Choking Feeling Anxiety Symptoms

Causes

A choking in the throat feeling is a common symptom of stress, including anxiety-caused stress. Here are some of the ways anxiety can cause this symptom:

1. The Stress Response (acute stress)

Anxious behavior, such as worry, activates the stress response, causing many body-wide changes that prepare the body for emergency action – to fight or flee. This survival reaction is often referred to as the fight or flight response.[1][2]

Visit the “Stress Response” article for more information about the many physical, psychological, and emotional changes it causes.

Some of the stress response changes include:

• Quickly converts the body’s energy reserves into “fuel” (blood sugar) to provide an instant boost of energy.
• Increases heart rate, respiration, and metabolism due to the boost in energy.
• Stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, increasing nervous system activity to be more sensitive and reactive to danger.
• Heightens most of the body’s senses to be more aware of danger.
• Increases activity in the amygdala (considered the brain’s fear center) so that our attention is focused on the threat and decreases activity in the pre-frontal cortex (considered the executive function area of the brain) so that our attention isn’t distracted.
• Shunts blood to parts of the body vital to survival, such as the brain, arms, legs, and vital organs, and away from parts less vital for survival, such as the stomach, digestive system, and skin. It accomplishes this by constricting blood vessels in certain parts of the body and dilating them in others.
• Suppresses digestion so that most of the body’s resources are available for emergency action.
• Tightens muscles to make the body more resilient to injury.
• Suppresses the immune system so that most of the body’s resources are used for emergency action.
• Increases respiration to accommodate the increase in heart rate.
• Suppresses salivation since the digestive system is suppressed (saliva is an important part of the digestion process).

To name a few

Some of these changes can cause a choking feeling. For instance:

• Tightened muscles, including the muscles in the throat,[1] can cause a “choking” feeling.

• Reduced saliva can dry out the mouth and throat, causing a choking feeling.

• Increased respiration can also dry out the mouth and throat, causing a choking feeling.

• Hyperventilation caused by increased respiration can also cause a choking feeling in the throat.

• Increased sensory perception can increase the sensations in the throat, causing a choking feeling.

• Suppressed digestion can cause a choking feeling in the throat.

Having a choking feeling is a common acute anxiety symptom (acute stress).

2. Hyperstimulation (chronic stress)

Frequently activating the stress response, such as from overly anxious behavior, can leave the body in a state of semi-stress-response-readiness, which we call “stress-response hyperstimulation” since stress hormones are powerful stimulants.

Hyperstimulation is also often referred to as “hyperarousal,” “HPA axis dysfunction,” or “nervous system dysregulation.”[3][4]

Visit our “Hyperstimulation” article for more information about the many ways hyperstimulation can affect the body and how we feel.

Hyperstimulation can cause the changes of an active stress response even though a stress response hasn’t been activated.

Having a choking feeling is a common symptom of hyperstimulation (chronic stress).

For instance, the esophagus has two valves (swallowing tube). They are normally lightly contracted.

When you want to swallow, they relax to allow whatever you want to swallow to pass into the stomach. Once the material has passed, these valves gently squeeze closed again to prevent regurgitation of the stomach contents.

When the body’s stimulation is normal, we don’t notice this action or its associated sensations because we’ve become used to how it feels — this mechanism and its actions become consciously invisible.

But when the body becomes hyperstimulated, it can cause a heightened awareness of these sensations because the muscles in this area become tighter, causing them to feel tighter, different, or unusual.

Remember, stress causes muscles to tighten. Tight muscles can feel tight and unusual, raising our conscious awareness of them.

The higher the degree of stress (including anxiety-caused stress), the more likely your body will produce sensations and symptoms of stress, including this one.[2]

Hyperstimulation can cause a choking sensation in other ways, too. For instance:

• Mild throat infection: A chronically suppressed immune system can allow bacteria and viruses to invade, causing inflammation due to the early onset or persistence of a cold or flu, leading to frequent swallowing and causing a choking feeling in the throat.

• Stomach and digestive problems: A chronically suppressed digestive system can cause stomach and digestive problems, such as bloating, nausea, and acid reflux, which can create a choking feeling in the throat.

• Sinus infection: A chronically suppressed immune system can also lead to sinus infections. Post-nasal drip can cause chronic swallowing, leading to a choking feeling in the throat.

• Nervous and sensory systems hypersensitivity: Hyperstimulation can keep the nervous and sensory systems hyperactive, causing an increase in throat sensitivity and a chronic choking feeling.

• Chronically tight muscles: Hyperstimulation can keep muscles chronically tight, including the muscle in the throat, causing a chronic choking feeling.

• Muscle spasms of the throat muscles: Chronically tight muscles, including the muscles in the throat, can lead to cricopharyngeal spasms (spasms in the upper esophagus).

• Nervous swallowing: Hyperstimulation can cause people swallow more when anxious, which can irritate the throat, causing a choking feeling.

Each person can experience this sensation uniquely when stress elevates since each body is chemically and physically unique.

For example, some people experience this symptom to a great degree, whereas others might not get this symptom at all.

Thankfully, there is minimal danger of choking or suffocating under normal conditions. However, some people are sensitive to their throat, so caution should be exercised when eating and swallowing. Chewing food thoroughly and slowly will prevent inadvertently swallowing something that may provoke gagging or choking.

This symptom can vary in intensity, come and go sporadically, and intensify and persist if we become focused on it. In fact, most of us have a mild pressure in the throat if we look for it. But because our attention is focused elsewhere, we become consciously unaware of it, making the feeling seem like it's not there.

This is like many bodily sensations: they appear when we focus on them, but because our attention is generally diverted to other things, we aren’t consciously aware of them.

This symptom is often referred to as “Globus pharyngeus” (it used to be called globus hystericus).[5][6]

3. Other Factors

Other factors can create stress and cause anxiety-like symptoms, as well as aggravate existing anxiety symptoms, including:

• Medication
• Recreational drugs
• Stimulants
• Sleep deprivation
• Fatigue
• Hyper and hypoventilation
• Low blood sugar
• Nutritional deficiencies
• Dehydration
• Hormone changes
• Pain

Select the relevant link for more information.