- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 2y ago
Somatic OCD breathing??
Anyone start talking to someone and then notice your breathing then start freaking out? Its so exhausting.
Anyone start talking to someone and then notice your breathing then start freaking out? Its so exhausting.
I do. I have bad days and good days. Usually if I feel overwhelmed or stressed I feel like I can't take a deep breath. It usually lasts entire day.
Me too. I don't like them either. I get this feeling like something is sitting on my chest and I can't breathe. It's a very scary feeling for me. I been struggling with this on and off for about 2 years.
I thought that it just happened to me lmao I hate breathing exercises cause I just start counting crazily, it's so weird
Yeah anything breathing meditation.. forget it! I start getting panic.
Does it happen for you for seemingly for no reason. Just wake up and you already feeling like that ?
Ugh yes like as soon as I open my eyes. Its the worst
Me too. When I have days like that I can barely function. It's so hard to explain how it feels but I can barely do anything that day. I always feel so alone when I have a day like that. Is there something you do that helps you feel better?
Same it can ruin my day. I try to get out of bed and start my day anyway. Thats the only thing I can do is push through. Its like I'm short of breath/maneul breathing all day
It started when I became an adult, and started receiving my mental health diagnosis. I hyper fixated on each and every action I did and how it could be related to my diagnosis’s. It then lead to fixation to my physical health — making appointments and seeing every specialist I can to rule out every possibility. I currently have been suffering with obstructive sleep. I woke up the past few days with severe pain from the lack of sleep whilst believing I was oversleeping. Luckily my fit watch tracks my sleep cycle and it turns out I am not receiving any sleep. I had an extreme panic attack — bursting into tears on the phone with my mom wondering what this case might be. She told me it could be sleep apnea and that a simple sleep study could figure this out. However, knowing my family history I made appointments to every specialist I can to make sure it is nothing serious. The unknown of health can be scary to me. Watching my mother suffer with her physical health chronically since I was a child lead me to be very conscious and aware of how my body is functioning. This morning was one of the worst moments of physical pain. I should just take one step at a time with the sleep doctor instead of taking measures to see every specialist that could pertain with this issue. However, that is very hard to me. I don’t want to ever wake up in the pain I was this morning. Does anyone else suffer with health-related OCD? And if so, how do you find a sense of ease during moments like I expressed?
I started dealing with OCD when I became fixated on health issues, particularly the fear of contracting a life-threatening disease. If I experienced any kind of medical symptom, no matter how small, that even remotely hinted at something potentially fatal, it would drive me crazy, and I couldn’t stop obsessing over it. Then one day, I started having intrusive thoughts about accidentally hitting someone with my car, and I would end up driving in circles to check if I had. Eventually, I found myself overwhelmed by a flood of new obsessive thoughts and compulsions. One day, while I was at the park, a squirrel came near me, and for some reason, I felt like it attacked me. I Googled it and learned that squirrels could carry rabies, which spiraled me into a deep fear of rabies. I became consumed with the thought I received a bite from a squirrel, raccoon, or bat any time I’m in areas that trigger me. It started off only being inside then transferred to even being in my own home. This made me obsess over every physical sensation in my body, compulsively checking to make sure nothing was wrong. One compulsion that I hated the most would to be putting rubbing alcohol on me to make sure that I had no open wounds. Every day feels like I’m walking around in a fog of anxiety, constantly worrying that I won’t even make it to old age. Sometimes, it gets so overwhelming that I just want it all to end. It stresses me so bad at times to where my brain feels like I’ve been studying all day.
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.
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