Fear of Swallowing Fish Bones

One day when I was little, my dad, brother, sister, and I were eating fish that we had just caught. My dad had cooked it up in some sort of floury batter, and it was delicious. As I was eating, he warned me to make sure that I chew the fish thoroughly. Of course, I had no idea why he would say that, so I just assumed that he was joking. He quickly made it clear that he wasn't joking by telling me that any small fish bones that weren't removed when the fish were filleted could get stuck in my throat. I, then, made the mistake of asking if it was painful.

He admitted that sometimes it could be somewhat painful or at least uncomfortable. This alone worried me, but to make it worse, my brother butted in. He went on to tell me that it had happened to him once. He described how painful it was with, in my eyes, excrutiating details (they probably weren't that great; I was just young and innocent and believed anything--even if he said he had caught the biggest fish ever in the history of everything but let it go). He said that it hurt for days. I then asked him how I was unaware of this. He answered with the big brother response of something like "I hid it from you because I didn't want to scare you." It was too late for that though. Even when he admitted that he made it all up, I still could not forget my new fear.

After I found out that he was joking, I still couldn't shake the fear that someday I would swallow a fish bone, it would get stuck in my throat, and it would hurt like never before. In order to avoid this inevitable future, I have always partaken in the art of careful chewing of fish. Whether it is fresh caught fish or store bought fish, I always chew one bite for what seems like ten hours. I chew it until I'm am absolutely positive that my throat will not suffer as my brother had once pretended his had. Because of my seemingly silly fear, I will always have extreme caution, and hopefully, I will never have to face my fear.