How to Overcome Fear of Gagging, Swallowing, and Choking

Do you inordinately fear gagging, swallowing, and choking, to the point that you are unable to do ordinary things like eat or have oral sexual intercourse? If so, you’re not alone. The sensation of having your throat close up, preparing to emit whatever’s in there, is not a pleasant one. It’s not designed to be. The gag reflex is designed to facilitate vomiting, which is one of your body’s foremost defenses against the ingestion of harmful substances. It’s also a defense against choking: your throat muscles contract in an effort to help your body emit the dangerous foreign substance blocking up your digestive passageways. Unfortunately, some people are so traumatized by the experience of gagging and choking that they develop a real phobia. They’re on the verge of panic whenever anything comes into contact with their esophagus. Every swallow of food becomes fraught with anxiety.

How Phobias Work

Unfortunately, the mind affects the body more than one would expect. Thus, the gag reflex and the sensation of fright are closely related to one another. Indeed, your mental state is large part of how your body determines whether or not to permit you to put an object into your throat. If you love to eat horseradish, and swallow a huge chunk of it in while in a calm and pleased state, your throat will readily accept what your mind perceives as a tasty morsel. On the other hand, if you hate horseradish and are convinced that your body cannot accept it, you throat might close up, and you might end up gagging.

A Self-Perpetuating Phobia

In other words, the anticipation of gagging on something will make you far more likely that you will gag. This doesn’t just apply to food, but to other foreign objects you insert into your throat and mouth, as well. If you stay calm while your dentist or throat doctor probes you, your visit will probably be free of incidents. On the other hand, if you become overtaken by a fear of gagging on the doctor’s implement, your throat will convulse, confirming your fear.

Don’t Fear Gagging, Swallowing, Or Choking Ever Again

As described in the previous paragraph, a severe preoccupation with the unpleasant sensation of your throat muscles contracting as they struggle to push out foreign objects, can become a severe impediment in your life (including your sex life). Fortunately, NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) and hypnotherapy techniques work very well to rid your mind of its unwanted responses.

NLP Re-Trains Your Mind

Whenever you experience the adverse reaction that leads to unwanted gagging, your mind follows a consistent, predictable thought pattern in response to a given stimulus (i.e. the sensation of something in your throat). Regardless of why your mind works that way, NLP techniques can help you re-condition it. Through a combination of NLP and hypnotherapy, you can learn how to put yourself into a calm, relaxed state of mind at will. Then, you can learn to associate that state with the same triggers that typically cause you to choke. In this way, after a few sessions of NLP and hypnotherapy, you’ll never need to fear gagging, swallowing, or choking ever again.