This hit me out of the blue about 6 months ago and scared the crap out of me. Lying in bed one night, feeling absolutely fine, I suddenly couldn’t swallow and thought I was about to choke to death. I jumped in the car, headed to A & E at some speed and after a 5-hour wait was basically told it’s all in the mind, go home and you’ll be fine. I went to see the GP the following day who did a bit more of a check and confirmed that it’s basically a panic attack.
At the time our daughter was still waking up several times a night and the advice was to get some decent kip. Three nights in the spare room with Mrs. Sturmeyarcher doing all the getting up sorted me out and I haven’t had it since (sprog now sleeps through though).
A bit of research suggests that stress and lack of sleep are very common triggers. I think it’s also the condition that prompted Mr. Alexander to develop his imaginatively named Alexander Technique after he kept being clobbered by it when speaking in public. Good posture and slow deliberate breathing certainly helped along with understanding the mechanics what was happening and I couldn’t actually choke.
When it hit the things I did were; tell yourself that everything is OK, you’re not going to choke, it’s just the brain being daft, don’t force the swallow, breath, relax, get some kip.
Good luck, I hope you work it out.
