Posted 4/30/2014 3:16 PM (GMT 0)
Hello,
I'm new here but when I googled my symptoms this forum came up... I am a 28 year old female from Southern California and I was wondering if any of you had any experience with what I'm going through... I suffer from Panic Disorder and my psychologist suggested that I try eating a mint every time I feel like I'm going to panic (which, as you can imagine, is quite often)... It worked remarkably well, I started associating the taste of mint to calming, and I started to conquer my panic without the use of drugs, however, without them I felt like I would die, I kept them on me at all times, and whenever the conversation turned to me, or I felt like I was in the spotlight, or on a plane, or any situation that was tense, I'd eat mints like popcorn. Well, a few years of this caught up to me, first I got 7 cavities in 6 months from tic-tacs, then when that happened, I switched to sugar free mints (Altoids Minis) which contains Sorbitol... Eventually (about 2 years in) these started giving me heartburn, so I switched to Ice Breakers mints which contains Malitol, Sorbitol and Aspertame (for about a year- I was eating a half a pack to a pack a day, 25-52)... Well, about three weeks ago, I started noticing a burning pain in my chest and the feeling of food getting stuck in my throat every time I ate something hard, like an apple or a cracker... The feeling of food being stuck in my throat lasted for hours, sometimes 12-14 hours, causing me to panic even more. It's been 3 weeks without mints, and I thought I was getting better but last night (after a boring day of steamed broccoli, tuna and steamed zuchinni) I ate a few triscuit crackers before bed because I was craving carbs... Bad idea! The esophogeal spasm or globus feeling came back full stop, and kept me up all night... It feels like something is stuck right below my adams apple, or sort of like I have to burp but I can't. I've had endoscopies and colonoscopies for stomach issues before (they never found anything- just a hiatal hernia), but never had to deal with anything like this before... The feeling is so akin to choking that I don't know how serious it is. My husband offered to take me to the hospital last night but I didn't think that would help. It's much better this morning but still noticeably painful and the globus sensation is still there (albeit less than last night)... My question is this, how long does the esophagus take to heal from something like chemical irritation? Will I be unable to eat hard foods forever? Should I go get scoped again and go through all the stress of that, or just be strict with my diet until I am properly healed? Could I have given myself an esophageal ulcer? Thank you all in advance!