- Date posted
- 1y
Somatic OCD
Struggling currently. Anyone here have it and what did you find helpful to overcome?
Struggling currently. Anyone here have it and what did you find helpful to overcome?
Hey there. I am pretty sure I am dealing with this currently and have been for a long time. I’m always worrying about my health, getting check-ups from doctors. For me it’s being very conscious of my breathing a lot and the awareness of my heartbeat when resting. I never have two symptoms present at the same time, it often shifts. I hope we both overcome this
@Anonymous I definitely feel you on this. I have health anxiety. I also have the breathing awareness and manipulation. It’s very distressing but learning to just let it be and go about my day. Progress is slow but I’m hopeful. Have you been seeing a therapist for this? I have and it definitely helps. Those the are tools I’m using to conquer this.
I had CBT therapy a few months back but that was over text back and forth. Was free though so I can’t complain. I’m looking for therapy again, ideally face to face but I know it can be expensive. Is there anything else you do to cope?
@Anonymous Really it’s just acceptance, sitting with the discomfort and not avoiding it. Overtime this will get better, but you have to put in the work to just let it be and move about your day. The more you put negative attention or do compulsions, the longer it will stick around.
@Anonymous OCD feeds off compulsions and anxiety. If you can tell yourself this is just your OCD and it may or may not get better, that will go a long way in recovery. Hope that makes sense.
I also have this issue, it’s really taking over my life. I felt more in control of it some days but today has been bad. I hope we all get better soon. I’m very frustrated and it’s made me depressed and no hope. I’ve been in ERP therapy but so far not sure if it’s helping.
@Anonymous Unfortunately it’s not a quick fix. If you can keep applying your ERP and avoid safety behaviors and conclusions, it will lessen over time. It’s not an instant fix. I’m sorry to hear you are struggling, it’s not easy, but I have faith if you put in the work you will see results.
@Trish18 Thanks, I’m trying my best. I think what triggered me today was seeking too much reassurance or trying to find an answer. I’m getting impatient. If you went through this, what did you do in ERP therapy to get over breathing awareness?
@Anonymous I’m going through it right now. I’m also impatient and thinking it will never end. But my ERP is to sit, notice and do nothing when I have the sensations and just identifying it as OCD and going about your day. The less you react or give fuel, it trains your brain to eventually not fear or create anxiety around it. Also doing some breathing exposures to reduce anxiety. How about you? What are you learning in ERP?
@Trish18 During my ERP I have to run around to get my breath up then come back and sit and either do nothing or try and focus on my homework. Then once I notice breathing try to focus on what I’m doing. Do you do meditation or breathing exercises?
@Anonymous I want to try meditation. I think it might work well. It’s on my list to find a guided one online to try. No breathing exercises as it’s counter intuitive to OCD. It actually reinforces there is a problem when there is not.
@Trish18 Okay, I think I may try meditation. I can see how it would make us think there’s a problem. Has this stopped you from doing what you used to enjoy or are you breaking through those fears? For me it’s caused me to not want to make plans with my friends because I worry I’ll feel bad and they will notice.
@Anonymous I push myself to go out and do everything I need too. This helps show OCD you are not afraid. I may feel like crap, but I push myself. I’m sitting at my sons swim lesson as we speak feeling crappy, but doing it. I think you should start small and do the same, push yourself. Keep doing ERP and try and eliminate the compulsions. Are you on medication? It may help in conjunction with the therapy.
@Trish18 I am pushing myself to do things I need still. But going out and hanging with friends is hard for me now. I did it last week and it made me feel very anxious but I got thru it. I may start going on medication cause it’s getting hard to manage on my own.
@Anonymous Good for you. I would definitely recommend getting on medication. Just know it may make it worse before it gets better.
@Trish18 Medication makes it worse at first or u mean the process makes u feel worse before getting better? Yesterday I felt pretty good and myself for once in a while. Then when I went to class I started getting anxious and not focusing and it ruined my day.
@Anonymous Medication can make you feel worse at first before it gets better. Can take 4-8 weeks to feel the full effects. Everyone is different though.
@Trish18 Oh then maybe I won’t use it.
@Anonymous I think it’s worth investigating with your doctor if you’re struggling so much
Hi all, I deal with HOCD and been seeing a therapist for about 3.5 months. It has definitely got better but still affects me very much. Was wondering there is anyone out there who has dealt with HOCD as well and has recovered. I would love to message or even chat just see how your experience was and hear what was beneficial to you.
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.
Hi guys. Hope everyone is okay I just wanted to ask for some ppl to share how they overcame harm ocd completely so that I can get an idea of how to work towards healing. Thank you :)
Share your thoughts so the Community can respond