Skip to content Skip to sidebar Skip to footer
3K
3K
740
3K
Menu
Menu
static-img
Body Phobias

Phagophobia — Fear of Swallowing Pills

Share This Article
Share Post

Phagophobia: A Tough Pill to Swallow

Not all of us are foodies. Some of us have a questionable relationship with food. We may face various hardships with eating or swallowing something, even if it is our favorite meal on the plate. Even worse, when you’re ill, you find it extremely hard to swallow a pill. You may even be petrified of the very thought.

If you face these troubles, you might have phagophobia. Of all the things that are difficult to consume or swallow because of this fear, pills and medicines are the most common and cause the most dread.

If you’re worried about whether you can lead a normal life with this fear, put yourself at ease. Phagophobia is treatable. Let’s take a look at its causes and explore ways to cope with this condition.

Some Things You Need to Know about Phagophobia

Phago comes from the Greek word phageîn, which means to eat or to devour. Phobia means an irrational fear of an object. Together, the term phagophobia stands for an irrational fear of swallowing or ingesting food.

Besides food, this fear can also include the fear of swallowing pills, liquids, or anything that passes through the throat and can lead to choking.

Phagophobia is a rare phobia, but just like any other phobia, it has a similar set of symptoms. Similar events may cause it. It also has similar treatment options available which you’ll discover below.

Phagophobia Causes

Wondering what causes phagophobia? Various factors give rise to phagophobia.

Sometimes you can develop this fear from watching others who are experiencing it. If you’re continually exposed to someone who suffers anxiety each time they swallow a pill, you are likely to develop the same fear.

Past traumatic experiences with swallowing food are also a common cause of phagophobia. Maybe you have had difficulty eating food in the past or maybe you choked on a piece of food at some point in your past. Such events can trigger negative responses in the future. An intensive medical procedure involving the throat can also trigger phagophobia.

A family history of anxiety, depression, or any other mental disorder also increases your chances of developing phagophobia. This applies to all phobias.

Living with Phagophobia

Most people tend to confuse phagophobia with pseudodysphagia. People suffering from the latter are afraid of choking when they swallow something. However, those who have phagophobia are afraid of simply swallowing anything, including pills and medicines.

Living with phagophobia can be harmful to your physical and mental health. Taking medicines and pills becomes tricky, so if you are going through an illness that requires you to take pills, your fears get the better of you. This prevents you from taking medication as advised, further slowing down your recovery. You may be able to take some medications in liquid form, but others not.

Secondly, phagophobia is not just limited to pills; it is the underlying fear of swallowing. This can affect your relationship with food, trigger negative emotions while having a meal, and cause you to develop further fears related to food.

Living with phagophobia can have a negative outcome on your daily life. It can affect your lifestyle and daily routine. When you become fearful of food, it can result in a lot of damage to your mental and physical health.

Phagophobia Symptoms

You may experience a set of psychological and physical symptoms which will help you identify whether you have phagophobia. We have listed some of the most common symptoms below:

Psychological Symptoms

  • Hampered relationship with food.
  • Eating less than required.
  • Drinking excessive water to stay full and avoid swallowing.
  • Staying away from social situations that involve meals and food.
  • Avoiding any form of medicine or pills.

Physical Symptoms

  • Excessive sweating.
  • Anxiety.
  • Panic attacks.
  • Increased heart rate.
  • Palpitations.

Self-Help: How Do You Deal with Phagophobia?

How does one overcome a fear of swallowing pills?

You can overcome this fear just as you would any other specific fear. The first step is to accept that your fear exists.

Try to get closer to your fears and encounter them more often. This way you will get used to the source of your fear. Gradually, the intensity of the fear may reduce and you will be better able to cope with it.

Another important way of dealing with your fear is by reaching out for help. There is no shame in discussing your fears with people who have your best interests in mind. You may do this with a friend, a family member, a support group, or a professional therapist.

Talk to anyone who makes you feel comfortable and acknowledges your feelings and emotions without judgment. You can also talk with others who suffer from the same fear and discuss your symptoms and how you feel.

Professional Help – Phagophobia Treatment

There are no specific treatments designed to cater to phagophobia. However, you can adopt plenty of standard therapy options to treat your phobia.

  • Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing: This is a common method that reduces the stress swallowing can cause through interactive psychotherapy techniques.
  • Exposure therapy: This is another option through which your therapist will gradually expose you to your fear until you get comfortable with swallowing.
  • Cognitive behavioral therapy: This is the most frequently employed method through which you identify your negative behavioral patterns. Your therapist will help you replace them with more positive alternatives.

How to Cope with Phagophobia

The most crucial step to coping with phagophobia is having a stable relationship with food. Stay calm and composed whenever you come across food items or pills that you have to swallow, so that your fears and anxiety don’t escalate.

You can apply the following coping mechanisms when dealing with food items and pills:

  • To make the swallowing less intense, distract yourself by watching television or listening to music.
  • When you have to swallow pills with water, do so quickly without giving it much thought.
  • For easier swallowing, take smaller bites of your food and smaller sips of your liquid.
  • If pills are too large to swallow, some can be crushed and mixed with water or broken into smaller pieces before consuming. Follow labeling instructions; not all pills should be cut or crushed.
  • Chew your food thoroughly, at least 30 times, so that it breaks down in your mouth with the help of your saliva. This can further ease swallowing.
  • Drink plenty of water when you swallow pills.

Our Final Words

We hope you’ve found something here to help you take pills without being fearful of swallowing them. If you don’t find relief despite trying all the self-help methods, seek professional help without delay.

There could be severe implications to not coping or dealing with this phobia promptly. Based on the severity of your symptoms and your fear, seek help. Before long, taking medication or enjoying your food won’t be a hard pill to swallow.

FearAZ.com is looking for personal stories of any 'fear of' or phobia. If you have an interesting story you'd like to share, we welcome your submission. If the story fits with our content and guidelines, we'll add it to our site.
0LikesShare Post

Your Fear Goes Up and Down

Are you someone who would rather climb the stairs than take the elevator? You call it squeezing in a workout after being sedentary the whole morning. Or perhaps you claim it's a faster route. These are both typical, normal, and acceptable reasons. But what if you need to be in the conference room on the eleventh floor in five minutes, and you're wearing your business suit and wingtips? Would you still prefer to take the stairs? If your answer is yes, then maybe it's time to take a closer look at your reasons for avoiding elevators. Elevators stir all sorts of emotions in passengers. From the discomfort of closeness to strangers to the sensations in our gut, elevators can be a source of the heebie-jeebies for many, but for some, they can also be a source of terror. Let's dig a little deeper into the latter, and see what this terror is all about and what can be done to manage it. To begin with, does being inside an elevator give you chills or the sweats? Or does it trigger an unpleasant memory? Perhaps you remember movies you've watched where something terrible happens inside an elevator. From Silence of the Lambs, The Shining, Final Destination 2, or the king of all elevator horror films, 2010’s Devil, the elevator becomes witness to something sinister and horrible. And you want nothing to do with any of it. You know that you're not claustrophobic. You can deal with heights just fine, too. And you know that you're not going to be trapped inside. All of these contribute to a fear of elevators—but they don't apply to you. Yet being inside one does something to you. It's hard to explain.

What is the Fear of Elevators Called?

What you have is a fear of elevators, which is called elevatophobia. It is most commonly triggered by an experience of getting stuck inside either due to a power outage or technical maintenance. Hearing about other people's experiences or watching a movie about similar circumstances can prompt a fear of elevators getting stuck with you inside. Usually, claustrophobics and agoraphobics may also develop elevatophobia because the triggers and objects of these fears are related. Claustrophobia is the fear of closed and cramped spaces, while agoraphobia is the fear of being trapped without any means of escape. Put the two together, and the elevator becomes the perfect combination of both phobias. The space is limited and closed, with only one means of entry and exit. You can add another point of access if you consider climbing the cables like they do in the movies, but that certainly isn't ideal.

Symptoms of Elevatophobia

If for some reason an elevator stops due to an outage or some technical difficulty, passengers with elevatophobia may go into full panic mode. Even if the maintenance team advises that it will just be a matter of minutes, by then, the person's mind has become irrational with the fear of the elevator falling, being stuck for hours, or other unpleasant thoughts. You would expect a person to exhibit the following physical symptoms: Additionally, you would be filled with that overwhelming anxiety where you feel that you have zero control over the situation. You start fearing the unknown and are filled with negative thoughts about death and imminent doom. You become irrational and unresponsive.

Possible Complications of Elevatophobia

When the panic sets in, the possibility of emergencies related to pre-existing conditions may make themselves known. This might include serious health crises like heart attacks or asthma attacks. When this happens, fear becomes a medical emergency. Elevator rides do not last long; it's just a matter of minutes or even less. But the fact that a person can escalate from panic to a near fatal medical situation classifies the fear of elevators as a 'hard phobia.'

Trying Some Self-Help Methods

Your fear of elevators can likely interfere with your social and work life and relationships. Not everyone understands that elevatophobia, like most phobias, can be crippling. But don't be disheartened. Depending on the level of your fear and level of control, you can gradually face and manage your phobia. Here are some recommendations you can try:
  1. Make a List of Everything that Entails Riding in an Elevator This is a systematic approach to getting over your anxiety. By following a step-by-step process, you can identify where the fear kicks in at its strongest. You can write a list of steps like pressing the topmost button and waiting to arrive on that floor, watching as the door closes and opens, being alone inside the elevator, or having delays with the doors opening. Now try doing the opposite. For example, face away from the door or occupy yourself with your phone so that you are distracted.
  2. Create Your Fear Ladder Although the name says fear of elevators, it is not the whole process that scares you. There are just phases and parts of the elevator riding experience that cause you to panic. So go back to the list you initially created and label the fear level you feel. You can do it numerically, too, like ten being 'really scary,' six, 'manageable scary,' and one, 'not scary at all.' You can put the corresponding fear levels so you can focus more time and effort into activities that are more scary to you.
  3. Face Your Fear By now, you have identified what scares you the most. You can try repetitive action to minimize your fear and increase your sense of ‘normalcy’. Remember that the longer you expose yourself to your fear, the better you get at handling your emotions. If you are feeling overwhelmed, stop. Pushing yourself too fast and too soon can backfire. Modify your pace and go slower instead.
  4. Talk About Your Fear People by nature, unfortunately, are not quick to offer understanding and support. You need to tell them what's wrong before they can empathize. Talk to someone who you trust and ask for their support, especially in the initial phase of overcoming your fear. If you are too afraid to ride the elevator alone, you can ask them to go with you, and before you realize it, you are on your floor, and there was no indication of panic.
  5. Learn To Be Patient Be patient with yourself and your predicament. This is, after all, your fight against fear. It might take hundreds of elevator ride practices before the fear gets under control. Even then, there might be some hesitations and episodes of nervousness. These are acceptable and expected, so cut yourself some slack and congratulate yourself for every progress.

Seeking Professional Help

Along with self-help, you can always enlist a medical professional's aid to support you with your elevatophobia. Talking to someone who has experience with similar cases can be comforting, because you know that you are not alone, and this situation can get better. Talk to your doctor about the severity of your fears and the symptoms that you experience. Explain how you deal with it in an attempt to control it. An exam and a health history are made to ensure that there are no unrelated or underlying problems that your symptoms might mask. Usually, phobias like this are approached with a combination of psychotherapy and medication. Your doctor will talk about these options with you, and it's entirely up to you, with your doctor's recommendation, what you want to pursue. For psychotherapy, the most common type is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which aims to help you find different ways of behaving, thinking, and reacting when about to step inside an elevator or when already inside it. With medications, there are beta blockers and benzodiazepines, but note that these can have side effects. Whatever these side effects are, you should promptly share it with your doctor.

Simple Tips to Overcome Elevatophobia

Elevators are not perfect, but their likelihood to malfunction, fall, or get stuck is very low. If you are not fully confident with this information, you can help overcome your elevatophobia by learning common elevator safety tips and basic elevator operations. These should help curb your mild fear until you become more self-assured. In addition to that, here are some of the things that you can do to gradually overcome your fear of elevators—both in getting on and riding one.

Conclusion

Yes, elevatophobia can be a challenge in today's world, but don't allow the elevator to win. Don't let it stop you from taking a job on the top floor or attending a social gathering on the rooftop. Sure, you can take the stairs if you insist and arrive winded and sweaty, with the party about to wrap up. But is this the quality of life you seek? Elevators are designed to make life easier. There are guaranteed ways to help you overcome elevatophobia. Take the first step and seek help. Soon, you’ll see yourself breezing through the floors with those arduous stair climbs little more than a memory.
This Pop-up Is Included in the Theme
Best Choice for Creatives
Purchase Now