February 28th, 2006to do: Learn to swallow pills
Bah. Sick again. I’m coming down with something. I was a bit feverish and headachy but now I also have a sore throat. My darl bought me some medicine but they are in the form of pills. (to be taken 3 times a day and 3 pills each time. wahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! ) I’m still unable to swallow pills so I had to pop them in my mouth.. * crunch crunch crunch*, break the pills into tiny pieces, then gulp down lots of water. The pills taste awful!:confusion: 
I could barely talk this morning and I had to tell the teacher that I cannot read out loud in class because it hurts too much. Reading a few short sentences is okay but reading one whole paragraph is not only painful but also requires many pauses in between, sips of water,clearing my throat after every two sentences. Too slow, too 麻烦(ma fan), too painful. My voice is almost back to normal now but I still cannot talk too much and probably sound like I’m mumbling.
I’m re-reading a comment made by KW the last time I wrote about having a sore throat:
Be careful if you’re not a big drinker of water. Your throat sounds inflamed from the coughing. Keeping it ’soothed’ will help you. That probably means avoiding dusty areas, drinking water regularly and perhaps taking spoons of honey, or honey in hot water to soothe your throat.
Be careful that your ginger tea drink at night isn’t so strong that it lets your throat dry overnight. Sleep with your air conditioner on ‘fan’ if you think it might be drying out your room too much.
hmmm.. I need to buy honey. Also, I’m not a big drinker of water. I tend to ‘forget’ to drink water or juice or tea or any other drinks. I just don’t feel thirsty. Maybe I should put bottles of water in several places in my room so as to remind myself to drink.
Still, I can’t get over the fact that I’m almost 22 years old and unable to swallow pills.
Interesting links (and which will hopefully help me):
Helping the Medicine Go Down
How To Swallow a Pill
Pill swallowing tips
Pill swallowing protocol
I’m not going to start learning right now because my throat is too sore. I have to admit that I’m actually happy about not having to start right now. I’m thinking about my past attempts,e.g, Trying to swallow one pill but only managing to drink a litre of water. (and having to rush to the toilet not long after… It is really frustrating. It will be a big challenge for me.
And how do some people manage to swallow pills without water???? wah!!
Small pills are not too bad to take without water. I’m always afraid
they’ll get stuck going down though.
To get the big ones down (with water) I usually try to think of the
pill as a piece of food that I just finished chewing. Pills are usually
smaller than a bite of food and visualizing them as food helps me.
If you get hung up on thinking “I can’t take pills” then you’ll have
trouble getting them down. It’s kind of like thinking about being
nauseous and then making yourself sick from it.
aline,u got to pay more attention to ur health ,dear!!u’re getting sick too often and most of the time,u refused to take medecine:no:hmmm….luckily, ur darl is here to force u with the medecine:mrgreen:
take care!!!
unable to swallow pills eh?
u tried lubricant? .. WD40?
Learning to relax your throat is key to swallowing pills, and not being scared of them. I can understand your problem, lots of people can’t swallow pills. It’s something I learned young. Keep practicing. You will improve with time. I hope you get better at it.
Love and hugs 4U
I check your site off of Shaun’s site from time to time and find it very interesting and enjoyable reading. Today is the first time I decided to write a comment since my husband (Shaun’s Dad) and my younger sister experience the same problem you have with swallowing pills and I have been feeling like you wrote you feel for the past two days, almost no voice today….. One little trick I have is crushing up the pills no matter the size and putting it into a tsp. of peanut butter and just eating the tsp. of peanut butter if you like it. Plus peanut butter helps with an upset stomach. If not, put it in honey or something you like the taste of. I will have to check out the sites you made available for swallowing the pills, maybe I can learn something new and different to help my family too. I hope you start to feel better and are back to your ole self soon.
and I like the way you write….glad I can share in this 
On another note regarding your site, I am fascinated by how many people all over the world write to you and in many different languages
Marie in New York, USA
*Grins*
I have difficulty popping pills as well. I have to drink a lot of water just to swallow it down, regardless of how tiny the pill is.
i can’t swallow pills too! i usually let them melt halfway in my mouth,
get well soon!
I always had trouble swallowing pills. I could never do it. I hated going to the doctors, because I knew I would get pills. Also, I could never allow the doctors to check my throat. (I hated those stick things) I tried water, milk, tea, etc. Nothing worked. If you think dry pills are nasty, try watered down pills after many attempts to swallow one. Finally, I gave up. I vowed that I would never take a pill, EVER! Then I got sick. (I hate when things come back with a vengeance.) More pills. Then I started thinking (something I rarely do), and I remembered that I couldn’t shallow anything because i wasn’t chewing anything. Then I remembered what I did when I swallowed gum (I’m still not sure if that was a good thing to do). I did the same thing, I just swallowed it, like gum. No water, NOTHING! Now, that’s how I take my pills and medicine. No water, no tea, no milk, no nothing! According to my family, I’m still the “special” one because at first, I was “the one who couldn’t swallow pills.” Now, I’m “The one who swallows pills without water and such.”
Anyways, feel better.
yes, from what I’ve read, it seems that it’s a psychological thing. I can swallow food (sometimes without chewing properly) without thinking twice about it but once a pill enters my mouth it is as if my throat ’shuts’ down. I have tried this:
telling myself that it’s only just like a tiny piece of ‘food’… but well, that didn’t work so far…
I don’t even know how I fell sick. I was fine a few days ago and then suddenly, I wake up, feeling awful.
All my fault.
I know, I fall sick very often and I always have a big problem when it comes to my throat. It feels even more painful each time I fall sick. I cannot breathe through my nose right now so I have to breathe through my mouth. My throat hurts a lot each time I sneeze. I need to drink more water. Throat is all red and sore.
ah.. my darl fell sick today..
lubricant?
thanks Becka.
Yes, I’ll keep practising and hopefully I’ll succeed one day.
wahh you too huh!
let them melt halfway in your mouth?
eeeks.. Don’t they taste awful? I feel like puking if i keep the pills in my mouth for too long. Why can’t people make pills which taste nice huh? 
wah you can swallow gum? I’ve always been scared to try that when i was a kid. My friends could do that. I was scared that the gum would get stuck in my throat.
I’ve managed to conclude that I can’t swallow pills because I choked on an olive seed (pickled green olive) when I was younger. I nearly swallowed it by mistake and maybe that’s why I cannot swallow pills now.
I’ve tried crushing the pills to powder also but I have’t tried the peanut butter trick. The thing is, some people tell me to drink orange juice or something similar instead of water when taking the pills (whether they have been crushed to powder or are in smaller pieces) . However, other people say that I should only drink water with pills. Is it okay to eat the pills with peanut butter? I think I’ll try the peanut butter or honey trick next time i need to take pills.
However, the best thing would be to learn to swallow pills. I don’t want to have this problem when I’m like 30+ … It’s a bit embarassing and also, I think that swallowing pills is sort of like an essential ’skill’ to have.
Regarding my site, thanks. :)I’m always surprised to find people from all over the world coming here to comment… but pleased too.
thanks for dropping by.
How many different computers are you using? Damn! I think the only way to learn how to swallow a pill is just taking the risk. It’s like a fear, you’ll never overcome it unless you face it without regret. However, if you mashing up pills, be careful on how you take them. Many pills state that it must be taken on an empty stomach. Drinking too much orange juice can also catalyze the reaction with the pills, which may or may not be the best thing for you. People take water with pills because it’s the most neutral substance, having the pH of 7. Also, it’s widely available. If you really want to get that bad taste of medicine out of your mouth, try a bit of ginger ale. It will help the sore throat too.
I’m using only one computer and browser… Sorry about the confusion this caused. There was a bug in the script I’m using for threaded comments. Just fixed it. Should be okay now.
ah ..so it’s best to drink water when taking pills then? Too bad.
About ginger ale, I haven’t seen it on sale in Shanghai.
I didn’t used to like pills (not to say I now love them), but speed is the key, that’s the only way you’re going to do it.
Put it in at the back of your tongue, swig some water, tilt your head far far back and SWALLOW. Once you’ve done it once the following times will be easy.
Oh you haven’t learned how to swallow pills yet? You better learn soon…
Hope you get better pronto!
wah aline, u sure have alot of peeps who cares for ya … awww
btw u’re tagged by the way, chk my blog … if u wanna play
wow. nice blog. thanks
Well, I have had my fair share of pills (vitamins, medicine, or whatever) to swallow in my life. And the big fish oil(?) pills too when I was a kid, which always almost made me puke, and got me hating pills.
I got into a spell of having the pills crushed because of that, and boy these things are really yucky! 
The trick is exactly as Nick described, to put the pill at the back of your tongue (don’t try too far or you may feel like gagging at the beginning), swig water, and swallow quickly, tilting your head back if necessary. If not successful, try again. I’ve been using this trick for years.:cheers:
Hmmm. I have this problem too and have only know how to swallow those tiny flu pills, the rest I still can’t do that but I think we’ll learn as we grow up. 22 is still young, you’ve a long life ahead
Hope you get better soon.
poor girl. hope you’ll get well soon. actually i’m sick as well. it started with a fever and spiralled down to something else. sigh. the ironic part was that I actually wanted to be sick so I can get off work. And now i’m so sick of being sick. lol. does that make sense at all?
Sounds painful … take care and speedy recovery!
If I can’t swallow pills, I would crush them to powder form, add some sugar to it and dilute the mixture with water. Then drink it! Maybe you can try it
阿 ？不能吞药？好痛苦啊:worried:
听说有一种药叫“枇杷止咳冲剂”，是喝的药，好像蛮好的，你试一试吧
拼音”pi(/) pa(-) zhi ke(/) chong(-) ji(`)”
just to help echo, it’s “pi2 pa4 zhi3 ke2 chong1 ji4″. heh. take care and hope you get well soon!
hey Aline, seems like things are not so good over there. Let me tell ya something, hope this can cheer ya up, i take 7 pills daily, twice a day before meals.
thanks for the tip.
I’ve tried many times before but have been unsuccessful so far. I’ll keep on trying. Practice makes perfect after all.
Unfortunately no. Thanks.
Seems so.
I’m pleased that so many people commented and gave me advice to help me with my swallowing problem.
btw, okay for the tag game.
ah I remember the fish oil capsules you are talking about… yucks.. My dad tried to make me swallow them when I was younger. I could never swallow them. I bit into one capsule once (by mistake..) and it tasted so bad…..
thanks!
hehe yes it makes sense. Hope you are feeling better too.
ah.. I think I’m not supposed to add sugar to it.
谢谢！ 我去找找看！:flowers:
thanks !
aie!
That’s a lot. Good thing you can swallow pills…
Catch you online. Good to see you back.
i have the exact same pill problem as you. it’s awful. i can swallow large amounts of food, no prob., but the second i put a pill in my mouth, i somehow swallow all the food, leaving the pill. and if i do the water thing, i gag. it’s bad. i hope you learned