Choking on Saliva/ Uncontrollable swallowing and air in esophagus

I have recently started experiencing this infrequently. It can happen with saliva, fruit juices or plain water. It happened in the gym while drinking water from a plastic bottle. It was scary. I bent forward like touching my feet, 180 degrees from erect position and coughed hard hoping to let gravity work on the bit of liquid that went to my breathing tube. It took quite a while but finally I felt it must have gone out. My eyes were watery and I was tired. I am 72 and real scared if it starts to happen more often. Why I see no reasonable cause posted by a physician surprises me.

its a condition called ptyalism
google it

I think drowning in your own spit, is a very real fear....I have forced breath into my own lungs to prevent this "drowning" upwards of 6  times....the feeling I have when I wake with lungs full of spit, it is un like any thing I could describe in reality. I have heaved air into my lungs to avoid the suffocation of death......I have heaved like a birthing cow to get air in there, it has been loud....but frigging nescessary. I have woken my mother in law with these sounds...I no longer sleep on my back, and I am concious of that fact when I am asleep. The sound......I know it.....it is some kind of whoooooop

 

I recently had the same terrifying experience of suddenly being unable to breath as described in most of these posts.

I have been to see a specialist.  He diagnosed that I had suffered from my larynx going into spasm.

This was caused by the reflux of acid from my stomach.   This also manifests itself in other ways.

I am now on medication to reduce my stomach acid.

He told me that while it is terrifying, it is not life-threatening when this happens.

If the condition, when it occurs, did not resolve itself in a few minutes I would faint.

It would then be self-solving.   Because having fainted my larynx would have relaxed and so back to normal.

Pretty neat.  Also makes the prospect of any recurrence understandable and acceptable.  But a recurrence is not now expected.

Hope this helps.

I have posted this because I was grateful for the posts which I read after I had experienced this and was so worried.

Good luck.

This happpened to me several times over a period of weeks when I was about 10 or 11 years old.  The diagnosis was something vague - something was causing my larynx to spasm.  This was over 35 years ago and I guess people were much more cavalier because I was not tested for anything and eventually the symptoms went away on their own.  However, it just happened again yesterday.  I was diagnosed with reflux a couple of years ago when I started having attacks of coughing for no reason.  They felt a little like choking, but more like when you just get a tiny crumb down the wrong way and it makes you cough a lot and makes your eyes and nose run, but you can still breathe.  It's just irritating.  I was put on Prilosec which caused me to become anemic, so I gradually stopped taking it and have tried to manage the symptoms by eating smaller amounts at a time and keeping coffee and white flour to a minimum.  (Those 2 things are the only things I have been able to identify as probable triggers so far.  Even decaf coffee causes it.)  However, yesterday, I was reaching for a bottle on an upper shelf at the grocery store and the bottle fell and hit me in the face.  This caused me to gasp in pain, but I picked up the bottle off the floor while I was still gasping and either leaning over or the shock of getting hit in the eye with the bottle caused me to have a bad attack of whatever this is and I could barely breathe at all, just like when I was a kid. I don't know if it was a reflux issue or something else.  My reflux has been under pretty good control lately.  It was terrifying.  I'm going back to my ENT specialist tomorrow.  I don't ever want to go through this again.  I don't want acid suppressors, though, because I don't feel like I have too much acid and when I was on Prilosec I felt like things just sat in my stomach forever and didn't digest.  I am curious to know what the doctor will say about this.

The EXACT same thing is happening with me. Everything you described is exactly what I'm going through. The small air pockets, the midnight suffering all of it :( idk what to do. Plz help?

I get this quite frequently.  My doctor prescribed a very low dose of Ativan to put under my tongue to calm me right down (the side effect might be drowsiness but it is such a low dose that it isn't too bad).  It helped until I was able to learn to manage my fear and calm down on my own and try to get a deep breath.  I still have it on hand for episodes that I don't feel I can manage on my own. Hope this helps for some of you out there.

I have had this since I was a young child and eventually I asked the doctor about this and he prescribed a very low dosage of Ativan to put under my tongue when I had an episode to help relax my muscles and my trachea. I used this quite often but usually try to calm myself down first. I still have it on hand for those times when I feel I need it, but it does make me feel a little drowsy but not to the point that I can't drive. Hope this helps.

Yea im 14 and im also experiencing this but i lose my breath and panic/choke and im nonstop swallowing too is it normal for a teen to go through this and i feel like theres liquid stuck in my chest

Hi Everyone,

 

This choking on salive has happened to me about 4 times in the past year.   I saw an ENT doctor, who told me it's laryngial gerd.   He said to try to avoid caffaine.   Well, yesterday, after drinking some very strong iced tea, it happened again.   I guess he was right.   I will not have another iced tea for a long while!   I so appreciate all of your responses.   It is such a scary thing, and now I'm worried it will happen again.   It's so awful, and so scary.   Stay away from caffeine!

Hi all,  so glad I found this I knew if it happened to me it happened to others..my doc thought was anx which really annoyed me as it was not this at all i wasnt anx when it happened - it just happened out of the blue like others described sometimes the tiny drip/saliva thing then bam airways completely close up your literally choking down on your hands and knees for ab 5 secs then a tiny bit of air gets through - last time it happened i could feel lots of phlem stuck in my airways so after reading all these posts it seems our bodies is doing this to prevent water from going into our lungs like due to a discrepency somewhere in our throats.  I have rhinitis for which i take nasal spray, and funnily enough its only being happening me in the last few yrs which co-incides with when i seen the ent and got diagnosed with rhinitis(thinning of the nose airways) before this i constantly couldn't breathe through my nose had always got sinus infections leading to bronchial infections, this was torture as i also have breathing problems in my chest which is seperate caused by weak chest muscles - fibromyalgia.  Least we know its not going to kill us thats the main thing, its very scary and horrible and i hope it doesnt happen me when i go back to work as that would be embarressing..drs dont know everything you know your body better than anyone but they can make you feel so inferior when you talk about something they've no clue of.

Hi all. I have the same type of issue. I end up coughing maybe 4 times a day though. It's especially bad after I wake up. I've had a cookie swallow (barium test), throat scope, and chest x-ray and still no clue :(

 

Does it seem to anyone else that it's more mucus than saliva? It seems my nose never runs any more because it goes down my throat then I choke on it.

This started for me about a year ago—almost always while I'm sleeping. It used to be once a month or so, but over the past six weeks it has become more frequent, to the point that it happens nearly every time I fall asleep. It usually happens within the first hour of sleep or so, but not always. The main difference in what I am experiencing is that my coughing does produce liquid, but it doesn't feel like I am throwing up, and my stomach feels fine. The closest thing I can compare it to is when you swallow water while swimming. I can't breathe, it is terrifying, and I usually bolt right out of bed, force myself to be calm, and cough up the liquid into the sink. Other times I wake up coughing with a puddle of it already on the bed.

I am so relieved to have found this thread and to learn that I am not alone in this terrible experience and that its not just 'in my head'.  Like so many others, I found this thread after just having a terrifying episode.  It always starts with feeling like a few drops of saliva have gone down the wrong tube- occasionally with water too but this has improved over time on its own.  Then I feel like I am drowning and I can't take in breaths and I make this horrible wheezing sound as I desperately gasp for air.  It is incredibly difficult not to panic.  Again, like so many others, I try to stay calm and breath slowly especially through my nose.  It passes in a few minutes and sooner if I can stay calm.  I often feel like I need to keep clearing my throat for an extended period of time after the episode.  Like my lungs are trying to bring up fluid or there is fluid always caught just at the back of my throat teetering on the edge of my wind pipe.  So terrifying.

I looked up the laryngospsm video by Dr. Robert Bastian of Bastian Voice Institute and I am amazed! It looks like EXACTLY what is happening to me.  I am so relieved to have the problem identified.  and I am even more relieved that it does not seem like its life threatening (because it sure FEELS life threatening when it happens! 

thank you so much for sharing your experience and resources

health peace and good breathing to everyone

 

Hi just found this site as i have just had an attack but this is the worse i have ever had!! Really thought i was gonna die!! I have had these sudden attacks of choking on my own saliva for years. I went to the doctors and he said it was panic attacks but i know its not as i know that something, usually my own saliva, has gone down the wrong way. I have learnt not to panic and that really helps to get through it by staying calm but this time i have had a little cough and suffering mucus in my throat. this was blocking my throat and i could see stars in front my eyes. I was scared this time and i hope someone finds out what it is! when i was young i daaged my windpipe in an accident and always wondered if this could be connected .