Self-hypnosis

[glatt]

My mom had/has this thing where when she gets a little stressed out, her throat feels like it's closing up and on fire, and she needs to cough. So she coughs a lot. Really kind of weird. When I grew up she was always coughing. It's just what she did.

So at some point she figured out that stress was a trigger. She went to a hypnotherapist and worked with him. He taught her an exercise where if she felt stressed out and a coughing spell was coming on, she would think of a safe relaxing place. She chose a mental image of a nice cool shaded mountain stream as her special place. So when she feels like coughing she thinks of a nice cool shaded mountain stream, the stress is reduced, and the need to cough goes away.

Well, it had an unintended side effect. She travels a fair amount, and I've been with her where we were standing near a cool mountain stream, and she's just standing there coughing for no reason. Now, pretty much any time she's near one, she'll be coughing.