Acid Reflux/Irritated Esophagus/cough

CONSTANT THROAT CLEARING, thanks for mentioning this. i had a horrendously chronic cough that just kept me up all hours of the night. truly decimated quality of sleep. the air hunger was obviously deeply uncomfortable and concerning. told my doctor, expressed my distress. was told i had reflux. prescribed prilosec. still with the constant urge to clear my throat but after finding weinberg's habit cough material, the cough itself did improve SIGNIFICANTLY. i am way more in control of it now. but* i've learned THE COUGH CAUSES THE COUGH. there is some retraining involved, and within that, i consider getting the throat clearing under control as i associate that with also being responsible for throat irritation that plays into "the cough causing the cough" and ultimately allowing the throat to have time to heal and go away. so that's where i feel stuck. the throat clearing is with me and each time i do it i feel progress slipping from my grasp. drinking mullein tea, still taking the prilosec (bc desperate frankly) and stocked up on halls/ricola throat/cough drops

the air hunger has gotten noticeably better, inhaler and benzonatate didn't help, but weinberg's habit cough materials/videos did.
thought that's worth mentioning.

anyway, can anyone relate to this and have any advice?
this cough and throat clearing even impacts when i feel i can or can't hang out with loved ones because i don't want to possibly annoy or disturb them with my cough/throat clearning.

 

Yes, I have had chronic cough for about 10 years, throat clearing and loss of voice or vocal changes occassionally. GERD and LPR.The cough does not cause the cough - although it can certainly run in circles.
TMS causes the cough. Which means that drinking mullein tea, taking prilosec and using cough drops are not the answer and never will be. If you'd like to know more about TMS, refer to any book by Dr. John Sarno - perhaps The Divided Mind might be a good place for you to start, since it features people with a variety of symptoms. TMS is not just about one symptom - it's about any mind/body symptom that is chronic and captures your attention to hyper fixate.
Here is the first in a series of shorts that were created by Dr. Schubiner's group - he is a current specialist in this type of symptom. He describes the symptoms as "pain" but honestly, it can be any symptom. He describes both the mechanisms and offers solutions to mind body conditions in these short films.

 

yes chronic coughing that can get non stop at times and also air hunger. the air hunger is especially what freaks me out but my doctor doesn't seem to bat an eye when i mention it and it has been a couple times and when i get my lungs checked out at check ups, also the same no batting of an eye. feels isolating, frankly. but in it's own way, the way they don't "bat an eye" or care about it, in a weird indirect way sorta affirms to me that it is likely a tms manifestation as this coughing issue definitely came up right as i was getting ahold of my chronic neck/other body part pain issues that took some months upon months to fix. in retrospect though, now i do see that it was basically immediately after i found peace of mind that the neck/body symptoms were going and then random cough and I do have a tendency to wake up with an acidic, burning feeling in the mornings . which i KNOW is tms related as that was one of the things i first* noticed right before the neck/body symptoms that WRECKED my life, turned it upside down when my TMS started expressing itself PHYSICALLY. before the chronic pain in 2023, i had never had issues with pain that stopped me from doing life, but it was* emotional/psychological/mental stuff: panic attacks, constant anxiety, addiction (as sarno has described addiction/alcoholism as a "tms equivalent" in the his book: the divided mind)

anyway, sharing just in case someone can possibly read their own story here and know they're not alone and to thank you for sharing your own story.

hoping this goes away as obviously is sucks to be the person constantly coughing and feeling the air hunger. the coughing has had me have to cancel social events due to just not wanting to deal with the anxiety and pressure not to cough when all my throat feels like doing is coughin

i also feel i should mention Miles Weinberger's work on the chronic cough
which employs some relatively tms adjacent techniques that are more on the conservative non invasive end of treatment spectrums and he seems to have a good success rate with that