Death by Stringy Cheese
Have you ever worried of choking on stringy cheese? Maybe it has happened to you before. That feeling of stringy cheese half way down your throat connected to the cheese still in your mouth — making you choke and putting you into instant panic mode with only two options:
1. Choke to death
2. Put your fingers in your mouth and start pulling.
I chose the latter, and although embarrassing it saved my life on a few occasions.
For the longest time I had a fear of eating pizza at Pizza Hut. Its not that the place was dirty or ran by substandard management, but because of an incident I had there when I was younger.
My mom is a big fan of Pizza Hut, especially their Canadian pizza (bacon, ham…). So, when it was mother’s day or someones birthday we often would go to Pizza Hut to celebrate. Everyone was excited, I on the other hand was already sweating in anticipation of my arch rival – stringy cheese!
When I was younger I had an unfortunate incident where while I was eating a piece of Pizza Hut pizza…half of it half remained suspended between my mouth and throat by, you guessed it, that damn hot stringy cheese. This of course through me into a panic attack, fearing the worst, death by cheese. I choked and rushed to pull out the lodge pizza in my throat by using the best way I knew how… hand in mouth.
Ever since that dreadful day, I feared that it would happen again. And often because I feared it would happen, it did. Go figure.
So, how is it that today I can go into Pizza Hut and eat a nice big slice of pizza without worry of choking on the stringy cheese? It was simple, I had to change the way I thought about the situation.
For the longest time I feared choking on cheese, because of that incident that occurred when I was younger. So, anytime anyone even mentioned Pizza Hut the first thoughts in my mind wasn’t the yummy goodness of their bread sticks, but rather the rather unyummy goodness of choking to death, in public! Yikes, that is super scary.
I realized that by worrying about what happened even happened yet, was simply preparing my mind to make it happen — and it did, often I would nearly choke on the damn stringy cheese. So, how was I able to change this? Simple.
First, I stopped worrying about choking on cheese. I eliminating the thought and fear of this occurring.
Second, I took precautions while eating. I made sure I chewed my food properly before swallowing ( I’m not talking OCD type chewing… just normal chewing we’d teach children to do). Couple that with a nice drink of cola to help a dry mouth and the idea of choking on cheese was eliminated.
I took control of the situation. I took control of my thoughts and my actions and produced an outcome I desired.
The hardest part for many people to get over is the irrational fears our minds tend to play on us about certain situations. Over the years I have come to realize that these irrational fears seem to love snowballing…. they start small and slowly grow to fears that are so beyond the realm of normality that its funny. So, relax. Ease your mind and be proactive — chew your food properly and savor the flavor.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
i feel more anxious about choking on seaweed in sushi.
Hmmm… interesting. I haven’t had sushi, so I never experienced choking on seaweed, but I can see how that could be worrisome.
I’m constantly getting things in my windpipe. I usually get something in my windpipe about once a day (usually liquid). It doesn’t even phase me anymore I just start coughing excessively and get rid of it. I start choking on small bits of food sometimes and once again coughing gets rid of the problem. I sometimes also swallow things without chewing fully (it doens’t really make me choke or gag however due to an obliterated gag reflex) which is a bit painful at times but really isn’t too bad if you help massage the food down. As long as it stays away from the windpipe it doesn’t matter.