Is anyone else rubbish at swallowing pills and capsules?

[TsarChasm]

I've just bought a bottle of evening primrose capsules. I should have known better really. I am terrible at swallowing normal sized pills but these are huuuge (for me anyway)

I can still feel it in my throat now and that's after half a pint of water.

I was speaking to the pharmacist the other day about this. She was admiring my ability to swallow all my tablets, some of which are big, daily. I can now swallow my 3 largish gamolenic acid 80mg capsules in one go. I don't have any tips to give you, I'm sorry. It is probably a mix between what you think you can and can't swallow and the knack of swallowing. It's horrible when you feel it is still there. I hope that sensation goes soon.

try drinking straight from a bottle, the gulping helps swallow the tablet.

Eat a biscuit, you need to swallow something solid to disloge it.

You are not alone. I'm completely useless.

I have to push the pill right to the back to my tongue so that I'm almost gagging, then take a HUGE mouthful of water and swallow it while dramatically throwing my head back (as if I was tossing my luscious locks in a timotei advert....I wish). And even then the pills often don't go down.

The little contraceptive pills were the worst. They used to get stuck at the back of my throat and I could feel them for hours. Horrid.

i can only take capsules, pills like normal paracetomol make me gag. if i have to take them th0ugh, i find milk helps them go down better, probably because of it's thicker consistency.

I think it must be a mental block, for example I cant gargle mouthwash or anything else exept water

I'm terrible when it comes to tablets or medicines. I can't take any painkiller which is soluble. I gag and retch and have been known to be sick
I can't take any round tablets either unless they are broken into little pieces.
If it's a capsule shaped paracetamol/ibuprofen i'm not so bad! I can't take medicine either, such as Gaviscon or other indegestion medicines

The easiest way to do it - is to put the tablet behind your front teeth under your tongue and then take a big drink of water - several swallows. The way the water travels round your mouth just takes them down - it sounds mad but it does work. I read it in a journal and didn't really believe it until I tried it with 2 paracetamol tablets!

Rest the tablet on your back teeth, then drink.

Not your tongue, as that will make you gag.

It always, always works.

it has taken me years to be able to swallow tablets, and even now i have to mentally prepare for larger ones and absolutely can't do it without a large glass of water. For me this is linked to a choking incident in my childhood.

I used to shove the tablet right to the back of my tongue but the gagging it caused made it worse so now i just put the tablet in the middle of my tongue and drink large mouthfuls of water until the tablet goes down.

I can't take tablets. About 11 years ago, I went to A&E and was proscribed Antibiotics. I had to ask the pharmacy for them to be in liquid form... I got given 9 Bottles of the stuff and was told to drink 1/3 of a bottle a day (I think, it was quite a bit I remember that much).

Recently I was looking at Ritalin tablets (a child I work with has them) and they contain Wheat. I do wonder how many other tablets contain wheat... as that may be part of the reason in my case, why my body is rejecting the tablet once it is detected in my mouth. I don't eat a lot of wheat... can just about tolerate a small amount of pasta (which is wet and slimy).

I suspect it is part psychological and part the bodies reflex action of preventing a foreign body entering the body.

DD used to be like that, when she turned from child medicine to adult tablets. We practiced with tictac!

Lol at least I'm not alone. Some handy tips to try though - thanks for those I'll be giving them a go.

I think HedgeWitch is quite right. It must be all in my mind because I certainly do swallow bigger bits of food. No trouble with big pieces of cake going down Maybe if I had a mental block on those things I'd be doing myself a favour

Some people have no trouble. My dad can swallow pills with no drink at all if necessary. I am in awe.

And Gladbag, yes! When I used to take those little contraceptive pills they always got annoyingly stuck! I thought that was just me there. I never liked to admit to that one because they are only so tiny. I mean how ridiculous to have trouble even swallowing one of those

I could never swallow tablets without choking or gagging. My pharmacist friend told me to have a drink first so the mouth is wet and in that moment I could swallow my first tablet. Sometimes I still get stuck but I say swallow swallow to myself, remind myself I can do it, and since I am on long term tablets it is a good job I can now do it. HTH.