Why You Can't Stop Controlling Your Breathing. #sensorimotorocd #ocd #shorts

What is Sensorimotor or Somatic Awareness OCD? People with somatic awareness or sensorimotor OCD become hyper focused or hyper aware of automatic bodily processes or sensations. Imagine trying to get to sleep and you find yourself manually controlling your breathing or uncontrollably counting your breaths, unable to stop. It’s maddening and feels like you might stop breathing altogether without the constant awareness. I didn’t even know it had a name until I was trained as an OCD specialist. For me, the trigger was breathing when trying to fall asleep. I would manually control every breath, fearing that my breathing would not become unconscious again and I wouldn’t be able to sleep. It was maddening and so frustrating and it became my personal nightmare. The fear for most people with this type of OCD is that the awareness or hyper focus will never stop. Somatic awareness can include an unwanted attention to things like breathing, swallowing, blinking, having awareness of movement of the mouth or tongue, eye contact, visual distractions like eye floaters, heartbeat, tinnitus, fullness of the bladder, or even awareness of specific body parts like the perception of the side of your nose, or your feet or fingers.  #ocd #sensorimotor #therapy