Note: All parts of the guide have been updated as of Sep 2022 after much discussion from those suffering from SOCD and my own experience. In particular I have considerably adjusted the ERP approach, as I now believe that is better to simply avoid doing any explicit rituals, rather than trying to literally do nothing, which seems to have been causing some issues for people.
This unit the final part of the guide. To see all units in the guide, click here.
If you’ve been doing the exposures correctly, hopefully your anxiety has dropped significantly. If it hasn’t, it might mean you’ve done something incorrectly in Modules 1 or 2. Return to Modules 1 and 2 as often as required, particularly for new obsessions.
Don’t stop too early
You might feel soon enough that there’s so little anxiety that there’s no point in even keeping the reminders there any more, and so you can remove them. However, be careful with this. Don’t stop if there’s even a bit of anxiety or there’s still one or two obsessions you’re not completely comfortable with. Destroy it completely. Otherwise it can come back or just be something which continues to annoy you.
However, you will reach a point where you can stop all kinds of exposures. This is a new stage in your recovery. You’re no longer trying to ‘actively’ recover, and that can have its own challenges. You will actually now probably go long periods totally forgetting about the obsessions.
But what happens now is that you’ll get those obsessions randomly popping up here and there in your mind. Again, your job is to not engage in any compulsion and just get on with whatever you were doing. This shouldn’t be too difficult in the beginning, but the ‘randomness’ of it can affect you. Now you’re not the one reminding yourself, but it’s just coming out of nowhere from your brain. Still, this shouldn’t be too much of an issue.
Dealing with long term relapse
Longer term however, there are more significant risks. I speak from my own experience; though I largely overcame my sensorimotor OCD several years ago (in 2012 to be precise), I had a major ‘reoccurrence’ four years after that point.
What often happens is that after you’ve gone several months (or years) without really thinking about the obsession, you forget what you did right. You might start to feel a bit of anxiety at noticing it again after so long. You can easily fall into a negative thought process “I’ve had relief and been living normally all this time, and now this thought is back, which might ruin my life again!”. Another negative thought that can creep in is ‘What if I fluked it? What if I got lucky didn’t really recover, and now it’s going to go back to how it was!?’ These are anxiety inducing thoughts, and hence you now have more anxiety associated with the obsession…which then means it remains in your mind even more, and the cycle can begin again. It’s easy for rituals to begin to solve it, whether that’s trying to control it, researching about it, or just trying to ‘figure it out’ again.
This is what happened to me, and I basically had to re-learn what I did the first time around. Just do what worked the first time; interrogate those thoughts again and bring back the exposures, until the anxiety is back to zero. Fortunately, usually the anxiety won’t be as bad as it was the first time, because you will be more confident you can get over this again, and the recovery period will hopefully be shorter as well. Just as you recovered the first time, you can do so again.
Overcoming sensorimotor OCD
I believe full recovery is possible from SOCD. You can live a normal life where this doesn’t really bother you at all.
However, I think as people who are susceptible to this, we have to be on guard against any kind of OCD thoughts or habits which might build up. You have to know yourself. It’s as simple as maybe recognising you are subtly annoyed by being reminded of an obsession, or avoiding certain activities you know would trigger you. Don’t let yourself live with 1/10 OCD; there’s no reason to. Don’t fear any kind of obsession; rather face them head on. Do whatever exposures you need to do. It might even pay to do exposures every so often even once recovered, like once every month, just to make sure nothing develops.
Ultimately, you want to become the kind of person who is completely resilient to awareness of sensations. You truly don’t care whether they are there or not. That’s when you have true freedom from SOCD. As a result, you will eventually forget about these obsessions. But remember, it’s not the obsessions you want to get rid of, but the anxiety and pain associated with them. It’s an amazing feeling to be aware of your sensations and just be totally fine with it, without even a hint of anxiety or discomfort.
Thanks for reading through the guide. If you found it useful, it’d be great if you can share the site far and wide. I’d also love to hear your feedback, particularly on what worked for you (especially if it’s something not on this guide), as I’m always trying to improve the site (Apologies if I dont’ get back to you soon, as there’s often lots of emails). If you have a question though, please leave a comment on the site. Finally if you can support financially, that would also be wonderful as it helps with running costs and allows me to produce more content! All the best on your journey to recovery.
Just finished reading this and its so insightful. Thank you so much for actually creating something like this for peolle who experience sensorimotor hyperawarness ocd.
Thanks for commenting Anisha! Very happy to hear it’s useful 🙂
Very helpful. Thank you
Thanks for reading 🙂
Just finished reading, I found it really interesting and reassuring, thanks for writing such a great article! 🙂
Is it important to be happy and not cry through this? I a trying but OMG.
Hi Rosa,
Oh no I feel so bad for you. It can be so hard :/ . I think it is important to have a broader perspective on all this, when you are going through something so difficult. This is where I think spiritual/religious perspectives come into play too. I think it’s also important to have hope; it should hopefully get better and the pain diminish over time until its gone, even if very slowly.
Praying for you
Aadil
Thanks for the information! Love this article and going to try it….Thought I was weird by having this obsession, but turns out it is quite normal;)..
Hi, interesting read
If you’re able to get the anxiety down how long does the awareness linger for?
I don’t know if there’s an answer. Once you stop caring, it might not come to mind for several days, weeks, or months. You might be surprised how quickly it doesn’t stay with you.
However if you’re truly going to recover from this, you shouldn’t care about the answer to this question imo. The awareness should ideally be immaterial to you, whether it’s there or not does not matter
I noticed you said that you’re planning on making changes to the guide because the ERP may actually be feeding the problem. Can you explain more?
Hi Mia,
I will hopefully get some more time to update things. In short, I think it’s a perfectly good strategy to just do nothing when you have awareness, rather than try let it happen normally. It seems to not matter whether you do really, as long as it isn’t a ritual. I worry that people are too focused on the sensation trying to make it happen naturally or ‘prevent’ themselves for blinking/swallowing, which is not the idea, as this sort of just creates more attention on it. The idea is that you just don’t really care about it and move on with your life.
So I still think ERP is very important, it’s just that I think we should be careful after doing exposures that we don’t create a ritual or focus on it unnecessarily.
Nice article
Thanks Bhushan!
Olá, falando aqui de OURO PRETO – BRASIL ( cidade histórica joga no google kkkk). Tive uma melhora absurda com os ensinamentos desse documento. Sinceramente se eu não encontrasse isso aqui, eu não sei oq seria de mim, Deus te abençoe imensamente. Tenho 3 perguntas.
1) Minha ansiedade diminuiu consideravelmente, a consciência pra mim não importa se estou piscando ou não. Mas tem hora que é chato o cérebro ficar me lembrando toda hora e isso é um indutor de ansiedade. Como posso desafiar esse pensamento?
2) Eu tenho uma estratégia que tenho medo de ser compulsão. Quando estou conversando e percebo que estou piscando, eu deixo a consciência e dou uma atenção maior à conversa e curiosamente desaparece. Isso seria uma compulsão?
3) Uma coisa que deixa ansioso é que fico um tempo sem a consicência de piscar e do nada ela vem. Quando ela vem eu fico me perguntando se eu pisquei certo, como que eu não percebi, como isso aconteceu sabe? E acaba que parece que meu cérebro sempre me traz à essa consciência. Isso faz parte do processo?
Obrigado pelo seu comentário, Deus abençoe! Eu usei o Google Tradutor então posso não ter entendido direito, mas vou tentar responder do jeito que eu te entendo!
1. Eu diria que você se acostuma com o cérebro lembrando você o tempo todo. Uma maneira é lembrar-se propositalmente usando post-its ou definindo cronômetros para lembrá-lo de vez em quando. Mais tarde, você se acostumará com isso apenas aparecendo aleatoriamente depois de algum tempo sem estar lá, e isso é algo com o qual você também deve se acostumar. Em última análise, acho que se trata apenas de passar por esses estágios ao longo do tempo.
2. Eu não me preocuparia muito com esse tipo de coisa. Pode ser se você pensar que está tentando se “distrair” do piscar. Deveria ser mais, vou me concentrar no que estou fazendo agora e deixar a consciência piscando estar lá ou não. Mas não soa como uma compulsão para mim em geral.
3. Sim, é. Especialmente quando você passa períodos mais longos (dias ou semanas) sem que ele esteja presente e surge do nada, pode causar ansiedade. Mas, novamente, é apenas continuar. Este é um novo estágio que tem seus próprios desafios, mas você apenas trabalha com isso. Faz parte do processo, sim!
Thank you so much!! I had sensorimotor ocd for 5 months (earworms 24/7). It was horrible. Your guide helped me a lot. After reading your guide it took 5 weeks until it went away. I am still afraid that one day I will suffer from it again but at the moment I am happy that I can live my life without those obsessions.
Thanks for the kind words, Hope. All the best. Don’t worry, these obsessions are not something to be afraid of, in the long run whatever happens you can live your life without any of these :). Don’t be scared even to do any exposures or have any fear, break it all down completely til you’re okay with it is my advice 🙂
Hi Aadil,
Thank you for the super insightful article. Just had a question about the breathing OCD. I understand I shouldn’t pay too much attention to it and just be aware of it but I have two problems.
1) I get shortness of breath when I am aware of my breathing. Is that okey or does that mean that I am paying too much attention to it.
2) I feel like I’m controlling my breath which is difficult to stop paying attention to.
Any advice on this would be super grateful 🙏
Hi Daniel,
Good questions.
1) That’s okay. This happens especially once you are very aware of it, you can start to notice sensations and things can feel weird. Just carry on, even if it does feel strange, its okay. It will sort itself out later.
2) Once you have some awareness you generally have some control as well. That’s okay. Just don’t have any particular strategy you’re using to ‘manage’ the fact that you are aware. You can breathe slowly or fast, or even to a count or do nothing, just don’t do anything *trying* to manage the awareness.
hello! were you able to stop it? i’m having +- the same problem. with other obsessions, I could just let it be there and I wouldn’t care, but noticing breathing requires me to control it even if I don’t want to, so I just get stuck… thank you, daniel & aadil as well for this website
Hi! I have a question, I worry I’m the only one dealing with this. But, whenever I relax the ocd to one obsession another one latches on, but it’s not like that one is the only one standing. Once it latches on I have 3 sensorimotor obsessions at once, it’s getting exhausting, because I was making good progress. I feel like a mess and I wonder if medication is the only option.
Hi Sky,
usually its a good sign, because it means you made progress with one. But it can be very overwhelming since it can be a very diff experience. But eventually you’ll get the hang of it, after it keeps jumping around. ultimately there is only a few main ones, and the principles are always the same.
I can’t comment on whether medication will help you, but it does seem long term you need to do some kind of CBT and ERP to get better.
regards
aadil
Hi, sorry to bother. But, I’m fine with sensorimotor ocd for the most part, but what I find challenging is getting caught up on little stuff. For example, whenever I have a stuffed nose It makes it hard to not focus on breathing and in turn causes anxiety and discomfort. Any tips? Thank you!
Hi Aaron. No bother at all!
Hm. I would say it’s okay for you to focus on breathing then. I think the idea is learning to be ok with the awareness in all situations. For example I would say I had little symptoms with breathing related SOCD, but when I was doing weights and breathing heavily I began to feel some anxiety. But doing more and more weights, it just went away over time, as I got exposed to it.
Little things may flare up your anxiety/discomfort over time, just face them and move through I think is the way to go.
Hey Aadil, this is good advice. I struggle with various somatic obsessions. Is it possible to chat with you personally anywhere?
Excellent breakdown of the SOCD demon and how it wants to torment us 24\7. I’ve suffered on & off for 30 years at the hands of this Bully, and the mindset you describe is exactly how I’ve overcome it. I’m dealing with a flare up right now & I 100% agree that it IS possible to function, even when the u wanted, pervasive thoughts are present. It HAS made me a .pre empathetic person, even a stronger person. THANK YOU for reminding me of these facts!
Thanks Joseph for the comment! Glad to hear you’ve found the way to manage it!
Sorry for my bad English, I’m from Brazil
Should we consider the SOCD an enemy or is it better for us to understand it as a personality trait, like “it is how our mind work’s, so let’s understand how to deal with myself.”
Hi Joao,
Sorry for the late reply. I think it helps to see it as an enemy or bully. This is how OCD is often seen. Once you have weakened those tendencies, it shouldn’t affect you that much, so I wouldn’t say it is really like a personality trait.
However, doubting and checking a lot (and never being 100% sure) is probably a personality trait of people with OCD, which should be something that you are aware of it and manage in your life.
Thanks
Aadil
I have an obsession that ive had for so long about my emotions its not like other obsessions because it feels like its actually affecting me because im so obsessed about my emotions and how i feel all the time whether im enjoying myself during activities or not and constantly monitoring how i feel so this in resault kind of numbs my feelings because im just watching so close that it breaks the normal flow of emotions
Hi Ali,
That sounds like a classic hyperawareness OCD obsession. I wouldnt call it sensorimotor OCD, but the idea is the same. Your awareness of it changes the experience, and its something you don’t want, yet everytime you remember it, it’s there! The same principles apply, so it’d be getting okay with being aware of it, even if it is different.
Hi Aadil
I sent a message but you haven’t responded yet? Swallowing and salvating…what was your experience? Especially when recovery stepped in? I feel so stuck in it.
Hi Martie,
Sorry I don’t think I received your message…
Well, my website is all about that! Recovery began when I started doing the right things. It was slow at first, but within a couple of months most of the symptoms and effects were gone. I would say for most people it would take a few months to get rid of most of the symptoms, and a bit longer to get rid of it all completely.
It’s definitely possible, just requires some time and patience and some work. I think you won’t be stuck for much longer if you’re learning about it. All the best, God bless!
Did you have swallowing and salvating ocd? Can I recover from this?
Yes I did. You can recover, I did!
Öncelikle Merhabalar benim ritüel ile alakalı bir sorum olucaktı tükürük ve yutkunma ile ilgili tükürüğe ve yutkunmaya dikkat kesilmek, izlemek bir ritüel midir. Bu ritüel nasıl durdurulur anlatırsanız sevinirim.
Kesin olarak birine göre ritüelin ne olabileceğini söyleyemem. Bu, kişiden kişiye değişir. Ritüeller herhangi bir davranış olabilir. Bunlar, sahip olduğumuz bir tür korkudan kaçınmak amacıyla yaptığımız davranışlardır.
Dikkat etmek de bir ritüel olabilir ama bu duruma bağlıdır. Eğer “Dikkat etmezsem kötü bir şey olur,” diye düşünüp sürekli dikkat etmeye devam ediyorsanız, bu bir ritüeldir. O durumda, farkındalığı bilinçli bir şekilde dikkat kesilmeden davet etmeli ve neyle meşgulseniz onu sürdürmeyi öğrenmelisiniz.
Diğer ritüellere örnek olarak, bir soruyu çözmek için çok fazla düşünmek, belirli bir durumdan kaçınmak için hızlı yutkunmak veya hızlı nefes almak (örneğin nefesler arasında uzun aralar vermek ya da çok fazla tükürük birikmesini engellemek) sayılabilir. Genellikle, bunlar sahip olduğumuz bir tür korkuyla başa çıkmak için yaptığımız şeylerdir.