Why can't I ever swallow pills?

Question

I hate being sick because being sick means I have to swallow pills, and I can't, so I always get the liquid kind. My dad says that there's not going to be liquid medicine for everything. Everyone tells me to put the pill in some applesauce or a banana, and just swallow it. But every time I do that, I freak out, I start choking, and spit out the pill. My dad gets angry at me because he says I'm acting like a child. Is this really childish? Or is this normal?

Thanks :]

Oh, and my dad acts like that because he hates it when I get sick because he doesn't want anything bad to happen to me. It's weird, I know, but he isn't mean or anything.

My dad isn't impatient! Agh, it may seem like that from what I'm typing, but he's the most patient person ever, he just gets scared whenever one of his children gets sick, it's just who he is.

Answer 1

It's all in your head. You're scared of swallowing them so you're mind tells you not to do it and your body responds. Place the pill on the middle of your tongue and start gulping down water really fast. Don't stop until you've finished most of the glass. As for your other question, I don't think it's "childish." It's okay if you have a problem swallowing pills as long as you're trying.

Answer 2

When I was younger I could NEVER swallow pills either. It would always get stuck in my throat and I would gag!

What works for me is to put the water in my mouth FIRST, THEN the pill(s). Just gulp the water down and the pill(s) will go with it. I was on 1000 milligrams of Advil for back pain, and I could swallow all 5 200mg pills at once using this method. It works great.

Answer 3

I had the same problem. You just need to relax, don't even think that it's there. Put the pill in your mouth, take a big sip of water and let the pill float down.

When I was a kid, I was sick all the time. I had to get over the pill thing. Eventually, you will too.

Answer 4

You have a very well-developed sense of natural healing: pills are not the lifesavers some would make them out to be. What do you think of this:

"I was doing some research online
and came across a report by a sewer worker who talked about how he hates cleaning sewer traps, not because
of the smell, but because of all the undissolved
vitamin and prescription pills clogging the traps.
Some of them he said still have the brand
name visible.

Mind you, he wasn't speaking of a few pills,
but tens of thousands. They collect buckets
of them every month.

So why don't the pills dissolve?

The reason is due to high metallic content of
these pills. Metallic minerals like oyster shells,
carbonates, oxides and dolomites have the
consistency of crushed up rocks, which our
bodies were not designed to digest. Even those
pills listed as "natural" often have added
fillers and coatings that inhibit absorption.

The Physician's Desk Reference (page 1542)
shows that vitamins and minerals in a pill form
are only 10 to 20% absorbed by the body. That
means for every $100 you are spending on
nutrients, you are literally flushing about $90
of it down the toilet.

After reading that, I knew there had to
be a better way.

I learned that nutritional drinks offer a 98%
absorption rate because they bypass the
digestive process and go directly into the
blood stream and into the cells within a
matter of minutes."

Prevention is the way to go!

Answer 5

My mother couldn't swallow pills either. She actually had to crush all her pills.

No it's not normal but there are others like you who can't swallow pills either. As well you can pretty much get liquid medicine for just about anything. They would just need to give you a larger dose seeing as liquids are usually for kids. Which means you would need more, which means more money. Is it childish? I would have to say no. My mother wasn't childish. Sounds like your dad is impatient.

Answer 6

Some people can't swallow pills. I have a friend who is almost 40 and she never has been able to swallow pills. She just puts it in her mouth then right behind it puts a piece of bread. But she still gags once in a while. Just calm down. If your dad wouldn't get so upset, you probably wouldn't either. He shouldn't be that way.

Answer 7

The next time you have to swallow a pill, pop the pill in your mouth, FILL you mouth with water, throw your head back and SWALLOW. You are probably afraid of the gagging feeling and therefore baulk at swallowing. Keep trying, you'll succeed, it's not childish.

Answer 8

Here we go, perfect solution. Do this: Take a good sip of water, hold the water in your mouth. Pop the pills in and then swallow the pills with the water already in your mouth. It'll go down like its nothing. Trust me this will work.

Answer 9

This is what I do... and I'm able to swallow 2, sometimes 3 pills at once!

Just put the pill(s) in the back of your mouth and start chugging water. Forget the pill is in your mouth and just concentrate on getting the water down. The pill will just slip on down your throat w/o you noticing.

You're psyching yourself out too much that you're probably closing your throat and not even realizing it.

Just remember, "CHUG & SWALLOW! CHUG & SWALLOW!"

Answer 10

It is a panic disorder high anxiety basically your brain goes into defense mode and you just cant swallow it I used to have it happen all the time until I just got over it I have no problem now just think it is not big enough to block your wind pipe you are not going to choke to death just take half at a time with a big gulp of water it will be fine.