Don't Know

Hi everyone,

I'm new here and I am hoping to gain some more support through this community. The best way I can describe my disorder is a fear of choking. It started in March of 2021. I was riding in the car with my fiance at the time and I started eating a pretzel when all of a sudden I had the sensation that I was choking. I quickly coughed it up and tried again but the same thing happened. At this point I was really freaked out as was my fiance. I tried other food but that feeling of choking kept coming back. I even struggled to eat ice cream. So this goes on like this for a couple of weeks and eventually with a lot of focus I'm able to eat somewhat normally though it is still a struggle at this point. Things like steak and mozzarella sticks are still unthinkable for me to eat.

A few months later I finally went to a therapist. I told her what was going on and she thought I might have ARFID. I'm not sure if that is right or not.

Anyways, the big issue I have now is that I chew my food so much that my jaw muscles are constantly in pain and I have really, really bad headaches because of it. If anyone else is experiencing these symptoms or has experienced them in the past I would love to connect! Also, if anyone has any information pertaining to symptoms such as these I would love your feedback. From looking around online I don't see much of anything on this. This makes me feel alone and kind of helpless too. This really just sucks all around and I so want to recover from this and enjoy eat food again!

-J