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Thyroid Disorder or Phobia???
Hello, I'm a 48 year old woman and for the past 2 months I have had a problem of swallowing my saliva because I tend to choke on it .....now to add insult to injury now for the past week it has become a problem for me to swallow food.....this situation is driving me crazy & makinking my life a living HELL....when I try to eat I start to have a panic attack and brought to tears for fear of choking.....I'm starving & losing weight....I've been told that it could be a Thyroid condition.....but I think it could be a Phobia because it seems when I'm not too conscious of it I'm okay......PLEASE HELP! Thank you!
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COMMUNITY LEADER
We haven't seen her since this thread, so none of us knows. We can only hope that she got adequate treatment for whichever it turned out to be.
Thank you ...I will make an appt. for an Endocrinologist.....thank you for your help.
Thank you for recommending the website to me ...and your response was very helpful....yes, now I really believe it is my thyroid......I will see a doctor and request the test you referred to me.....thank you again.
Thank you very much for your response...I truly believe what you said is absolutely what's happening to me....a year ago I had blood work done and was told I had an hyper thyroid....and I do suffer from panic attacks....you have been very helpfull....I will see a doctor. Thank you!
You need to see an Endocrinologist and determine if your thyroid is enlarged, he will either do, or send you for an ultrasound. Good Luck FTB4
If I were a betting man I think I would put my money on thyroid rather than phobia. So I recommend that have a look at the typical hypo symptoms in this link and see if some of them seem familiar to you.
http://thyroid.about.com/cs/basics_starthere/a/hypochecklist.htm
If so, I recommend that you go to the doctor and request that you be tested for possible thyroid problems. Specifically I would test for the thyroid antibodies, TPO ab and TG ab. Also, Free T3 and Free T4 (not total T3 and total T4), TSH. Also ask for an ultrasound exam of the thyroid gland area. If you want, when test results are available, then get a copy of the lab report and post test results and reference ranges and members will be glad to help interpret and advise further.
http://thyroid.about.com/cs/basics_starthere/a/hypochecklist.htm
If so, I recommend that you go to the doctor and request that you be tested for possible thyroid problems. Specifically I would test for the thyroid antibodies, TPO ab and TG ab. Also, Free T3 and Free T4 (not total T3 and total T4), TSH. Also ask for an ultrasound exam of the thyroid gland area. If you want, when test results are available, then get a copy of the lab report and post test results and reference ranges and members will be glad to help interpret and advise further.
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I did a lot of research on peer reviewed studies that show the correlation between thyroid disease and anxiety disorders. I believe our bodies provoke a fear response that becomes routine for us. This causes real phobias! As was suggested above, get the necessary testing. You could have a goiter. When mine swells, I have issues swallowing. Your tsh could also be off which causes phobias. I take some natural things to help panic, and they do help, but if my tsh is out of whack, my terrible panic comes back. If it is normal, I feel tremendously better.
What happens is your body had a very real response. You choked. This turned into a fear or phobia. Now it is probably a combination of real choking and fear. I hope you can find some answers. Good luck!