Sensory Motor OCD

This is another subtype of OCD which revolves very much around sensations in the body such as breathing, sniffing, blinking, grunting and swallowing. I for example remember that when I was about 12 years old I went through a spell where I felt that I couldn't swallow when I was eating food. I felt like that I was going to choke on every mouthful. It was very frightening and I very much feared that I would never be able to eat properly again. However, after several months of this it improved and the OCD moved on to something different. In this situation, it could be said that one of the compulsions to try and relieve the intense anxiety is to avoid certain types of food. In my case this involved foods that were particularly fibrous or 'stringy' in nature such as celery, leeks, onions or green beans. Another compulsion might be to liquidise the food to reduce the sensation of choking. However, like all types of OCD avoidance or any other type of compulsion only sets to make recovery longer and more difficult.