Ensure your mouth is not dry, so the pills do not stick. If dry, drink water first.
Get the pills as far back in the mouth as you can, so you don’t have to manipulate them with your tongue as much. The optimal outcome is to put the pills between the swell of the tongue and where the gag reflex triggers, to enable swallowing with just the moisture present in your mouth.
Have a glass of water handy. You can take a large sip, ensure it picks up the pills, and then swallow the water rather than the pills; the pills are just carried down with it.
In case of a pronounced gag reflex that prevents putting the pills in the back of the mouth, they can be placed under the tongue to avoid tasting them, and then deploy the water trick. Take as much water as needed.
For smooth, cylindrical ones, I usually take a sip of water and hold in in my mouth. Then I put the pill to my lips, suck it in, and swallow it in one action.
For dry tablets, I do Ryan’s method.
source: I’ve taken multiple pills a day for the last year.
I do a weird thing where I extend my arm before I go for the swallow, then pull my arm back fast as I start to swallow. This sympathetic motion helps somehow.
How do you swallow pills?
Ensure your mouth is not dry, so the pills do not stick. If dry, drink water first.
Get the pills as far back in the mouth as you can, so you don’t have to manipulate them with your tongue as much. The optimal outcome is to put the pills between the swell of the tongue and where the gag reflex triggers, to enable swallowing with just the moisture present in your mouth.
Have a glass of water handy. You can take a large sip, ensure it picks up the pills, and then swallow the water rather than the pills; the pills are just carried down with it.
In case of a pronounced gag reflex that prevents putting the pills in the back of the mouth, they can be placed under the tongue to avoid tasting them, and then deploy the water trick. Take as much water as needed.
For smooth, cylindrical ones, I usually take a sip of water and hold in in my mouth. Then I put the pill to my lips, suck it in, and swallow it in one action.
For dry tablets, I do Ryan’s method.
source: I’ve taken multiple pills a day for the last year.
I do a weird thing where I extend my arm before I go for the swallow, then pull my arm back fast as I start to swallow. This sympathetic motion helps somehow.