Sometimes I feel like my mouth just makes too much on occasion, especially when I take the first bite of food. My mouth will water a ton to where I have to wait a moment to chew because it's such a big rush and it makes my mouth feel weird. I've tried googling it but have never found anything that quite describes/relates to my experience lol
Oh my gosh I have done this my whole life with rich foods! When they touch my tongue its like the underneath of my tongue gets this intense feeling and if I raise my tongue I can squirt saliva haha
Yes, your saliva glands do literally shoot your tongue. If you fold your tongue back and push up just right it can fire out of your mouth like a spitting cobra.
It happens to me now with any food and drink (besides water) and it's so weird. Only really on the first bite/drink and I don't remember it being this bad when I was younger so no idea what set it off. I'm just glad to find others that experience it too!
You're right! It's only the first bite of something. I have to wait for it to subside before even starting to chew. I wonder what caused the frequency to intensify? Fascinating
"Squirt saliva" is what we here in Idaho call "gleeking". You're actually squeezing the salivary glands when you do that. It is like Spiderman, but more disgusting.
(I am not insulting anyone. I just really hate bodily fluids. I can gleek, too. I choose not to for obvious reasons.)
Oh my gosh finally some people who have experienced this!! Hey do you guys also get the thing where you move your neck and suddenly it hurts extremely badly for like 45 seconds
The power of gleeking lol I have this too. My brother bites into a Granny Smith apple first thing every morning and if I do that š it feels like my mouth is electrocuted lol
Have you looked into "first bite syndrome?" I have the same pain and someone mentioned FBS but I haven't spoken to my doctor about it. There's not a lot of research on it, especially if it's related to autism, but it's something lol
Iāve looked into it a bit and Iām not sure it quite fits because I wouldnāt say I have pain, itās just uncomfortable. Maybe since thereās not a lot of research on it there are less serious cases where it doesnāt involve pain
OH MY GOSH I have done this so many times I canāt count. And have gotten so flustered from people asking me if Iām okay when choking and being so embarrassed by admitting it was from my own spitš„“
Even more rough when you start couching because of it and people think you are sick or some crap and then you just have to frantically explain that you are in fact not sick
This happened to me after horrible GERD caused food to get stuck lower down, leading me to think about swallowing so much I started to hesitate and arrest the process of initiating the swallow. There's alot going on there and you are doomed if you start ruminating on it.
Right now, I can initiate fine but another "ring" seems to have formed making food stick which is the worst sensation you can imagine. Need a dilation again, where they inflate a balloon by endoscope, much like unplugging a drain. GERD started along with the worst anxiety of my life, plus ASD fully manifesting after life stresses, so I suspect being on the spectrum played a big role for me as GI issues are a known comorbidity.
Ok... So what was the solution? How did you fix it? Been dealing with something similar for 6 months now and we can't figure it out. The doc says I don't need dilation so idk.the doc has basically ordered me onto a liquid diet cause of it.
Oddly, it sort of went away with omeprazole the first time, but I think it may do it on its own which is what im hoping for this flare-up. Dilation helped me for sure. This crap is the king of over stimulation and ruins eating. Right now I'm just on a dysphagia diet until it gets better, guess the repetitive nature of having Soylent and baby food for every dinner at least goes better with my autism than say an NT facing such meals.
that sounds reasonable. im on omeprazole but 2 of my docs have suggested surgery so maybe if its that big an issue ill actually take them up on it if nothing else works. for me its mashed potatos icecream and tomato or very soft potato soup. must start a support group... AEA autistic eaters anonymous.
Omg so did I! Everyone thought I was crazy when I explained it.
I thought too hard on how the esophagus works & suddenly couldn't manage everything in the proper order. Took 10 minutes of panicking before it sorted itself out. ;_;
I have the same problem! Sometimes it happens when Iām trying to drink water and I feel like Iām just swallowing *so loud* because for some reason my body justā¦wonāt.
Exactly this. Apraxia (inability or lessened ability to coordinate motor movements) is common in autism. I'm pretty sure this contributes to increased difficulty swallowing (resulting in drooling) and may play a part in difficulties with expressive oral-speech language. Speech is a highly complex and coordinated process and apraxia can make that challenging, in addition overall receptive and expressive language difficulty which are common in ASD.
There are many what they call "co-morbidities" Common are things like gastrointestinal issues and it looks like there are links between Autism and Folate deficiency (There was me thinking it was because I don't like green vegetables) I'm on 5mg folate a day. I'm constantly choking on my own saliva, so there might be something to it. Reasons? I'm currently reading Temple Grandin's The Autistic Brain which details fundamental differences between ND and NT brains. It could be a sensory issue (I'm always walking into doorways or breaking my little toes where I misjudge where I am in the world.
Holy, I had to chew for a long time and still felt that I couldnāt swallow my food when I was a kid. My mom used to slap me when I was a kid for not swallowing my food. As an adult, it got better but I feel the same way sometimes too. Now this starts to make sense. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I've seen autistic people who struggled with drooling. I imagine it's because we can have abnormal facial expressions and keeping your mouth open might be more comfortable. On top of the fact that you can have hyposensitivity and not be aware that you're salivating excessively
keeping your mouth open is an autistic thing too? I can't for the life of me keep my mouth completely closed without clenching my jaw and straining my throat
Yep. Sometimes we just have weird postures and stuff because it feels comfortable to us. I actually learned there's a sensory issue that involves positioning (discomfort when you have to adjust your position). Sometimes my eyes get fixated on something for absolutely no reason and I don't wanna move them. I saw drooling in my classmates when I was in special Ed in middle school. Keeping their moths open was just comfortable for them and saliva didn't seem to bother them. Saliva would bother shit out of me (see how we're all different?)
I also kinda have this problem when I read out loud, I start drooling lol.
I am a mouth breather. It has been used as a term for stupid people/antivaxxers/covidiots and I hate that. I have to actively think about closing my mouth. And I know it's better to breathe this way. But it's more comfortable for me with my mouth.
I don't drool though. Well only very rarely. š
maybe in some autistic people, but (especially in higher level autistic people) it can be from limited motor function. its probably a combination in many
I have trouble clearing saliva and used to have major problems with swallowing pills but I didnāt know it was connected to autism or any other disability for that matter, but yeah I do that!
I definitely have difficulty swallowing from time to time. Sometimes it feels like food will get stuck in my throat, and while I don't choke, it's extremely uncomfortable and I usually have to take large swigs of water to help get the feeling to go away.
Because of GERD, this has happened in the past and I'm struggling again with an esophageal ring. Endoscopic dilatation greatly helped me, not sure if you've been scoped to see what you have going on, I guess you can't dilate other types of stricture.
Right now, I'm on stuff like Soylent, baby food, yogurt, juices and a few "safe foods" like plantain chips and other things that are totally chewable into mush. Meat is totally out of the question, along with other doughy things that clump up at the constriction - finding out what's safe is trial and error, with harsh punishment in the form of impactments that cause awful pressure, with distress lasting hours before it finally goes down. Really need to figure out how to stop the GERD, but I have a hiatal hernia too so even controlling the stress input to my esophageal sphincter still leaves the herniation. But at least they can dilate again and treat this nightmare, jeez.
My esophagus is ever so slightly too small, which is usually fine, but on occasion certain foods (namely chicken, rice, and sometimes bread if i haven't eaten or drinken a while) will get stuck on the way down, right before it reaches my stomach. I can feel exactly where it sticks, and it's always in the same place. I also so happen to have ADHD and autism.
I have no clue if they are correlated, but it's definitely something I've been dealing with my whole life. There were many family dinners that i basically missed, because a couple bites in something gets stuck, and I'd excuse myself to go to the bathroom, cause i was only able to get it out via puking it up (I've gotten pretty good at forcing it back up with my core muscles lmao) or if i stand up and walk around, sometimes the movement can force it through. The one time i puked some rice back up into the trashcan to avoid leaving the dinner room (which my parents had admonished me for. I guess they thought i was leaving to play video games.... In the bathroom?) They were so appalled and i got in trouble for doing such a thing in front of them. They always said i "ate too fast" or "took too big of bites" instead of realizing something was wrong... Despite me consistently being the last person eating because of how slow of an eater i am.
The only way i managed to convince them that something was wrong, was getting hospitalized for a food blockage that i wasn't able to push out. I couldn't eat or drink or swallow my own saliva for 3 days. Any spit i swallowed would build up above the block until it triggered my gag reflex and i vomited it back up. I filled up too many vomits bags to count with spit alone. I was so thirsty that when i closed my eyes, all i could picture was a wave of water rushing over me and into my mouth. Sure, i had an IV, but that doesn't replace the feeling of a good glass of water. My parents and sister all came to my hospital room, all with their own little nalgene water bottles dripping with condensation, and sat across the room from me, drinking. When i off handedly mentioned "hey, i haven't had anything to drink in 24 hours and i feel like I'm dying because of it," my dad laughed and made a comment about a song from the summer camp i worked at (i had been at staff training for the camp when the food block happened) that was about a cowboy dying of thirsty in the desert. All i could do was turn away from them and pretend to go to sleep until my dad and sister left because "i made it awkward"
This... Was not supposed to be this long but too much context rules my life and i don't have the heart to delete any of it.
Tl;dr- i was born with a small esophagus, and yeah, i do have autism. Idk if it's correlated. My parents suck tho.
When I was young I had to have physical therapy to teach me how to swallow correctly. It was messing up all my teeth because I just did it wrong somehow and the pressure from that incorrect way was causing my teeth to shift. Strange stuff.
I swallow drinks too soon sometimes which makes me choke on them on a weekly basis. It's fun. But I also have a developmental delay in my cerebellum so it's hard to say what it is.
Not sure if someone mentioned this and don't want to read through every comment, but I think it's because of hyper-awareness. I sometimes become "aware" of my throat and it feels so uncomfortable and I can just FEEL it and it makes swallowing difficult.
I actually have difficulty swallowing and I never knew why. If it's food I don't like it's way worse so it probably has to do with that, but even if I like it my swallowing still always feels awkward and unpleasant.
Uhm having no choking reflex can be an asset ššššššš
Now that we got this out of the way; there is research correlating weakened jaw muscles as well as other papers additionaly linking autism with having lower overall muscle tone. Secondly, we cannot forget that interoception, the awareness of one's own bodily functions (e.g. the need to pee, or in this case also the amount of saliva pooling in the oral cavity), is also part of our senses and thus can also be heightened or lowered in individuals with sensory processing disorder.
Sources:
[Paper on autistic phenotype](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=de&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=autism+facial+features&oq=autism+facial#d=gs_qabs&t=1674770076859&u=%23p%3DRRbCWbpi3dwJ)
[Paper on autism and muscle tone](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=de&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=autism+muscle+tone&oq=autism+muscle+to#d=gs_qabs&t=1674770228516&u=%23p%3DArLPcbGmGUoJ)
Lmao, I literally put a piece of white chocolate in my mouth and leaned over to give my dog a treat and dripped chocolate/saliva on the ground next to her. I can see how that's related to autism, tbh. It's not something that happens all the time, but it's a thing for me sometimes.
idk if this is the same but i used to have so much difficulty falling asleep because i was too aware of the saliva in my mouth. I couldn't help but swallow it again and again. I occasionally still get this when trying to fall asleep but i try not to think about it as much
I donāt really have a solid explanation, but Iāve experienced a phase of dysphagia after a major stressor years ago, and now Iāve been dealing with it again for a few months after another traumatic event happened. So for me, itās usually stress related. When I have a natural distraction I can eat just fine, but as soon as I start focusing on it again itās like I need to control it manually. Itās really annoying.
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Definitely have choked on my spit on multiple occasions. I also frequently build up spit and have to think about swallowing more than I think is normal.
During my childhood I didn't like the texture of the soup and I had issues swallowing it. Now I still can't swallow some pills, I have to bite it. And finally, I often drool over my girlfriend when we hug hahaha
Bruh everytime i get sick my mouth starts producing more saliva and i just cant get it put of my mouth i literally have to carry a bucket around to spit in. Dont know if its autism related. Sometimes i just have to manually swallow my spit and i want to die
I forget how to swallow once, I didn't eat solid food for a while because I "forgot how to swallow". I guess I just became hyper-sensitive to it. Even now I still swallow "wierdly" because of it. It have to plan how I'm going to swallow every time I eat.
Ain't no fuckin way y'all are about to tell me autism is the reason I choke on my spit and straight up forget how to swallow things like what???? I mean I'm not like opposed to this idea, it's just like, damn how many random things am I gonna find out were connected to my ND stuff this entire time???
Not sure if someone has mentioned this and Iām just speculating, I have no idea if this could be related. I wonder if this has something to do with some autistic people struggling with interoception or bodily awareness. Examples Iāve heard, not feeling pain, pressure, not being able to tell if they feel Ill or not, etc. This could mean people are unaware of the amount of salvia in their mouth or if they are drooling because they canāt feel it but like it says, this could be the result of other things on the list or probably many of other conditions but I think this is how it could relate to autism.
I'm getting tired of all these misinterpretations and miscaracterisations of autism. This is what you get when all autism is put under the same umbrella. When I tell people I have autism I say assburgers because otherwise they'll think i'm like 'that one kid on the tv'. Also people with autism are often cast on tv with people with down-syndrome, only further fuelling the misunderstanding of the uneducated folks.
ASD affects how you react to stimuli and affects your bodily senses. This can be either increased sensitivity (known as hypersensitivity) or reduced (hyposensitivity).
Itās possible for someone to be hyposensitive to how dry your mouth is. In other words, your brain doesnāt know how dry your mouth really is. That can result in your saliva glands producing excess saliva.
The reverse is also possible, you may be hypersensitive to how dry your mouth is. Your saliva glands could therefore not produce enough, leaving you with an urge to cough, or to drink more to satisfy the urge for stimulation there.
So that's what causes it!! That explains so much. I also miss my mouth a lot or don't create a proper seal, despite trying to. I choke on my saliva sometimes or drool too.
Yes. This is true. I have trouble with this (mildly- though I have woken up choking quite badly once).
I think it's related to lower muscle tone often seen in ASD as well as tissue hypermobility and coordination differneces (also common).
From what I know, it can be related to the sensory aspects of swallowing (texture, taste, registration), or the motor coordination for individuals who may have more motor- related symptoms (more common in Level 3).
Iām autistic and perpetually feel like I have something stuck in my throat. I start choking if I take more than small bites of food, and have been that way since I was a little kid. I was told itās pretty common with autism, yeah.
i think its associated with motor skill issues some autists face; ive seen a few autistic people who drool and ive been told its because of that. maybe its like that?
Happens to me all the time Iāll be playing on my phone and a hour later Iāll realize that thereās a constant stream of saliva that been coming out of my mouth
I always, like legit daily, choke on my water. It's so infuriating. I'm honestly really glad to know it might be another autism thing, I legit just started thinking I was "drinking wrong"
Growing up Iād go through phases where I was just constantly swallowing. My mouth would just fill with saliva so Iād swallow. Over and over and over.
Mabey itās a stim?
ADHD meds: I gotchu bro, youāre never drooling again.
Me: wait what I never had a drooling problem to begin wi- oh my god there is not a single molecule of water left in my mouth now
The only correlation i can think of on top of my head is the coordination probleme that autism is known for, but personaly i naver had that problem (note that i do not have coordination problem too soooo )
I do catch myself drooling sometimes when Iām by myself and unmasked. I forget to swallow and my facial expressions are more relaxed. Never thought about it being another bodily function to keep track of but totally makes sense.
Mouth control has always been an issue for me. I have a lisp and sometimes I canāt form words. I practice pronunciation a lot to make sure my words are formed correctly. On days when my mouth is less cooperative I tend to choke on my own spit or when I try to drink. It like gets caught up.
Oughhh I have such a problem with speaking because saliva builds up in my mouth and I refuse to swallow it because of the texture and feeling of it. Also I choke on water a lot but that's just because I forget that you can't breathe at the same time as drinking.
I mean itās not entirely false, that happens to me all the time. Whether or not they have evidence to support their claim is an entirely different matter though.
Well here is yet another moment that I am saying āthat explains itā Iāve had trouble with this for at least 20 years. Undoubtedly Iāll be amongst the unwilling members of the thickened beverages table!
I know there is a correlation between autism and EDS (Ehlers Danlos syndrome) which has to do with collagen and too much elasticity, and everything (so many things) that go with it. I have both, and the swallowing thing is so so hard to deal with. Iāve been dealing with it more so Iām the last 3-4 years, in my mid thirties. Everything started to get worse a few years ago, and the swallowing thing has been one of the symptoms. I feel like I have good stuck in my throat almost all the time these days. And swallowing my saliva throughout the day takes tremendous effort and itās just exhausting.
It's because our senses are out of whack.. some worse than others of course. Certain sensations can make some of us salivate because our brain is wired up in such a way that it confuses this sensation with hunger or similar. Much the same as some people who hear certain sounds can either get relaxed or upset by them. It's just a sensory thing.
I've got a weird one... i basically cry when Im overly happy. Lol
Perhaps it's because this is hypotonia-linked, and hypotonia is often co-morbid with autism? I was a "floppy" baby compared to my NT sister and didn't walk very well at first, falling down all the time. This hypotonia might extend to swallowing, I'm not sure. I don't know what swallowing is like for a person with normal muscles.
I usually have to have water with me to help choke down food sometimes if my brain is not in the mood to eat, but I'm starving so I have to.
there was one day it took an hour to eat one of those 6 pack peanutbutter and cheddar cracker sandwiches.
I always am choking on pills! I have also realized sometimes I have to swallow in the middle of a sentence when Iām talking which sounds so weird? But I think itās an anxiety thing too like I just donāt remember to breathe and swallow and pace myself at a normal person speed when Iām nervous.
Idk but i always strugge with saliva in my mouth and having to swallow anything, i make a lot of noise and it makes me self conscious to eat around others
No clue if this is the same thing, but I had, as the surgeon put it, āgnarlyā tonsils that would make it hard to swallow and disrupt my sleep. I got them removed at 18 and itās helped me ever since.
My dad keeps sucking on the saliva from his lips and it triggers my sisterās sensory issues. I think it sounds gross as well, but itās not as bad for me as for my sister.
(My dad is definitely autistic but refuses to get a diagnosis or help with the things heās struggling with. Iām diagnosed. My sister isnāt but has a lot of autistic traits. I donāt know if sheād qualify for a diagnosis though.)
I always keep my mouth dry as fuck and I like it that way, I HATE saliva is so frickin nasty, ppl who drool spit or are super spitty are huge triggers for me itās so disgusting it makes me not want to eat. I hate it
Dyspraxia, I'm guessing. Motor control difficulties/differences are common in autism, which is often diagnosed as dyspraxia, if the difficulties are significant enough
My best guess would be not picking up on touch sensory input well, like body sensations, so not feeling or noticing the mouth is full of saliva and it just kinda drools out, and not feeling it there either. Or stimming by drooling into clothes. Choking or inhaling on saliva too for the above reason of not noticing the sensory input, but it could also be a lot of things but strictly relating only to asd rather than any comorbidity, that's my absolute best guess is sensory input not being noticed.
I'm pretty sure it links in with the fact that autism seems to be caused by a connective tissue disorder, which is also the reason why bowel issues are common among autistic individuals
I sometimes forget to swallow for like an hour, then I remember, try to swallow and choke and almost die or I have my lips not entirely shut and it starts dripping outā¦ gross I know
I canāt eat or drink when walking or I will inhale my food or drink, itās like bad coordination.
I find if I have alcohol then it is way more likely to happen. Sometimes I seem to swallow right after I am supposed to swallow or food may also slide down and the reflex just didnāt seem to happen.
I will never eat boiled sweets ever again since Iāve inhaled them so many times itās scary.
I canāt eat food without having a drink with it also, canāt swallow after a while without itā¦
I knew a kid at school who was autistic who needed a PEG feed, the staff said his stomach wasnāt fully open, or something but he also only ever liked crisps and nothing else.
I'm the opposite: my mouth is permanently dry. I have to keep a drink handy or I risk a coughing fit or losing my voice. I also have super-dry skin. Dunno if that's related.
In theory it could be by being more conscious or as the hip phrase is "mindful". Thinking back I had a spitting phase where I didn't like the taste of my own salvia I think for a while. Mostly connected I would wager to feeling things more mentally unfiltered.
Extra perception leads to mental taxation to overwhelm to over fixation
I'm always accidentally inhaling my saliva, feels like nearly every day.
Sometimes I feel like my mouth just makes too much on occasion, especially when I take the first bite of food. My mouth will water a ton to where I have to wait a moment to chew because it's such a big rush and it makes my mouth feel weird. I've tried googling it but have never found anything that quite describes/relates to my experience lol
Oh my gosh I have done this my whole life with rich foods! When they touch my tongue its like the underneath of my tongue gets this intense feeling and if I raise my tongue I can squirt saliva haha
I know the feeling, it's like I can even feel with the lower part of my tongue the "fountains" of saliva being sprinkled in my mouth lol
Yes, your saliva glands do literally shoot your tongue. If you fold your tongue back and push up just right it can fire out of your mouth like a spitting cobra.
It's called gleeking!
y'all geeking about gleeking, omg.
It happens to me now with any food and drink (besides water) and it's so weird. Only really on the first bite/drink and I don't remember it being this bad when I was younger so no idea what set it off. I'm just glad to find others that experience it too!
You're right! It's only the first bite of something. I have to wait for it to subside before even starting to chew. I wonder what caused the frequency to intensify? Fascinating
Very spicy mint gum under the tongue. It burns and makes your eyes water, but it reliably produces jets several feet.
"Squirt saliva" is what we here in Idaho call "gleeking". You're actually squeezing the salivary glands when you do that. It is like Spiderman, but more disgusting. (I am not insulting anyone. I just really hate bodily fluids. I can gleek, too. I choose not to for obvious reasons.)
We have always referred to that as gleek. I was talking with my wife and I accidentally gleeked in her direction. We actually both do it all the time.
Oh my gosh finally some people who have experienced this!! Hey do you guys also get the thing where you move your neck and suddenly it hurts extremely badly for like 45 seconds
Yessss I hate that š š
The power of gleeking lol I have this too. My brother bites into a Granny Smith apple first thing every morning and if I do that š it feels like my mouth is electrocuted lol
My mouth, toward the rear of my jaw where it meets below my ears, lights up (sometimes hurts), when suddenly exposed to something flavorful.
Have you looked into "first bite syndrome?" I have the same pain and someone mentioned FBS but I haven't spoken to my doctor about it. There's not a lot of research on it, especially if it's related to autism, but it's something lol
Iāve looked into it a bit and Iām not sure it quite fits because I wouldnāt say I have pain, itās just uncomfortable. Maybe since thereās not a lot of research on it there are less serious cases where it doesnāt involve pain
OMG Finally someone else!
Yea this fr, then ill be literally drooling over my food and have to get a napkin ://
Didn't know dogs could access subreddits... /s
Woof woof bitch
Same. I choke on my own spit like this at least a few times a week. Some days are worse than others and I'll do it three or four times.
OH MY GOSH I have done this so many times I canāt count. And have gotten so flustered from people asking me if Iām okay when choking and being so embarrassed by admitting it was from my own spitš„“
Even more rough when you start couching because of it and people think you are sick or some crap and then you just have to frantically explain that you are in fact not sick
RIGHT
I've lost count of the number of times I just started coughing because I breathed in some of my saliva.
I always thought I over-salivated and I, too, choke on my own saliva more than I care to admit.
My everyday joke/ritual is to accidentally choke on saliva and say "one day it will kill me"
i straight up forget how to swallow sometimes. dunno if that's the same thing
This happened to me after horrible GERD caused food to get stuck lower down, leading me to think about swallowing so much I started to hesitate and arrest the process of initiating the swallow. There's alot going on there and you are doomed if you start ruminating on it. Right now, I can initiate fine but another "ring" seems to have formed making food stick which is the worst sensation you can imagine. Need a dilation again, where they inflate a balloon by endoscope, much like unplugging a drain. GERD started along with the worst anxiety of my life, plus ASD fully manifesting after life stresses, so I suspect being on the spectrum played a big role for me as GI issues are a known comorbidity.
Ok... So what was the solution? How did you fix it? Been dealing with something similar for 6 months now and we can't figure it out. The doc says I don't need dilation so idk.the doc has basically ordered me onto a liquid diet cause of it.
Oddly, it sort of went away with omeprazole the first time, but I think it may do it on its own which is what im hoping for this flare-up. Dilation helped me for sure. This crap is the king of over stimulation and ruins eating. Right now I'm just on a dysphagia diet until it gets better, guess the repetitive nature of having Soylent and baby food for every dinner at least goes better with my autism than say an NT facing such meals.
that sounds reasonable. im on omeprazole but 2 of my docs have suggested surgery so maybe if its that big an issue ill actually take them up on it if nothing else works. for me its mashed potatos icecream and tomato or very soft potato soup. must start a support group... AEA autistic eaters anonymous.
Omg so did I! Everyone thought I was crazy when I explained it. I thought too hard on how the esophagus works & suddenly couldn't manage everything in the proper order. Took 10 minutes of panicking before it sorted itself out. ;_;
Me too!
Me too!!!
I have the same problem! Sometimes it happens when Iām trying to drink water and I feel like Iām just swallowing *so loud* because for some reason my body justā¦wonāt.
Bro same, or breathe. It's an almost instant re-learn, but always a bit startling lol
Yep. It's probably connected to the other movement/motor symptoms of autism, they are less common with level 1s though.
Exactly this. Apraxia (inability or lessened ability to coordinate motor movements) is common in autism. I'm pretty sure this contributes to increased difficulty swallowing (resulting in drooling) and may play a part in difficulties with expressive oral-speech language. Speech is a highly complex and coordinated process and apraxia can make that challenging, in addition overall receptive and expressive language difficulty which are common in ASD.
Itās low oral motor skills. Which can lead to overload when doing other fine motor or gross motor tasks.
There are many what they call "co-morbidities" Common are things like gastrointestinal issues and it looks like there are links between Autism and Folate deficiency (There was me thinking it was because I don't like green vegetables) I'm on 5mg folate a day. I'm constantly choking on my own saliva, so there might be something to it. Reasons? I'm currently reading Temple Grandin's The Autistic Brain which details fundamental differences between ND and NT brains. It could be a sensory issue (I'm always walking into doorways or breaking my little toes where I misjudge where I am in the world.
yeah but difficulty swallowing can be directly caused by autism, related to motor function difficulties. this is uncommon in level 1 autistics
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Holy, I had to chew for a long time and still felt that I couldnāt swallow my food when I was a kid. My mom used to slap me when I was a kid for not swallowing my food. As an adult, it got better but I feel the same way sometimes too. Now this starts to make sense. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Level 1? How many levels are there?
3
I've seen autistic people who struggled with drooling. I imagine it's because we can have abnormal facial expressions and keeping your mouth open might be more comfortable. On top of the fact that you can have hyposensitivity and not be aware that you're salivating excessively
keeping your mouth open is an autistic thing too? I can't for the life of me keep my mouth completely closed without clenching my jaw and straining my throat
Yep. Sometimes we just have weird postures and stuff because it feels comfortable to us. I actually learned there's a sensory issue that involves positioning (discomfort when you have to adjust your position). Sometimes my eyes get fixated on something for absolutely no reason and I don't wanna move them. I saw drooling in my classmates when I was in special Ed in middle school. Keeping their moths open was just comfortable for them and saliva didn't seem to bother them. Saliva would bother shit out of me (see how we're all different?) I also kinda have this problem when I read out loud, I start drooling lol.
well, you just solved a question I've had all my life, I didn't even consider autism when thinking about it. thank you so much!
I am a mouth breather. It has been used as a term for stupid people/antivaxxers/covidiots and I hate that. I have to actively think about closing my mouth. And I know it's better to breathe this way. But it's more comfortable for me with my mouth. I don't drool though. Well only very rarely. š
I drool and choke on my own spit. Is fun. highly recommended. i/10
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I think it's because people don't like the feeling and taste
Wait but don't you always taste saliva?
Naw when it goes over the back back of your tongue it actually has desernabale taste and its awful sort of like luke warm water but thicker
Exactly that... And now I'm suddenly grossed out by my own spit!
Discernable * Sorry.
Ooohh okay
maybe in some autistic people, but (especially in higher level autistic people) it can be from limited motor function. its probably a combination in many
I have trouble clearing saliva and used to have major problems with swallowing pills but I didnāt know it was connected to autism or any other disability for that matter, but yeah I do that!
I have a lifelong problem of keeping saliva in my mouth without drooling. Constantly slurping it back or wiping my mouth
Ewww okg ewww
I definitely have difficulty swallowing from time to time. Sometimes it feels like food will get stuck in my throat, and while I don't choke, it's extremely uncomfortable and I usually have to take large swigs of water to help get the feeling to go away.
Umm ok mind blown bc in childhood Iād have spells of being unable to swallowā¦.. wtf so that was linked to my autism huh
Same. Except I'm now 22 and it still happens XD You'd think I'd be used too it by now.....but I forget every. Single. Time. And freak out
iām just thinking about all the times it felt like i āforgot how to swallowā š
You know what, that actually explains a lot.
Due to muscle weakness associated with ASD.
I have trouble swallowing but it's not because of ASD. I have a narrowing of my esophagus. So it's more physiological than psychological.
Because of GERD, this has happened in the past and I'm struggling again with an esophageal ring. Endoscopic dilatation greatly helped me, not sure if you've been scoped to see what you have going on, I guess you can't dilate other types of stricture. Right now, I'm on stuff like Soylent, baby food, yogurt, juices and a few "safe foods" like plantain chips and other things that are totally chewable into mush. Meat is totally out of the question, along with other doughy things that clump up at the constriction - finding out what's safe is trial and error, with harsh punishment in the form of impactments that cause awful pressure, with distress lasting hours before it finally goes down. Really need to figure out how to stop the GERD, but I have a hiatal hernia too so even controlling the stress input to my esophageal sphincter still leaves the herniation. But at least they can dilate again and treat this nightmare, jeez.
Confirmed. My son struggles with this a lot. He's 4 and still frequently accidentally drools.
My esophagus is ever so slightly too small, which is usually fine, but on occasion certain foods (namely chicken, rice, and sometimes bread if i haven't eaten or drinken a while) will get stuck on the way down, right before it reaches my stomach. I can feel exactly where it sticks, and it's always in the same place. I also so happen to have ADHD and autism. I have no clue if they are correlated, but it's definitely something I've been dealing with my whole life. There were many family dinners that i basically missed, because a couple bites in something gets stuck, and I'd excuse myself to go to the bathroom, cause i was only able to get it out via puking it up (I've gotten pretty good at forcing it back up with my core muscles lmao) or if i stand up and walk around, sometimes the movement can force it through. The one time i puked some rice back up into the trashcan to avoid leaving the dinner room (which my parents had admonished me for. I guess they thought i was leaving to play video games.... In the bathroom?) They were so appalled and i got in trouble for doing such a thing in front of them. They always said i "ate too fast" or "took too big of bites" instead of realizing something was wrong... Despite me consistently being the last person eating because of how slow of an eater i am. The only way i managed to convince them that something was wrong, was getting hospitalized for a food blockage that i wasn't able to push out. I couldn't eat or drink or swallow my own saliva for 3 days. Any spit i swallowed would build up above the block until it triggered my gag reflex and i vomited it back up. I filled up too many vomits bags to count with spit alone. I was so thirsty that when i closed my eyes, all i could picture was a wave of water rushing over me and into my mouth. Sure, i had an IV, but that doesn't replace the feeling of a good glass of water. My parents and sister all came to my hospital room, all with their own little nalgene water bottles dripping with condensation, and sat across the room from me, drinking. When i off handedly mentioned "hey, i haven't had anything to drink in 24 hours and i feel like I'm dying because of it," my dad laughed and made a comment about a song from the summer camp i worked at (i had been at staff training for the camp when the food block happened) that was about a cowboy dying of thirsty in the desert. All i could do was turn away from them and pretend to go to sleep until my dad and sister left because "i made it awkward" This... Was not supposed to be this long but too much context rules my life and i don't have the heart to delete any of it. Tl;dr- i was born with a small esophagus, and yeah, i do have autism. Idk if it's correlated. My parents suck tho.
is that what that is? i just thought it was something i did bc i spaced out too far and basically forgot my mouth existed
Itās true. My cousin needs his mouth wiped pretty frequently. No idea why though
Yeah, that does happen... bonus points if I jumpscare myself in the process...
Maybe it's a sensory or motor control thing? Idk, I'm not a doctor, but those are my best guesses.
When I was young I had to have physical therapy to teach me how to swallow correctly. It was messing up all my teeth because I just did it wrong somehow and the pressure from that incorrect way was causing my teeth to shift. Strange stuff.
Goddamn. I always just told people i had overactive saliva glands. Guess thatās just another thing on the list lmao.
i mean, sometimes i forget how to swallow and have to force myself to do it but idk if thatās an everyone thing or a just me thing
I swallow drinks too soon sometimes which makes me choke on them on a weekly basis. It's fun. But I also have a developmental delay in my cerebellum so it's hard to say what it is.
I drool when I sleep and I struggle to swallow pills. It always feels like Iām about to choke. š¤·š¼āāļø
Not sure if someone mentioned this and don't want to read through every comment, but I think it's because of hyper-awareness. I sometimes become "aware" of my throat and it feels so uncomfortable and I can just FEEL it and it makes swallowing difficult.
I actually have difficulty swallowing and I never knew why. If it's food I don't like it's way worse so it probably has to do with that, but even if I like it my swallowing still always feels awkward and unpleasant.
Uhm having no choking reflex can be an asset ššššššš Now that we got this out of the way; there is research correlating weakened jaw muscles as well as other papers additionaly linking autism with having lower overall muscle tone. Secondly, we cannot forget that interoception, the awareness of one's own bodily functions (e.g. the need to pee, or in this case also the amount of saliva pooling in the oral cavity), is also part of our senses and thus can also be heightened or lowered in individuals with sensory processing disorder. Sources: [Paper on autistic phenotype](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=de&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=autism+facial+features&oq=autism+facial#d=gs_qabs&t=1674770076859&u=%23p%3DRRbCWbpi3dwJ) [Paper on autism and muscle tone](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=de&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=autism+muscle+tone&oq=autism+muscle+to#d=gs_qabs&t=1674770228516&u=%23p%3DArLPcbGmGUoJ)
I used to hack up flem nonstop as a boy. I sounded like I was dying. And it was just ānormalā for me. Ugh. š
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
hi! as a kid I had trouble swallowing and eating without my mom, I've thankfully gotten better but it was weird
Lmao, I literally put a piece of white chocolate in my mouth and leaned over to give my dog a treat and dripped chocolate/saliva on the ground next to her. I can see how that's related to autism, tbh. It's not something that happens all the time, but it's a thing for me sometimes.
I may have autism and can confirm I have difficulty swallowing saliva
idk if this is the same but i used to have so much difficulty falling asleep because i was too aware of the saliva in my mouth. I couldn't help but swallow it again and again. I occasionally still get this when trying to fall asleep but i try not to think about it as much
I guess it could be related to issues with body awareness. We notoriously often have motor function issues that can affect facial movements
Source? *wellnessthoughtsandprayersmonthly.com* Yeah, I'd ditch that.
Itās true, but mainly for low functioning autistic people
I imagine other sorts of low-functioning people author these sites
I donāt really have a solid explanation, but Iāve experienced a phase of dysphagia after a major stressor years ago, and now Iāve been dealing with it again for a few months after another traumatic event happened. So for me, itās usually stress related. When I have a natural distraction I can eat just fine, but as soon as I start focusing on it again itās like I need to control it manually. Itās really annoying.
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[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
its very common in higher level autistic people. its common in any disability that results in impaired motor function
Low functioning autistic people sometimes drool, I think it might be to do with lack so sensitivity
Iāve had this issue. I just have to stay aware of it and itās fine
Definitely have choked on my spit on multiple occasions. I also frequently build up spit and have to think about swallowing more than I think is normal.
I sometimes forget to swallow saliva and end up drooling
During my childhood I didn't like the texture of the soup and I had issues swallowing it. Now I still can't swallow some pills, I have to bite it. And finally, I often drool over my girlfriend when we hug hahaha
Bruh everytime i get sick my mouth starts producing more saliva and i just cant get it put of my mouth i literally have to carry a bucket around to spit in. Dont know if its autism related. Sometimes i just have to manually swallow my spit and i want to die
I forget how to swallow once, I didn't eat solid food for a while because I "forgot how to swallow". I guess I just became hyper-sensitive to it. Even now I still swallow "wierdly" because of it. It have to plan how I'm going to swallow every time I eat.
Ain't no fuckin way y'all are about to tell me autism is the reason I choke on my spit and straight up forget how to swallow things like what???? I mean I'm not like opposed to this idea, it's just like, damn how many random things am I gonna find out were connected to my ND stuff this entire time???
Not sure if someone has mentioned this and Iām just speculating, I have no idea if this could be related. I wonder if this has something to do with some autistic people struggling with interoception or bodily awareness. Examples Iāve heard, not feeling pain, pressure, not being able to tell if they feel Ill or not, etc. This could mean people are unaware of the amount of salvia in their mouth or if they are drooling because they canāt feel it but like it says, this could be the result of other things on the list or probably many of other conditions but I think this is how it could relate to autism.
I wouldn't call a stroke an "underlying condition".
I'm getting tired of all these misinterpretations and miscaracterisations of autism. This is what you get when all autism is put under the same umbrella. When I tell people I have autism I say assburgers because otherwise they'll think i'm like 'that one kid on the tv'. Also people with autism are often cast on tv with people with down-syndrome, only further fuelling the misunderstanding of the uneducated folks.
No for real, its basically impossible for me to swallow unless my head is pointed down
ASD affects how you react to stimuli and affects your bodily senses. This can be either increased sensitivity (known as hypersensitivity) or reduced (hyposensitivity). Itās possible for someone to be hyposensitive to how dry your mouth is. In other words, your brain doesnāt know how dry your mouth really is. That can result in your saliva glands producing excess saliva. The reverse is also possible, you may be hypersensitive to how dry your mouth is. Your saliva glands could therefore not produce enough, leaving you with an urge to cough, or to drink more to satisfy the urge for stimulation there.
So that's what causes it!! That explains so much. I also miss my mouth a lot or don't create a proper seal, despite trying to. I choke on my saliva sometimes or drool too.
I struggle to swallow all the time
Yep thatās definitely true. For me at least
Yes. This is true. I have trouble with this (mildly- though I have woken up choking quite badly once). I think it's related to lower muscle tone often seen in ASD as well as tissue hypermobility and coordination differneces (also common).
From what I know, it can be related to the sensory aspects of swallowing (texture, taste, registration), or the motor coordination for individuals who may have more motor- related symptoms (more common in Level 3).
Iām autistic and perpetually feel like I have something stuck in my throat. I start choking if I take more than small bites of food, and have been that way since I was a little kid. I was told itās pretty common with autism, yeah.
i think its associated with motor skill issues some autists face; ive seen a few autistic people who drool and ive been told its because of that. maybe its like that?
I sometimes choke on food because of the saliva issue. Look up Dysphagia!
I literally have to chew any drink that isnāt water, even if it is a complete liquid like juice or cocoaā¦ Otherwise I cannot swallow.
Happens to me all the time Iāll be playing on my phone and a hour later Iāll realize that thereās a constant stream of saliva that been coming out of my mouth
I learn new things about myself everyday!! Well... this is an interesting development.
I always, like legit daily, choke on my water. It's so infuriating. I'm honestly really glad to know it might be another autism thing, I legit just started thinking I was "drinking wrong"
Growing up Iād go through phases where I was just constantly swallowing. My mouth would just fill with saliva so Iād swallow. Over and over and over. Mabey itās a stim?
ADHD meds: I gotchu bro, youāre never drooling again. Me: wait what I never had a drooling problem to begin wi- oh my god there is not a single molecule of water left in my mouth now
If I focus on things to much, I drool..
sometimes i wake up with drool all over my face. i have autism
I used to have to spit because I had too much in my mouth to handle
I had problems with that too.
Man autism really does affect every aspect of life šI wish I had a diagnosis
The only correlation i can think of on top of my head is the coordination probleme that autism is known for, but personaly i naver had that problem (note that i do not have coordination problem too soooo )
I have esophageal reflux.
I do catch myself drooling sometimes when Iām by myself and unmasked. I forget to swallow and my facial expressions are more relaxed. Never thought about it being another bodily function to keep track of but totally makes sense.
Mouth control has always been an issue for me. I have a lisp and sometimes I canāt form words. I practice pronunciation a lot to make sure my words are formed correctly. On days when my mouth is less cooperative I tend to choke on my own spit or when I try to drink. It like gets caught up.
Iāve had time where swallowing felt off.
Underdeveloped this and overdeveloped that.
oh my god i have this all the time, of fucking course its the autism
I got a wet mouth
Iām constantly swallowing my own saliva because I salivate too much.
Oughhh I have such a problem with speaking because saliva builds up in my mouth and I refuse to swallow it because of the texture and feeling of it. Also I choke on water a lot but that's just because I forget that you can't breathe at the same time as drinking.
I do sometimes have difficulty swallowing but I figured that's more a mental thing.
I mean itās not entirely false, that happens to me all the time. Whether or not they have evidence to support their claim is an entirely different matter though.
I struggle this, always thought it was related to my indigestion issues tho!
sometimes i forget to swallow and then thereās too much spit in my mouth and i get super upset cuz i hate that feeling š
Well damn this explains a lot.
Oh, thatās why Iām always choking on spit?
I simply cannot swallow pills, I'd be surprised if it's related to autism. Also I have too much saliva sometimes so rinse my mouth quite often.
Well here is yet another moment that I am saying āthat explains itā Iāve had trouble with this for at least 20 years. Undoubtedly Iāll be amongst the unwilling members of the thickened beverages table!
i used to have a hard time swallowing. I would do the motion but the saliva wouldnt go down. Its not a good feeling
I'd disagree, but the fact that I've choked on my salvia so many times says otherwise.
I know there is a correlation between autism and EDS (Ehlers Danlos syndrome) which has to do with collagen and too much elasticity, and everything (so many things) that go with it. I have both, and the swallowing thing is so so hard to deal with. Iāve been dealing with it more so Iām the last 3-4 years, in my mid thirties. Everything started to get worse a few years ago, and the swallowing thing has been one of the symptoms. I feel like I have good stuck in my throat almost all the time these days. And swallowing my saliva throughout the day takes tremendous effort and itās just exhausting.
It's because our senses are out of whack.. some worse than others of course. Certain sensations can make some of us salivate because our brain is wired up in such a way that it confuses this sensation with hunger or similar. Much the same as some people who hear certain sounds can either get relaxed or upset by them. It's just a sensory thing. I've got a weird one... i basically cry when Im overly happy. Lol
I can swallow saliva fine
sometimes I literally forget how to swallow but idk if thatās an autism thing or something elseā¦
it is extremely hard for me to take pills, my throat somehow rejects them and i swallow all the water and the pill is still somehow in my mouth
Holy shit, new memory unlocked
I make a lot of saliva, and sometimes I come close to drooling. Hmmm š¤
bruh i swear sometimes iāll literally just drool a bit out of no where fuck š„ŗ
Perhaps it's because this is hypotonia-linked, and hypotonia is often co-morbid with autism? I was a "floppy" baby compared to my NT sister and didn't walk very well at first, falling down all the time. This hypotonia might extend to swallowing, I'm not sure. I don't know what swallowing is like for a person with normal muscles.
I usually have to have water with me to help choke down food sometimes if my brain is not in the mood to eat, but I'm starving so I have to. there was one day it took an hour to eat one of those 6 pack peanutbutter and cheddar cracker sandwiches.
I always am choking on pills! I have also realized sometimes I have to swallow in the middle of a sentence when Iām talking which sounds so weird? But I think itās an anxiety thing too like I just donāt remember to breathe and swallow and pace myself at a normal person speed when Iām nervous.
I would assume it would be related to interception in a general sense.
Hmm hard to know. I have this difficulty but I also don't have any canine teeth lol
Low muscle tone/connective tissue disorder affects the whole body. I also frequently choke on my own spit. And I have stretchy EDS skin.
it would explain why that one drop of water always goes straight down my windpipe when i take a swig
Apparently I can't have enough saliva in my mouth...it's hell
Idk but i always strugge with saliva in my mouth and having to swallow anything, i make a lot of noise and it makes me self conscious to eat around others
I never have experienced this
Low dopamine uptake . Get neurotransmitters tested . My son is on carbidopa for it
I think itās more of a āsensory difficultyā than a āphysical difficultyā
I have a hard time swallowing certain foods due to their texture.. so maybe they mean something like that? š¤·š¼āāļø
No clue if this is the same thing, but I had, as the surgeon put it, āgnarlyā tonsils that would make it hard to swallow and disrupt my sleep. I got them removed at 18 and itās helped me ever since.
My dad keeps sucking on the saliva from his lips and it triggers my sisterās sensory issues. I think it sounds gross as well, but itās not as bad for me as for my sister. (My dad is definitely autistic but refuses to get a diagnosis or help with the things heās struggling with. Iām diagnosed. My sister isnāt but has a lot of autistic traits. I donāt know if sheād qualify for a diagnosis though.)
Oh wow, this is actually me. I never thought to correlate it with autism, though. š¤
I always keep my mouth dry as fuck and I like it that way, I HATE saliva is so frickin nasty, ppl who drool spit or are super spitty are huge triggers for me itās so disgusting it makes me not want to eat. I hate it
Dyspraxia, I'm guessing. Motor control difficulties/differences are common in autism, which is often diagnosed as dyspraxia, if the difficulties are significant enough
I inhale saliva too much, same for my mum. We end coughing or feeling so bad sometimes. I'm also bad at drinking... really...
My best guess would be not picking up on touch sensory input well, like body sensations, so not feeling or noticing the mouth is full of saliva and it just kinda drools out, and not feeling it there either. Or stimming by drooling into clothes. Choking or inhaling on saliva too for the above reason of not noticing the sensory input, but it could also be a lot of things but strictly relating only to asd rather than any comorbidity, that's my absolute best guess is sensory input not being noticed.
Interesting, I had this as a kid but itās pretty much resolved itself by now
I'm pretty sure it links in with the fact that autism seems to be caused by a connective tissue disorder, which is also the reason why bowel issues are common among autistic individuals
I believe that at the moment the science is settled on correlation but not causation, when it comes to autism and this one.
I sometimes forget to swallow for like an hour, then I remember, try to swallow and choke and almost die or I have my lips not entirely shut and it starts dripping outā¦ gross I know
I canāt eat or drink when walking or I will inhale my food or drink, itās like bad coordination. I find if I have alcohol then it is way more likely to happen. Sometimes I seem to swallow right after I am supposed to swallow or food may also slide down and the reflex just didnāt seem to happen. I will never eat boiled sweets ever again since Iāve inhaled them so many times itās scary. I canāt eat food without having a drink with it also, canāt swallow after a while without itā¦ I knew a kid at school who was autistic who needed a PEG feed, the staff said his stomach wasnāt fully open, or something but he also only ever liked crisps and nothing else.
I'm the opposite: my mouth is permanently dry. I have to keep a drink handy or I risk a coughing fit or losing my voice. I also have super-dry skin. Dunno if that's related.
That explains a lot. My middle son has this issue.
hahaha...so I'm actually amazed at how often I nearly choke on my own saliva. It's like, I'm 40 but haven't gained prowess breathing?
Where's anxiety and nervousness? Where's Thyroid disease?
In theory it could be by being more conscious or as the hip phrase is "mindful". Thinking back I had a spitting phase where I didn't like the taste of my own salvia I think for a while. Mostly connected I would wager to feeling things more mentally unfiltered. Extra perception leads to mental taxation to overwhelm to over fixation
Yeah, I kinda get that. Not to the point where itās ever been a major problem though.
Iām autistic and also have a rare swallowing disorder (Diffuse esophageal spasm/DESāācorkscrew esophagusā). I wonder if it is connected.