Have you lately been going through the trials and tribulations of a hyper-obsession where you are extremely aware that it is indeed an obsession? If your answer is a yes to this question then you are in the right place. This is because we are here to define what exactly hyper-awareness OCD is. In other words, we are exactly going to find out and perhaps also provide you with some information on different kinds of treatment methods for this mental condition. Let’s begin with the words below:
What Is Hyperawareness OCD?
It’s essentially obsessing over obsessions. It can conversely be also so known as a type of mental condition where whatever the affected brain has fixated on is significantly louder, brighter, closer, persistent, occurring in greater frequency, and more distracting to them than to the average person. Therefore it has gone by the name of Sensorimotor OCD and it is considered to be a subtype of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which itself is considered to be characterized by a history of obsessions and rituals to cope with them.
It essentially magnifies even the smallest of triggers and can turn it into a full-blown phobia. You’re under constant fear and feel anxiety that your body is getting stuck on body sensations and you are having a very hard time pulling attention away. This is where hyper-obsession, or in other words, hyper-awareness OCD comes along.
Common hyper-awareness OCD symptoms looking for signs in things like:
- Loud breathing
- Eye floaters
- Everything related to swallowing
- The timing of your heartbeat and comparisons with others
- The angle of your posture
- How clothes fit you and feel on you
- Blinking (instances, sound, feeling)
- How you sit and stand
Read More: Is OCD Genetic? The Role Of Genes In OCD Manifestation
What Makes It So Bad?
When it comes to hyper-awareness OCD or the hyper-awareness OCD symptoms themselves, the way they are covert and inherent to the extent they start to look like and become compulsions. Even the comparison that is done for it, is done mentally. This is their feared story: They feel like if they don’t check what is happening and compare it with the feelings or sensations that they felt before, something bad will happen.
Other than hyper-awareness OCD symptoms become compulsions themselves, the follow-up compulsions can be drowning out the sounds with loud music, looking away when blinking, or even changing the train of thought that is inducing or contributing to the hyper-obsession. All of this can be extremely dangerous for the sufferer and the people around him because of the fact he or she starts to spend much of the time thinking about what will happen or what will not for much of their time and nobody might know what is happening under the surface.
What Are The Most Common Thoughts That Occur in Hyper-Awareness OCD?
Knowing what are the common thoughts that occur in hyper-awareness OCD, can help a sufferer you might know or if you are yourself suffering from it, come to a decision that it is time to consult a mental health professional. These can be questions like:
- Will this go on forever?
- My life is ruined as long as I am having these symptoms then!
- Life would be so much better if I did not have these struggles.
- I will go crazy if I keep thinking like this!
- I want these obsessions to go away!
More Compulsions Than You Can Probably Imagine
You are essentially lamenting to yourself “Am I really obsessing over this obsession,” and yet continue to do it. As mentioned, this also makes it hard to diagnose if you are really suffering from hyper-awareness OCD. This also leads to additional compulsions. The more compulsions are there where you obsess over an obsession that stems from different types of sensations and that vicious cycle repeats all over again.
Read More: Is OCD Ruining My Life? – What To Do?
What Can Be Done To Get Rid Of This OCD?
Well, there is no hyper-awareness OCD test. Your best bet is to go to a mental health professional. If you think that you or your loved one is suffering from hyper-awareness OCD if you think the hyper-awareness OCD symptoms match the ones described above, then it is indeed time to consult a professional. A professional may suggest the following treatments or a combination of these:
Psychotherapies
This is a type of talk therapy where the patients talk with a psychiatrist or a therapist to come to terms with the negative feelings that they are going through such as the obsessions described in the content above for hyper-awareness OCD. A short-term version and objective-based version of this type of therapy is CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) and a further subtype of that, called the Exposure Therapy, is the most suitable for this type of OCD. In Exposure Therapy, a patient is motivated to face the anxiety-prone triggers until they end up losing their power.
Medication
Medications such as anti-anxiety pills work well with getting rid of hyper-awareness OCD and its symptoms. Antidepressants like serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs), selective SRIs (SSRIs), and tricyclic antidepressants may help treat OCD. These directly target the chemical messengers and processes that may lead to anxiety or compulsions induced by hyper -awareness OCD and hyper-awareness OCD symptoms. Medication can also complement the psychotherapy described above where medication directly attacks the symptoms and the psychotherapies treat the root cause of the triggers.
Conclusion
We have defined hyper-awareness OCD for you and have also informed you how it is just another name for sensorimotor OCD, which is characterized by obsessions and compulsions related to different kinds of sensations. While there is no hyper-awareness OCD test, it can be diagnosed by a mental health professional, who we at Inland Empire Behavioral Group can provide you to treat your hyper-awareness OCD symptoms and other mental conditions like anxiety or depression!
