Understanding Sensorimotor OCD

The OCD and Anxiety Podcast by Robert James Coaching. Music.

Hello and welcome to the OCD and Anxiety Podcast where we explore how to have a more positive relationship with anxiety disorders taking back control so that you can start living the life you choose and not the one chosen by your fears. Music.

Hello and a welcome to episode 462 I hope that you're doing very well today wherever you are and if you are struggling with OCD or anxiety and you would like to get some support with that Well, you can by heading over to my website, robertjamescoaching.com. There you can book in for a free session, or if you prefer, you can send me a message and let me know about what you're struggling with.

In today's podcast, I'm talking about sensory motor OCD, something that I struggled with myself a lot in the past, and today I'll be discussing my experiences with it and talking about what actually sensory motor OCD is.

On my youtube channel i'm actually going to be doing weekly videos on sensory motor ocd as a series of videos so if you're interested in that please do head over to the youtube channel and subscribe there's a link in the show notes or you can search for the ocd and anxiety podcast by robert james coaching so many thanks guys if you have any questions at all about anything i speak about today do please let me know and off we go,

I just wanted to say at the start here that if you're easily triggered by new types of OCD that you haven't heard about, then it might be worth skipping this one if you're very anxious and easily triggered.

If you already know about sensory motor OCD and you're looking for more information about it, then do please go ahead and dive in. Off we go. For a long time, I felt like sensory motor OCD was going to ruin my life. It was something that really kind of popped up out of the blue. I was really unsuspecting. I'd been struggling with a lot of rumination and anxiety. I'd also been struggling with OCD, but I didn't realize it at that time.

However, you know, as I began to experience sensory motor OCD for the first time, It was something that was so much harder to deal with than anything else that I've been experiencing. I think part of the reason for why sensory motor OCD can be so difficult is that it's always potentially there with you. Other types of OCD, perhaps when you perform the compulsion. You might momentarily feel a bit better. You might actually get some relief from all of the anxiety.

But with sensory motor there's kind of there's no really getting away from it now this isn't to say that other types of ocd are not as difficult of course i think every type of ocd can be just just as difficult as as as each other certainly i've i've struggled with many different types.

Of ocd over the years and you know when i'm struggling with a particular one that one feels like the hardest one to deal with in in that moment but i think for me personally this is really me reflecting on my own kind of personal story with OCD the one that I found most most difficult and most persistent was sensory motor or somatic OCD I was really struggling with obsessions about the mouth about swallowing about my teeth I was also struggling with obsessions about breathing and

all of these things were were so difficult you know it was very uncomfortable when these sensations would come in because they were the only thing that i could think about there was this kind of belief that if i didn't solve or fix the sensory motor awareness of these things that i was always going to be experiencing it and that it would actually ruin my life and actually it did for for a long long time this is something you know that i really kind of developed

around the age of of 18 and i didn't even realize that it was a kind of form of ocd until i was in my early 30s And so. You know, this was obviously something that I found incredibly difficult to deal with. You know, when I did realize it was OCD, I started to do things like trying to learn about, obviously, exposure work.

But exposure, you know, it seemed quite obvious to me what I had to do when it came to, you know, things like handwashing OCD, for example, or even pure OOCD where ideally you would learn to stop ruminating because that is often the main compulsion with that but when it came to sensory motor. It was very difficult for me to figure out what the exposure would actually be because I was struggling with the obsessions all day long.

It was something that when I woke up in the morning, it was there and it kind of felt like it was going to be there all day.

So how can you do exposure for that and so of course over time you know this this really built up you know i kind of felt this pressure that it was always going to be there it was going to ruin my life and it was horrible if you're struggling with sensory motor or somatic ocd yourself then my heart really goes out to you because i know just how difficult it can be when you're struggling with this.

Healthline states that somatic OCD, also known as sensory motor OCD, is a type of OCD in which the obsessions revolve around somatic or physical symptoms.

Typically, the focus is on automatic bodily functions and processes such as blinking, breathing or moving. Now, what tends to happen is these things previously, of course, were just happening in the background.

They weren't things that you would be thinking about they certainly weren't things that that would make you anxious but one of the problems with sensory motor ocd is once you become aware of that and your anxiety attaches to these physical uh normal kind of physical processes you know you you kind of tell yourself right now that i'm aware of that i'm not going to be to be able to not be aware of it and it's always now going to give me anxiety i'm going to be stuck

with this and so of course what happens is you you kind of go around in circles you're constantly checking to try to make sure that you're still not aware of the obsession but you know in in doing that you're actually keeping yourself aware of it and it's this really vicious cycle where it doesn't matter what you do you know you're you're constantly aware of it and actually the more you try to fix it by you know researching it or thinking about it from different perspectives or angles or

you know trying to distract yourself in various ways often that just ends up making the situation worse with sensory motor ocd and i think this is another reason for why it can be so so frustrating and so difficult to deal with. Sensory motor OCD or somatic OCD can include some of the typical things that I struggled with, like breathing or swallowing. But it can also go on to blinking, on to body movements, even on to bladder movements.

All sorts of different things that sensory motor OCD can actually really get stuck on. And it can cause so much anxiety for the people who are struggling with it. I think quite frustratingly, sensory motor OCD is one of those subtypes that isn't really spoken about enough. And actually, I don't think there is enough information about it out there at all. It seems that a lot of people really don't understand how it functions and how it works.

One of the things that helped me the most with sensory motor OCD was actually learning how to live more in the present moment and to act as if I was actually feeling okay.

I think one of the problems when you have sensory motor OCD is you're always waiting for it to be fixed until you start living your life and what I found actually is acceptance commitment therapy actually has a lot of tools that are very helpful for sensory motor OCD because it's really all about trying to find a way to come back into the present and to accept that the awareness of that thing is there you don't need to get rid of the awareness in order to start living your life.

With this in mind then, as well as this audio podcast today, I've decided to do a series of YouTube videos about sensory motor OCD. I think it would be helpful to have more information out there. Obviously, I'll be sharing my own personal experiences with the different types of sensory motor OCD that I've experienced, as well as delving into some of the other types and really looking at tips things that you can do to help you to manage it a bit more effectively.

So yeah, if you'd like to check out that, you can head over to YouTube and search for my channel, the OCD and Anxiety Podcast by Robert James Coaching. And yeah, there'll be lots of information there over the coming weeks.

So many thanks, guys. I really hope that you found that one helpful. Please do subscribe if you did. And also, if you could consider leaving us a review, that would be amazing as well. Many thanks and I will see you next time.

Just a quick reminder that if you want to get a free session all you need to do to get that is to head over to my website www.robertjamescoaching.com and there you can leave me a message and we can arrange the free session, and now just a quick reminder of my disclaimer any information that you view on my website instagram page facebook group or anywhere else online or any information that you listen to on the podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for

actual medical or mental health advice from a doctor psychologist or any other medical or mental health professional. Music.