There are people for whom eating any solid food can become a distressing moment, and not because they reject the food itself, but because, when they have to swallow it, they have a great fear of swallowing and choking from choking on the food. This fear is usually persistent and totally unjustified, appearing what is known as phagophobia or fear of swallowing.
The appearance of this fear is also linked to the taking of medicines in pills or tablets, for which can make it difficult for those who suffer from this phobia to follow medical treatment correctly.
Index
- Has a psychological origin
- It could be dangerous
- Causes of phagophobia
It has a psychological origin.
The difficulty in swallowing is totally psychological, since when patients go to the ENT and he examines their esophagus, finds nothing abnormal that can justify said difficulty swallowing. However, that does not make the fear of patients disappear, who may suffer severe malnutrition for fear of eating, reaching even to eat only liquid or easy-to-swallow foods after they have been thoroughly chewed to avoid choking.
It could be dangerous.
However, their behavior is not gratuitous, since the fear of swallowing is given by the sensation that the patient has of a narrowing of the throat when they go to swallow, which translates into the fear that the food will be crossed in the esophagus or even pass into the respiratory system and cause death by suffocation.
Causes of phagophobia.
Usually this phobia is associated with:
- Choking experiences.
- Situations of great anxiety.
- Panic attacks.
That cause the sensation of narrowing of the throat and of difficulty to eat. Therefore, one of the main ways to treat this ailment is to get patients to relax to help swallowing, as well as exercises to relax the muscles of the face or divert attention when chewing or swallow.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to Phagophobia, fear of swallowing, we recommend that you enter our category of Clinical psychology.
