- Username
- qk
- Date posted
- 4y ago
I had spitting ocd - I would get a bad thought and spit. It felt like I was ‘getting rid’ of the bad
Me too!!!
I have this. About 6 months ago I started noticing the sensation to swallow and it grew from there. I thought I was going mad, I considered whether I’m somehow generating too much spit or whether I’m swallowing too much. It drove me insane initially so I contacted a counseling service over the phone which my work proivides (3 free sessions anonymously) and we did some ERP which helped. Also I am 3 months into some medication, still undecided as to whether it’s helping with this issue, but it’s definitely helped my anxiety overall. The issue comes and goes but with the ERP I’m able to manage it well enough at the moment. going to see my doctor to get a referral for some face to face counseling too. The person above (lots of thoughts) posted some useful stuff on a post I raised on this yesterday.
Can you go more in depth with the type of erp you are doing for this particular body sensation?
Counselor taught me to try to allow the sensation to build up for 20 seconds without swallowing and then slowly push it out to 30 seconds and so on, while repeating in my head ‘it’s ok to let this feeling be here’ or a similar style mantra. Basically trying to be at peace with it being there. I’d definitely suggest counseling if you have access, as this might not work for you and the counselor is a professional (I am not!). Let me know how you get on and if you think of anything else that might be worth me trying as I’m still battling with it :)
I’ve been seeing one of the nocd specialists and we talked about this particular obsession.
@qk Hopefully you found the session useful :)
@ChrisC Sort of, she said the same thing to not swallow when you get the urge to, but it’s very hard. Would another erp be to swallow and not think much of it or will that not work?
@qk I found it really difficult to not swallow initially and it was very anxiety provoking - however since I went through the initial few days of this intense stress, things got a lot easier and it hasn’t returned to that intense level since. I agree it’s really hard and do understand and sympathise with what you’re going through :)
Thanks for the response; I will try this and see how it goes, but it will definitely be anxiety-producing. Still learning and accepting erp treatments as I still question how deliberately focusing my attention on the sensations I’m afraid of helps, but I trust this will work. I will seek counseling. Good luck to you ChrisC, you’ve got this.
Hi Chris and qk. I’m dealing with this as well and wondering what erp approach (waiting to swallow or just allowing myself to do so without thinking about it) is better. Have you been able to overcome and what worked?
When I was in treatment for OCD, I developed an eating disorder. So my OCD did decrease, but I felt like the eating disorder took its place. Now lm in eating disorder treatment and my eating disorder decreases, but guess what: my OCD gets worse and worse.. Besides that, I feel like my eating disorder is kinda like my OCD. At first I was totally obsessed with calories and losing weight and everything that had to do with it, 24/7.. Than after being anorexic, I developed bulimia and binge eating disorder. I felt like being fat was the intrusion, losing weight by purging restricting, overexercising and searching information about losing weight hours a day were the compulsions. Binges were caused by an extreme urge to get rid of my emotions, so also the binges felt like compulsions to me. Do people recognize this? What do you think about Eating disorders and OCD?
Hi! I’ve struggled with bouts of disordered eating for years. It comes in waves and then settles down again. Today I realized it might actually be my ocd that causes it. The intrusive thought is gaining weight and the compulsion is the disordered eating/purging behaviors. Has anyone ever struggled with this? Could this be ocd?
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