Has anyone here before ever had swallowing ocd? What is the rep treatment for this and what are it’s compulsions?

I had spitting ocd - I would get a bad thought and spit. It felt like I was ‘getting rid’ of the bad

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.

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 :)

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?