I’m really at a loss for what to do. I am constantly stuck 24/7 in manual breathing mode. I also get really bad blinking OCD at times. I’ve tried meditating and i try to sit with my discomfort when it comes up but that doesn’t seem to help. I can’t get my mind off of it at all. I try to sit with it but i still can’t be okay with it. Please help I’m getting to a dark place
So what I’ve found extremely helpful in my recovery, is understanding that my brain is going to do “brain stuff” as in my brain is going to have thoughts. Keep in mind, everyone has thoughts. But- what separates us people who have anxiety disorders compared to people that are “normal”?? Very simply put- people who are normal, have thoughts 24/7 just like people who have OCD. But those who are normal, don’t react to their anxiety. People who have anxiety disorders, react to their anxiety. We judge the thoughts and sensations we don’t like, and label them as “bad” or “intrusive” notice that these are compulsions. Thoughts are like clouds, they are always going to be there and come and go, and there’s no need to react to them. A normal person doesn’t react to anxiety, they just let the anxiety be there, and then move on to what they value doing. So for example- You’re driving down the road, and a random thought pops in your head “Am I breathing right now? Who controls my breathing? What if I stop breathing? Notice these are thoughts. Absolutely nothing to do with your actions, they are thoughts. They are separate from you. Now, why did you get anxiety from those random thoughts? That’s simple- your brain knows you don’t like anxiety, so it’s going to constantly come up with thoughts, feelings and sensations you don’t like! Your brain knows you don’t like anxiety and being uncomfortable, so it’s doing the only thing it knows- and that’s coming up with more ways to protect you and to keep you out of danger. Your brain knows you will perform a compulsion, like coping, checking and controlling to get rid of that thought, feeling or sensation you don’t like. Cutting out the compulsions is the key to recovery. Letting your brain know, that’s it’s ok to have anxiety. It’s ok to have ANY thought or sensation. So back to the car ride- you had those thoughts. Now here’s how to cut out the compulsions……. Continue driving. Those thoughts can sit there. You don’t have to analyze those thoughts, or talk to yourself and ruminate. You don’t have to keep checking your breathing. You don’t have to stop your car on the side of the road and cope with the anxiety and do deep mantra breathing. Just continue to drive. Give your brain the opportunity to experience what discomfort and anxiety feels like. Those are perfectly natural feelings. The key to great mental health is doing the things you value, while having any thought, feeling or sensation. 😊
The issue i have is that automatic breathing and blinking do not kick on for me. It’s a reflex at this point I genuinely do not know how i am supposed to get rid of this. I don’t even feel anxious just empty
@Tracek I completely understand. I had the same issues. So notice when you said- “I genuinely don’t know how I’m supposed to get rid of this.” That’s the compulsion. You trying to get rid of something is a compulsion. For a long time I couldn’t figure it out myself, but learning from skilled psychiatrists and mental health experts- that’s a compulsion. You don’t have to get rid of a feeling or sensation, it can be there. You don’t have to hate it or love it. It can be there. You can continue living and doing things you value while having those thoughts and sensations. You judging them as things you don’t like and want to get rid of just shows your brain you want to be happy, now quick give me more things I don’t like, so I can try to solve them. Acceptance is the key. Acceptance is actually the practice of NOT doing anything. For example- you walk outside and I tell you to accept the clouds in the sky. How do you accept the clouds in the sky? If you have time, answer that question. Because this helped me tremendously.
@outdoorman I accept the clouds in the sky because they’re just there. They don’t do anything to affect me. It’s much more difficult to accept that i have to manually blink and breathe because I can’t focus on anything. But I understand what you say and am trying my best to practice it. I appreciate your words immensely
@Tracek You got it! It definitely takes practice, just like anything new. You’ve been doing compulsions your whole life, just like I was. So of course it’s going to be extremely difficult to cut out, and that’s ok! I never thought I would overcome OCD. So I just stopped trying. See what I did there? I stopped doing compulsions. I stepped off of the battlefield, because I was tired of fighting.
@outdoorman Hi Can i talk with you? U recovery from somatic ocd?
@Valentina88 I am recovering from it!
@.anonymous. Ok, but you have just one obsession or more than 1?
@Valentine88 Sure! What’s up?
I STRUGGLE WITH TAHT EXACT THING.
Please not his theories have not been proven in a clinical study but I’m sure you’ve been trying a lot of different approaches and I hope this can help. I had the same thing when my OCD symptoms first began and I know how difficult it can be.
@Tracek if u want we can Talk about that vía WhatsApp! I have the same problem.
Have been struggling with somatic breathing ocd. I start feeling like I can’t breathe and start feeling faint. I have a performance this weekend and my biggest fear is that I won’t be able to sing. I worry that I’m not gonna be able to perform cause it also causes a wave of fear and I’m scared I’m gonna feel too faint where I’m gonna have to go run off stage. I start hyperventilating and I don’t know how to stop it. My mind just makes me aware and then I eventually start hyperventilating. Any tips? I’ve tried just acknowledging it but it hasn’t helped the hyperventilating much. Any tips please? I have to go on stage for tech in 50 mins
Does anyone know how to get rid of these thoughts? I have to manually breathe almost every second of everyday and it's getting tiresome and I can't stop thinking about no matter what the distractions are.
So I’m 16 years old, currently going through my sophomore year of highschool. I’ve recently quit nicotine and weed after chronic use for about 4 years (has affected my development extremely). I quit because I wanted a better life for myself because I knew that I was using nicotine and weed for short term happiness and long term made me very depressed about this life. I was also experiencing trouble concentrating on simple tasks and what I wanted to do currently in my life. Which was learning about life and having more knowledge about life in general so i could feel more comfortable and happy in the future. So I quit nicotine I thought I was going to be able to overcome it and be more comfortable with myself knowing that I’m not in a constant loop of short term happiness, long term making me less happy overall. Although I have quit nicotine and haven’t touched it in about 3 weeks I expected to have some major withdrawals because I’m still in adolescence and used nicotine about everyday for 4 years. Sorry I’m rambling about this but through those years of always suppressing my anxiety with nicotine when anything came up that triggered it. I started noticing that on vacation in very stressful moments like at the airport and there were people around me when using the bathroom I felt as though it was nearly impossible to go but after sometime I eventually went and shrugged it off. Now that I’ve quit though I’m my 4th week it’s almost like my brain really latched onto that fear of not being able to go around people publicly (paruresis shy bladder syndrome) and that’s also what addiction does to you I’ve acknowledged. But when I started coming home from school I started thinking about not being able to pee more and more to the point i haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since which now every time i feel a slight trigger of having to use the bathroom i start obsessing over it like everything I would try and do that i usually do my brain would draw me away from it and go back to the fear of not being able to go which created a lot of anxiety and thoughts like “would if im not able to stop going” which made me think about it more and more I would just wake up with that thought in my head each day to the point where i was really thinking about killing my self because I thought i would have such a better life without nicotine and weed but ultimately made me feel like i was going crazy and I really wanted to go back to vaping and weed but i knew that this was the cycle of addiction and that i may have a more underlying problem here i need to overcome somatic ocd. I haven’t been diagnosed with it yet and I know a lot of people go through a cycle of self diagnosing. But as I’ve slowly started to mentally figure out ways to get through this obsession over peeing and fight it, it’s like my brain is now trying to look for a new bodily sensation to obsess over. My breathing. I noticed this as well while using that sometimes I would think about my breathing a little bit to much for example saying to myself am I breathing right should I breath this certain way would if I can’t stop thinking about it. But as I was thinking about that I just hit my vape talked to my brother about it and just slept it off. Now that I don’t have a vape I’ve had to go through these expierences but with it feeling more real and not really having something to run to, to suppress like my vape. I’m writing this today as I feel better to myself talking about it and opening up about it as I’m trying to not respond to this fear with anxiety and go throughout my days ignoring these obsessive thoughts leading to extreme anxiety that I don’t have anything to suppress it with anymore besides my own mental. Maybe someone here will have some more knowledge about it than I do and can give me some advice to try to keep me more motivated to deal with this ocd I feel as though I’m having so I don’t end up in a dark place. Thank you.
Share your thoughts so the Community can respond
