxing music, and watch your favorite show or movie. These distractions can help deal with intense anxiety by giving you a temporary escape route.

It alleviates anxiety symptoms, helping you control your mind and body better. You feel more in command of your situation.

2. Practise Effective Relaxation And Breathing Techniques

Anxiety can be caused majorly due to extreme stress. So, understanding the root cause of the problem is important before you look for a solution. Talking of solutions, practicing relaxation techniques such as deep, slow breathing, and gradual muscle relaxation can prove useful.

Swallowing anxiety attacks are generally characterized by shallow, fast-paced breathing, which almost seems like you are choking or suffocating abnormally. So, to counter it, try to maintain a consistently slow and steady breathing rate.

Also, slow your breathing through your nose as much as possible and hold your breath briefly between every single breath. You can always try different breathing patterns for the best outcome.

These deep breathing techniques induce a calming sensation throughout your body by improving oxygen flow to your brain.

It has been one of the most traditional and successful ways to relieve stress and swallowing anxiety since it enhances your mind-body connection. It also reduces your heart rate and brings it down to optimal levels. At the same time, it stabilizes your blood pressure.

So, take a deep breath, gradually breathe in, and breathe out to fight off your swallowing anxiety. Prevent hyperventilation by stimulating your sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for your body’s involuntary movements.

3. You Are What You Eat

Eating the right food, and mindfully at that, is particularly important if you are experiencing swallowing difficulties.

Some may try and find comfort in junk food. Others may reduce their food intake, developing a negative relationship with food. Always eat mindfully since extreme anxiety can ruin your relationship with food.

So, the key here is to accept your current state of mind, address your emotions when consuming food and pay attention to nutrition.

It’s a great way to alleviate your anxiety symptoms and a wonderful preventive strategy to counter anxious feelings and swallowing anxiety in the long run. If you ever experience a swallowing anxiety attack, keep a bottle of cool water, soda, or carbonated water handy instead of simply clearing your dry throat.

In such situations, you will most likely feel the urge to smoke a cigarette, consume sugar, have coffee, or take a few sips of your favorite alcohol. But these are destructive coping strategies with a higher rebound rate, so it is best not to go down that road.

All it will do is increase your dependence on caffeine, sugar, or alcohol which can lead to severe addiction in the long run. It’s neither sustainable nor healthy, so it should be avoided.

Focus on maintaining a balanced diet and keep yourself hydrated at all times. Try and eat more complex carbohydrates that break down slowly to stabilize your blood sugar levels, eventually helping you stay calm for longer.

Include zinc and magnesium-rich foods such as eggs, cashews, beef, nuts, leafy greens, whole grains, and legumes to relieve anxiety symptoms by promoting the natural release of pleasure-inducing neurotransmitters – dopamine and serotonin.

4. Avoid Skipping Meals

Around 95% of serotonin receptors are found in the gut, according to a research paper by Harvard Health Publishing. So, do not ditch your meals, as that can worsen your swallowing anxiety issue.

Skipping meals can cause a decrease in blood sugar levels resulting in weakness and trembling throughout your body. It’s because it releases a stress hormone called cortisol. Cortisol is responsible for a short burst of energy, depleting reserves of  Vitamins B and C in your body and eventually increasing your anxiety. So, watch your diet and make sure to eat on time.

Also, since a healthy diet contributes greatly to a healthy mind, you can rely on probiotics to keep your gut in its best form to keep anxiety at bay or at least at controlled levels.

5. Turn to Therapy

If all else fails to work in overcoming swallowing anxiety symptoms, therapy is your best bet. However, therapy goes hand in hand with the above tips, so improving your way of life is not optional.

CBT, or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, works best to treat the symptoms of swallowing anxiety. This approach can help you recognize and alter anxious thought patterns that trigger swallowing or induce a choking sensation.

CBT is effective because it helps address issues instead of avoiding them, interrupting the loop of swallowing anxiety and eventually causing it to disappear completely.

So, when CBT helps you challenge your thinking caused by anxiety, you can better reduce the negative impact.

In extremely severe cases, your therapist might recommend psychiatric treatment along with medication (beta blockers for physiological symptoms or antidepressants to alleviate your mood) and the right nutritional support.

Many popular online mental therapy platforms, such as Talkspace, BetterHelp, etc., can help with long-term treatment until recovery.

6. Self-help And Exercise

To keep things sustainable, you need to keep going, no matter what hurdles you face. And self-help strategies combined with daily exercise can help you systematically nip your swallowing anxiety problem in the bud.

Brisk walking or jogging, in particular, has been shown to lower stress-causing chemicals in the body, such as cortisol and adrenaline, by promoting the release of endorphins. Endorphins have a positive calming effect and help loosen up your throat muscles.

So, ensure you engage in enjoyable physical activities for at least thirty minutes to an hour every five to six days a week to control your anxiety symptoms.

Conclusion

Swallowing anxiety or anxiety, in general, is manageable if you know how to address it. The best approach is to be well-informed and as holistic as possible regarding treatments to avoid a relapse of the condition.

Suppose anxiety is the leading cause of your swallowing difficulties. In that case, the next step is to improve your lifestyle and use an effective anti-anxiety or anxiety control therapy.

Self-help strategies and various pharmacological solutions should also be considered after carefully evaluating your condition in consultation with your medical practitioner.

Do not hesitate to experiment to work through your anxiety issues, and never leave it untreated. So, finding a solution to alleviate your anxiety should always take priority.

What approaches have worked for you so far in overcoming your swallowing anxiety? Do tell me in the comments section below.