Quote:
Originally Posted by WishfulThinker66
I feel for you. While I personally do not have such a fear, my husband has it for other people. I am unsure what you would call this phobia. He is very fearful those around him might be choking. The slightest cough I or others make while eating and he is on alert and overly concerned and even frightened. I have gotten in the habit of having to give him a thumbs up on such occasions. When we eat out he gets visibly anxious if he hears someone across the room cough.
This obsession and vigilance he has however has in fact saved a life.
Your worry is no joke. I can appreciate the concern you have and sympathize with the anxiety which is affecting your life.
Are there things though that can do to lessen this fear? Perhaps if you learned how to self-save? One can perform the Heimlich maneouvre on themselves easily and successfully. Would learning this maybe increase your confidence?
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Thank you for the kind words. And I’m sorry to hear your husband deals with a similar phobia. I truly would not wish this phobia on my worst enemy. It’s easily the worst manifestation of my mental illness I’ve ever dealt with and I worry about it all day. I took your advice and looked up ways to perform the Heimlich on myself and it did give me a bit of confidence eating. Unfortunately, I also read lots of comments about people choking on various foods and got a little triggered. I am just really eager to see my therapist next Friday but two weeks of waiting has been really challenging. I cry a little inside anytime I hear people talk about food or I smell food. I’m a huge foodie and I feel like I’ve been gutted of a huge part of me. But I definitely will be posting updates of my progress with EMDR. I’ve read case studies on its treatment of choking phobias and the results a pretty miraculous. I’m just so impatient! Lol