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OCD Core Fears Related to Body-Focused Obsessions & Compulsions (e.g., Swallowing, Breathing, Blinking)

OCD Core Fears Related to Body-Focused Obsessions & Compulsions (e.g., Swallowing, Breathing, Blinking)

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This post is the second in a series of posts discussing body-focused obsessions and compulsions (aka, sensorimotor, somatosensory, or somatic obsessions and compulsions) in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This series was inspired by an original article written by Dr. David Keuler for Beyond OCD. You can access Dr. Keuler’s excellent article here. OCD Core Fears Related to Body-Focused Obsessions (also called Sensorimotor or Somatic Obsessions) In Part 1 of this series of posts, I discussed the basic characteristics of body-focused (also termed sensorimotor [Keuler, 2011], somatosensory, or somatic) OCD. This type of OCD is extremely distressing and is associated with hyperawareness of particular bodily processes, urges, or sensations. Obsessions and compulsions often focus on breathing, swallowing, tongue movements, blinking, or other bodily phenomena (Keuler, 2011). In clinical terminology, obsessive-compulsive disorder is a heterogeneous disorder. This means that different people have...

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Sensorimotor OCD Body-Focused Obsessions & Compulsions (Swallowing, Breathing)

Sensorimotor OCD Body-Focused Obsessions & Compulsions (Swallowing, Breathing)

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This post is the first in a series of posts discussing body-focused obsessions and compulsions (i.e., sensorimotor obsessions and compulsions) in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This series was inspired by an original article written by Dr. David Keuler for Beyond OCD. You can access Dr. Keuler’s excellent article here. Body-Focused Obsessions and Compulsions in OCD (sometimes called Sensorimotor, Somatosensory, or Somatic Obsessions/Compulsions) As I have mentioned previously, one particularly distressing symptom of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) can be hyperawareness of particular bodily sensations. Body-focused obsessions (also called sensorimotor obsessions (Keuler, 2011) or somatosensory obsessions) often feel intolerable and typically involve getting your attention “stuck” on thinking about or analyzing particular autonomic processes. Thoughts may become fixated on one’s breathing rate, heart rate, swallowing, blinking, eye “floaters”, or flickering of the visual field (Keuler, 2011). Sufferers frequently label the problem as conscious...

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