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Body Phobias

The Fear of Choking – Pseudodysphagia

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The Excessive Fear of Choking

Do you feel nervous while eating because you fear you might choke?

Do you only eat soft foods because you’re afraid solids might get caught in your windpipe?

Are you skipping meals and losing weight because you’re scared to eat?

If so, you may suffer from the excessive fear of choking.

The fear of choking is somewhat normal when eating. However, if you are not eating at all or the fear is causing other health problems, you may need to seek help. The first step is to learn about the fear. Just understanding it will help you live a more happy and healthy life enjoying an array of delicious foods.

What Is the Fear of Choking?

The fear of choking is also known as pseudodysphagia or sitophobia. The names come from the Greek words phagein, meaning “eating,” sito meaning “food,” and phobos meaning “fear.” The fear of choking can cause a person to fear swallowing.

The fear itself is an irrational or unnatural fear that one will choke, die, or become ill when trying to eat solid foods. The severity of the fear can be in the form of only being able to eat small pieces of food with a liquid, only drinking liquids, or the inability to swallow medication. With this phobia, the person can have a large loss of weight or the reduction of needed vitamins and minerals, which may lead to devastating conditions that interfere in their daily lives.

The fear of choking is a rare disorder that is more commonly found in females as young as five and up to age 78.

What Causes the Fear of Choking?

In most cases, phobias can be linked to an experience in childhood. Pseudodysphagia can be caused by a reaction that occurred during an earlier time when swallowing food caused a person to choke, gag, or even possibly exhibit an embarrassing facial reaction that caused embarrassment. Once the reaction started, the brain automatically went into defense mode. Therefore, when eating or swallowing, the brain may react in the same manner, which would be to close off the esophagus, so the food cannot be swallowed.

Some research on the other hand associates the fear of choking with high anxiety or other psychiatric disorders such as agoraphobia or depression. The reason these disorders could be the cause is that tension and anxiety can cause the feeling of a lump in the throat due to the constricting throat muscles. When you become very anxious you may not be able to swallow at all, which brings on more fear.

Symptoms of Pseudodysphagia

There are both physical and psychological pseudodysphagia symptoms.

Physical Symptoms Include:

  • Avoiding hard or chewy food
  • Avoiding swallowing pills or tablets
  • Unusual tongue movement
  • Feeling pressure in the throat
  • Dizziness
  • Difficulty breathing
  • Fast heart rate
  • Will not eat in front of others

Psychological Symptoms of the Fear of Choking:

Treatments for Pseudodysphagia

Self-help: What Can I Do To Help Myself with Pseudodysphagia?

Pseudodysphagia treatments can be manageable according to the severity of your fear of choking. For instance, chew foods properly. Every bite of food can be chewed into little pieces and then swallowed with a liquid.

If your fear is severe, you can eat such foods as purees, baby food, and use such appliances as food processors to create healthy foods that are easily swallowed. The main idea is to ensure you are maintaining your proper weight and getting the nutrition your body needs to stay healthy.

Learn coping strategies. When you sit down to eat, stay calm. Anxiety, stress, or tension can trigger the choking feeling.

Meditation can also help by reducing anxiety and stress, which may also trigger the choking sensation. Watching television or listening to music has also been helpful for some individuals with pseudodysphagia. It helps them stay calm and enjoy a meal without added intensity when swallowing.

Professional Help Options

If your fear of choking is interfering with your life, such as excessive weight loss which may be causing other health problems, you may wish to seek professional help.

Professional help is available in the way of cognitive behavioral therapy and hypnotherapy.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is often offered for individuals with anxiety or depression disorders. The main goal of this type of therapy for pseudodysphagia is to learn to cope with the fear and the irrationality of the fear. Once you can analyze the fear, you will learn what tools will help you cope with the thoughts that bring on the feeling of choking. This in turn will reduce symptoms.

Hypnotherapy has also proven to be successful, especially in the case of adolescents that have lost a tremendous amount of weight. One 13-year-old girl received hypnosis sessions, began gaining weight, and was no longer fearful of swallowing.

Medications Used for Pseudodysphagia – Fear of Choking

According to the severity of your symptoms, your therapist may prescribe medications. Medications will not relieve you of the fear of choking but can provide some relief for the symptoms.

Anti-anxiety meds such as Xanax or Valium are prescribed if the fear of choking is bringing on panic attacks. In the majority of cases, the medication is taken on an as-needed basis or three times per day.

If you have depression along with pseudodysphagia, your therapist may prescribe antidepressants. Some patients with both anxiety and depression have success with such medications as Paxil, Lexapro, and Zoloft.

How to Avoid a Fear of Choking

As parents, we can help our children avoid developing the fear of choking by cutting up their food into small pieces. This will help ensure no choking incidents occur in their youth.

Childproofing your home is another way to minimize a child’s risk of a choking incident. Eliminating small objects which could be swallowed and caught in the windpipe will go a long way to avoiding a fear of choking in children.

Another key practice to eliminating possible choking incidents is to allow small children to only play with toys that are age appropriate. Toys with small parts may find their way into a child’s mouth and then be swallowed.

As an adult, to avoid the fear of choking, never talk with your mouth full.

To avoid choking, chew your food properly and never rush when eating.

Working through the Fear of Choking

If you are trying to overcome your fear of choking without therapy, you’ll need to remember that eating is essential to a healthy life. If you’re not progressing and begin losing weight, then you need to seek professional help. Other health issues can arise, such as restrictive food intake disorder, if you allow the fear of choking to control your life.

If you feel like you are having issues swallowing, it would be in your best interest to speak with your physician. The problem could be a physiological one, rather than pseudodysphagia. Once a physiological problem is ruled out, then you can learn ways to cope with your anxiety regarding the fear of choking. You can learn to enjoy eating again when you come to understand that the fear is irrational.

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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.
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