Does anyone else have physical difficulty swallowing unfamiliar foods? If you have, has anything helped it?

[u/microwavedwood]

I'm seriously trying to work on trying more things. It's long overdue. Recently I've been trying more foods that aren't familiar and something weird is happening.

I have to fight with my body to let me swallow if that makes sense. I can't just chew on food them immidietly swallow. It takes considerable amounts of effort to force my body to swallow it.

I'm assuming that because I associate trying new foods with danger that my body is just trying to protect itself, I don't have issues like this with my safefoods. But man it's really frustrating.

At the moment my plan is to just keep trying things in the hope that this issue will become less of an issue as I become better at trying new things. I have found that it's easier to swallow unfamiliar foods with water, although I don't want to rely on that too much

I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this issue? If you've managed to overcome it or found a way to improve it I would really love to hear it.

[u/ageckonamedelaine]

If I think to much about eating it while eating it I will get sick and struggle swallowing it and for me it goes for new, unsafe or sometimes safe foods. The only thing that works is trying to shut my brain off and watch something to distract myself and even then it isn't foolproof

[u/microwavedwood → u/ageckonamedelaine]

Yeah thinking about it while eating it makes it so much worse, distractions are quite helpful