When you have difficulty swallowing, you may be experiencing one or more of the following symptoms: Difficulty chewing Increased effort to move food and liquids from the mouth into the upper throat (pharynx) Increased effort or resistance moving food from the upper throat (pharynx) into the lower throat (esophagus) Food getting stuck Pills getting stuck Regurgitation of food (can be right away with swallowing or delayed) Coughing and/or choking with eating and drinking Recurrent lung infections Weight loss due to food avoidance