Please help - OCD effecting sleep

Hello everyone,

This is my first post on this forum. Let me give you a background to my story. I'm 23 and graduated college last year. I never had any problems except shyness and some social anxiety (at least which I thought) up until freshman year of college. I never thought I had OCD, and I thought I only had social anxiety. In freshman year, I started experiencing a lot of anger and obsessive thoughts with my roomate. I would constantly think what are they doing and wondering if they are looking at me. I also would think everything action they would do was in response to me. Anyways, my sleeping habits suffered because I would always get anxiety and anger while trying to fall asleep. I could not sleep like I used to, and the thoughts kept compounding. The only time I could sleep without thinking these things was when I drank.

Sophomore year I had the same problems, and it got even worse. I did not think I had OCD, but rather social anxiety. I went to see psychiatrists and a therapist. I don't think we ever got to the root of the matter, but I was put on a plethora of medications. I tried zoloft up until the max dosage, effexor, celexa...etc. I think all these medications made my problems worse today. I finally was put on Lexapro senior year. This worked out the best for me. Little side effects, and things were slightly better (but I also had my own room). I was on 20mg max. I also did not like the medication b/c it caused me to be emotionless and tired a lot. But I did sleep better.

In between the sleeping problem, other obsessive thoughts would pop up. I would constantly come up with a new thought and realized it would annoy me so I knew I was going to keep thinking about it. It's like I'm trying to find new ways to annoy myself, but consciously it's the worst thing in the world. Examples would be driving in my car and constantly thinking about the car in front of me, and the possibility of hitting it. It made driving so much worse, because instead of relaxingly driving, I have to constantly think about this.

Also, I have a hard time driving anybody, and doing anything in front of people for that matter. I get very nervous and think they are constantly looking at me or judging me. This makes driving even more of a hassle when I have someone else in the car, and makes it dangerous. I do everything a lot better when I'm alone, which is really depressing and hinders my activity in life. Is anyone else like this? I would rather drive alone or do work alone, because I won't have these paranoid thoughts or feel like I'm "performing".

All these things I can live with, it just annoys me. I now live alone in my own apartment, but things have gotten so much worse, especially sleeping wise. I am always thinking of new things to obsess about. I obsess about my breathing constantly, and how to breathe. I know it annoys me but I cannot stop. Also, when I do work or anything I obsess over ridiculous things that will distract me. For example, I cannot watch TV because I obsess over staring at the green light on my tv, or looking at other things around the room while I'm watching. I just want to focus on the TV. I can't concentrate like I used to. Obsessions come and go, and I'll think of a new one if one passes. If I'm not obsessing over breathing, I'll obsess over blinking or the movements of my face. Does anyone else think of a new annoying obsession to add to the rotation frequently?

The past week or so, I cannot sleep whatsoever. It is really upsetting, and is now getting to the point where I cannot take it anymore. I don't know what to do. I cannot see a doctor for a week or so because I'm driving halfway cross country home. I wanted to see if any of you have any tips on how to deal with obsessions while sleeping, or vitamins i can take until I can see a doctor. My new obsession is when sleeping, I constantly think about my lips and lips touching. I then think about my breathing through my nose. If my lips are open, I think I'm not breathing right through my mouth, so then my lips close and I think I shouldn't be just breathing through my nose. It sounds ridiculous but I basically forgot how to sleep and breathe during sleep. Can anyone help? I might be alone in these obsessions, but does anyone have any tips? Thanks so much for reading my post.

Melatonin! It's a natural hormone in your body that makes you sleep, and they sell melatonin pills!

Thanks! I'll look into that, never took melatonin before....hopefully it'll work

They work for a while but your body eventually gets used to them and you are even at risk of suppressing your natural melitonin production if you supplement with it long enough. I'm pretty much immune now after popping them for a good year, but they do work for a while. Watch out for the ultra-vivid dreams.

Or you can take some Clonazepam to silence your thoughts.

I have trouble sleeping too. I have swtched sleeping pills a million times. ugh

ocd effects my sleep, but to know how to get rid of the issue here I'd have to know how your ocd effects you in every day life.
but for me having some background noise to focus on always helps, something ambient like a fan or a humidifier.take sleep aids such as melatonin as well, that along with benadryll or other simple sleep aids works.and if your ocd feels like it just wont let go then listen to a song you really enjoy right before bed and hold on to that feeling as you doze off.

Well, I listed above where I think the OCD issues are affecting me in my daily life. Basically, I have had breathing obsessions for the past couple years when sleeping, and it disrupts my sleep. I constantly think about how I am breathing and such. I never used to have this. It has become progressively worse and worse. I either think about how often im breathing or if I'm breathing through my nose or mouth, and it makes me go insane. Has anyone else had breathing obsessions like this?

classical music helps me sleep better

Classical South Florida

hello offspring,

Please relax here. You have pure O, which initially is very severe until brought in control. Be patient, things will improve. You can even see remission.

To reassure you, you are not alone in these obsessions,some people with pure O have to deal with creative obsessions related to almost every aspect of life. I am one of them


I would advise you to see a shrink, and get on a good antidepressant like prozac, which is also a gr8 anti-obsessive medicine. You might need to take high doses of around 60 mg for atleast a month, and then results will start to show, almost miraculously.

Your lack of sleep is not because of obsessions, but because you are severely depressed, which doesn't allow the brain to relax. However you are falsely concluding that obsessions are causing lack of sleep. Faulty conclusions and exaggerations are often a OCD speciality.

I have had the same situation (breathing obsessions) before and made the same conclusion, but it turned out to be faulty because once I got out of depression I got good sleep in spite of the breathing obsessions, seemed a miracle but I have slept well for more than a year now.

And also read phillipson's article OCD ONLINE - Thinking the Unthinkable

Please apply the techniques given in the article religiously, the greater will power you show, the greater your faulty cognitive processes be rewired.

I will pray for you, and dare God to refuse my prayer.

Take Care.

swat