Speech Anxiety - Excessive Swallowing
Problems with excessive swallowing due to speech anxiety...
Anxiety Question:
Anyone have problems with excessive swallowing due to speech anxiety?
If I have to read or speak in public, I suddenly cannot control my swallowing. I will swallow involuntarily in the middle of a sentence and it causes me extreme distress. I have a lot of anxiety issues with this.
Has anyone else experienced this or am I a total freak?
Anxiety Answer:
No, it's a natural reaction to stress.
When you have speech anxiety - your eyes dilate, your saliva glands start working overtime, you start to breathe faster and your mouth and nose start to take in more oxygen making your mouth water and causes your throat to expand and contract, making you swallow.
Do you take any medicine for your speech anxiety?
I take clonazepam for my panic attacks, but mine are bad. I totally shut down mentally and start to cry uncontrollably.
All I can say is take deep cleansing breathes and mentally do something like count from 10 to 1 in your head and calm down in your head.
And keep a glass of water near you when you speak. It can give you a pause to control your breathing and swallowing, even if you’re not drinking it, just bring it to your mouth like you’re drinking and it's a pause that gives a moment to calm down.
More about speech anxiety:
- How to avoid speech anxiety when speaking in front of a class?
- I get bad speech anxiety when I speak in front of people...
- An anxiety cure for public speaking other than drugs?
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