I'm eliminating my gag reflex.

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So I'm emetophobic and I've been working to eliminate my gag reflex for my own peace of mind. I mainly do it with my toothbrush and have been working on it for awhile. I have it (the reflex) pushed really far back and pretty weak/almost gone as of right now. I can put my fingers all the way in my mouth without gagging too, although this causes me some anxiety in general. Anybody have success with this? My reflex used to be really strong but I'm impressed with my progress.

Best way to overcome something is to embrace. I had the same thing, for some reason I knew it was relating to the act of vomiting. I never knew the terminology for it though.

But I'd take a guess that's not something you want to do, as you want to avoid it altogether.


So... How about filattio? Seriously. Get a toy or something and practice on that.

<_<

I got over my fear by just self inducing. Now it's gone. Bye bye fear.

That only gets rid of throwing up as a result from gagging, which in 25 years I've never come close to doing.. I don't know if it'll serve you any benefit.

I just don't like gagging regardless. I used to gag every day due to anxiety.

My friend has this phobia, so I know a little about it.

With any phobia I would suggest rather than full immersion, CBT which includes behavioral and cognitive aspects.

I wish I could kill my gag reflex. I constantly have problems with my throat, including an excess buildup of mucus and phlegm, soreness, not to mention a sensitivity to many smells that causes me to cough all the time. I often have trouble swallowing things and keeping them down as well. Food sometimes gets caught in my nasal cavity too, which is really annoying.

My gag reflex is quite strong.

It took me a lot of effort to become able to swallow a pill. Before that, I always had to chew them up before swallowing.

What really bothered me was during some dental work last year when the dentist put some cotton in my mouth. I was nearly in a panic over that.

Gag reflex is different than emetophobia.

There are some really great breathing and soft pallet exercises you can do to gain control over involuntary actions in that department. Ayurvedic medicine kinda has an answer for everything. LOL.

One thing that keeps popping up in my research is the power of visualization. Basically anything you can do, from sleeping less to deepening your resting breath, from inventing a new product, to memorizing the phone book can, from breaking the world power lifting record, to landing a date with your crush, can be achieved with the real faith that you can do it, and visualizing it is a powerful tool to helping you acquire that faith. Confidence was the only performance enhancer Mike Tyson ever needed, and he was one of the greatest boxers of all time. Also, visualizing the performance of an action in your mind, actually stimulates many of the same neurological pathways in the brain as actually performing that action because of the way that mirror neurons function. If you don't know about mirror neurons, do yourself a favor and youtube that stuff. It turns out that watching someone else do something, also mimics doing it yourself on a neurological level. So its a great way to repeatedly practice doing something you'd much rather not do once. Don't believe me?, try watching a hot sauce eating contest on youtube. If you're not sweating by the end of it, you can call me a liar!

Good luck sweetheart!

They call me Ben, thanks for letting me share!