Anyone have any tips for Somatic/sensorimotor typs ocd? Hyper focus on bodily sensations such as breathing. I find this one often comes back extremely bad when I least expect it. Things like meditation and focusing on the breath stuff really triggers me.

I struggled with this for a long time. My best advice is to- Let it be. If you focus on your breath, that’s great! There’s nothing wrong with turning your attention to your breath or any other bodily sensations. That’s actually what meditation is all about. Focusing on sensations in your body- like breathing, heartbeat, the feeling of the floor on your feet, the smells in the room, doing complete body scans etc. You’re training your brain to be ok with these sensations and to accept any feelings you get while meditating. It’s not focusing on your breathing that you’re worried about. It’s your reaction to the focusing! It took me awhile to figure this out, but that’s all it is. Instead of acting negative when you realize your focusing on your breath, you just need to say “Ok I’m focusing on my breath right now” and don’t react to it. When you react to something you don’t like, you get anxiety and in turn you perform a compulsion to get rid of that anxiety and the cycle continues. Break the cycle.

This is awesome info. I have struggle with these same issues and I really liked how you broke it down and gave me a different perspective to view things.

That’s a great question! And I’ll try to answer it without confusing you lol. So through my journey of recovery, I’ve found ERP is beneficial for physical compulsions (hand washing, checking the stove multiple times to see if you turned it off, checking messages multiple times) When it comes to mental compulsions I’ve found that ACT (Acceptance Commitment Therapy) is beneficial. So for example- when I go to the gym and workout really hard like sprints and lifting heavy weights I notice that my heart rate goes through the roof and I start breathing heavy. I use to freak out and get thoughts like- “Is that normal for my heart and breath to be doing that?” “Am I going to have a heart attack or stroke?” “Is this actually damaging my heart?” “What if I have a panic attack right here at the gym and make a fool of myself in front of everybody?” With ACT I know now, that I simply don’t have to answer the question. All I do is observe my heart rate and breath. I guess you could say I did “expose” myself to a trigger, but I didn’t do it intentionally. You most certainly can expose yourself intentionally, but I find it counterproductive. It’s almost like putting that thought or fear in charge of your life. Because thoughts are like farts- they mean nothing. Farts are stomach digestion. Thoughts are brain digestion. I don’t judge thoughts that randomly come to me, just like I don’t judge farts that come out of my ass. You can sit down and intentionally focus on your breath while meditating. If you become anxious while doing that- like having thoughts “Will I notice my breath for the rest of my life?” What if I stop breathing?” Then in that instant you just let those questions be there- and don’t answer the questions! You don’t have to. Those thoughts are just thoughts. You have the choice to think about them if you want to or not. There’s a difference between thinking and having a thought! Thoughts you can not control. But thinking about that thought (such as ruminating- which is a compulsion) is something you can control. Just observe without judgment! Hopefully this makes sense lol. You can ask me more questions if you want!

Hi outdoor man. This really is some great advice. I am taking notes here. Sorry for the late repsonse. I do have something I wanted to ask.. I don't know if you can relate as I feel the sensorimotor obsessions especially the breathing are also tied in with an existential theme for me. It is true that my worry is that I won't be able to stop focusing on it. But also my worry is how will my body know to carry on if I don't, how is this doing it by itself without me having to... Those kinds of thoughts. Logic doesn't help in the situation as we know it never does with ocd. But do you think it's worth using an exposure to these thoughts also with purely saying "I don't know". Would ACT apply here like you said with the example you gave. Thank You 🤩

Again such an amazing repsonse. Thanks for taking so much time to try and explain to me what is going on here. Making me wonder if I need therapy now knowing all this 😂 no I think it could be helpful having someone to help you stay on track and monitor progress etc. I love the compassion to the what you having for tea question. This is good stuff I am noting some of this down for when I need to practice. Which at the moment is every day. Thank You 🤩 I will definitely keep you posted on here later down the line when I have made some progress. Hope You are doing well yourself ☺️

Comparison* not compassion 😀

That is amazing how you use your recovery to help others. I can't think of anything better! 💖 I think I was definitely doing the ERP wrong for a while too, so glad you responded as I am keeping these words of wisdom to help me with other intrusive thoughts I am getting. Realising I just don't have to answer these questions. I never realised how much of my day is spent fulfilling certain questions that I feel need answering Right now! I love the values thing too. I do have a good list in mind and I feel I have neglected a big one for fear it being a bit selfish... That would be music for me. I used to play various instruments but felt a lot of guilt spending my time on this... Lots of responsibility ocd coming in for me too. I now know this is something I want to bring back into my life as it means so much to me. Thank You again 🙏😇 Speak soon and I'm so glad to hear you have come through with such progress yourself. The hard work pays off 💪

That's amazing advise, thank you so much for sharing that with me. I am curious to know if you used the way you have described with to say "I am focusing on the breath" as an erp tool for yourself. If so how often did you do it? I am wondering if I should be bringing on deliberate attention focus to it in order for it to eventually not be as bad and eventually at a point I don't avoid it. Thank You!